Cora glanced over at me, shaking
her head, but let him be the overprotective husband he was. Even so, I knew she secretly enjoyed how much he doted on her.
“We could be like that if you weren’t…” His voice trailed off when I glared at him. Moving to the corner of the ring, I grabbed my water bottle and towel.
“Well, Mel, I’m down here…are we fighting, too?” he questioned, already pulling off his tie.
I shook my head. “I asked you here to talk to you.”
“Talk to me? In a ring?” His eyebrow rose. “All right.”
“As of tomorrow, Dona and I will start training…seriously.”
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
“Define seriously.” He frowned, arms crossed as he stared at me with no hint of humor in his tone or eyes.
“As serious as my father was with me.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“No,” he said again, moving to get out of the ring as if that was all and I was supposed to just bow down to his orders.
“LIAM CALLAHAN! Don’t you dare move!”
“MELODY CALLAHAN, I have nothing else to say about this. My daughter is not going to be put through hell. No. End of discussion.”
This motherfucker has lost his mind.
“Your daughter?” I repeated; he didn’t even look at me, just shook his head. “Our daughter! She was in me. I gave birth to her. I can still remember how she felt on my chest the day she was born. I remember how many hairs were on her head. Don’t you dare bark at me as if I’m insane or as if I will willingly harm our daughter just for the hell of it.”
“Then why are you doing this? She is protected—”
“By who? You? Me? Her brothers? You have already taken Ethan under your wing, and Wyatt’s already target practicing. I know you love Dona to the moon and back and around the earth ten times but putting her in a bubble isn’t enough! My father loved me enough to train me.”
“Your father knew you would be alone! Alone. Melody, you thought your mother was dead. Your father was dying. The rest of your family was gone. All you had was yourself! Your father made you into a weapon because it was the only thing he could do for you. I understand, but I also understand how it destroyed you! You've been fighting for so long you don't know when to stop! When we first met you didn’t even know how to love. Even now you can't move five feet without exerting your dominance. You never feel safe. You struggle with being a wife, a mother, and everything else. You are constantly struggling! And I love you for all the effort you make. I love you for all your scars, but I love Dona too much to let her struggle like that.”
It felt like he had punched me under the belt. I couldn't figure out what hurt more: the fact that he thought I was more broken than he was or the fact that he really didn't see the world as I did. We had always been on the same page…now I wasn’t sure.
But I could hit below the belt too. “You talk about my family like you don't know yours.”
“What?”
“Maybe you’ve forgotten, but you’re the prince who inherited the keys to the kingdom from your father. Do you know what it was like for your family before your father became Ceann na Conairte? Probably not, because Sedric did his best to keep you all in a bubble. Your father had two sisters. One was raped and beheaded, and the other was trapped in her house when it went up in flames. Declan isn't your brother, he is your cousin. His father and mother were gunned down, 87 bullets between them. After losing his precious son Shamus, your grandfather abandoned America and returned to Ireland. Your father was nearly killed to save the Callahan name; the war between the Irish and the Italians was bloodier than ever. The Callahan family army? Where was it when your mother was attacked, when she almost lost you and actually lost your twin sister? I look over my shoulder because I'm never safe, not because my father made me into a warrior, but because I was born into the mafia. The moment you get comfortable, the moment you think you’re safe is the moment you get arrogant and someone puts a bullet in your brain.”
“You were just pissed at me for taking Ethan out! Make up your damn mind woman! Do you want them to be just kids or do you want them to be kid soldiers?”
“Showing our son how to murder someone is different than teaching him how to protect himself! Dona can learn to be a fighter and still be a kid.”
“And you would know this how? When were you ever a kid, Melody?”