“He’s not a nobody,” Melody said as she tucked her hair behind her ear, and took the glass Liam offered her, rubbing the side of her head. Apparently, her highness had a fucking headache.
Liam leaned over the back of her, adding, “He’s a sitting senator, civil rights attorney, and activist—”
“I DON’T FUCKING CARE!” I hollered. “He’s not a Callahan! Therefore, he is a nobody! Or have the rules changed now because it’s my daughter? Because she’s not really Declan’s daughter?”
“Don’t you fucking dare! SHE IS MY DAUGHTER!” Declan finally chose to come back to life.
“PROVE IT…FIGHT FOR HER!” I screamed back.
“What do you think I’m trying to do, Cora!”
“I don’t know, Declan,” I hurled back at him. “From where I’m standing, it looks like you’re letting someone steal our daughter! The daughter we raised…the daughter we fed, and clothed and loved! The daughter who is…everything to me! You all can destroy cities; you can bring ground men to their knees. Within minutes, you have the FBI, CIA, Chicago PD, and every other goddamn acronym at your fingertips, and yet for some reason, it’s hard for you to figure out a way to bring back our daughter!”
“And what do you think will happen if we used one of those acronyms to get her back? Huh, Cora?” he hollered back.
“I don’t—”
“You should care!” he cut me off. “If we go to the FBI, CIA, Chicago PD, or anyone else, people will know they’re in our pockets. If we look bad…if people find out how corrupt we really are, we could lose Helen forever! If we kill him, not only will we kill our daughter’s biological father, and she could hate us, we would be the first suspects. Once again, we could lose Helen forever! I swear on everything that I am, everything that I own, I swear even on you…I will bring our daughter home, but we can’t just snatch her, Cora. Give me time!”
I shook my head and backed away from him, glancing to Liam and Melody, who just stared between us. “If it were Donatella, she’d already be back.”
“It could never be Donatella because her biological father is right here,” Melody replied, her words all but ripping out any shed of…dignity I had left.
“Liam,” Declan sneered. “Shut your wife up before I have to. I will not allow her to speak to my wife like that.”
“Let her say whatever the fuck she wants because until my daughter come back, you don’t have a fucking wife!” I muttered, fighting back the pain in my throat.
“Cora.” Declan’s eyes focused on mine. He stepped closer, but I backed away.
Running my hand through my hair, I blinked the tears out of my eyes. “Why is it whenever I need you, Declan, you’re fucking useless?”
I didn’t wait for his answer. Turning from them all, I walked out the room. Holding the door closed tightly, trying to fight back sobs that broke out anyway. I couldn’t even run away. It hurt. It hurt so much.
“Here.”
I saw the small box of tissues before I saw the hand attached to it. Blinking the tears from my eyes, I saw him cl
early. The shoulder-length brown hair tucked behind his ears. His brown eyes with a speck of green weren’t the usual carefree ones. At fourteen, he already stood at a mighty height. He wasn’t as strong as Ethan, but both of them were still growing. He pulled out a few tissues and reached, pulling my hand from the door, handing the tissues to me.
“Thank you, Wyatt, but—”
“You’re right,” he said softly.
“What?”
“The man that took Helen. He’s not a Callahan. So he’s nobody,” he repeated my earlier words.
“Explain that to your parents,” I muttered. Reaching over, I put my hand on his head. “Thanks for the tissues.”
Without another word to him, I began walking toward the front doors, not the back toward my rooms.
“Helen will be back sooner than you think,” he said.
I just nodded. “Until then, I think I’m going to drink.”
TWO DAYS LATER
I’m going to be sick. I groaned, running my hands through my hair.