She shakes her head. “No. She doesn’t even know I’m her mother.” She looks down as if in shame. “It was the deal I struck with my parents. I could only keep her if no one knew she was mine.”
I want to march down and fucking kill her parents. But then a new, more unsettling thought comes to mind. If Hampton knew, he’d have confronted my father, demanded that I marry Keira.
“Did my father know?”
Her eyes fill with pain that I’m certain is for me. After everything, her heart still bleeds for me. “If what my father says is true, then yes.”
Everything inside me goes numb. I have no doubt that if Hampton knew I got Keira pregnant, he would have used that to his advantage. That means my father knew. He knew Keira was pregnant with my child and never said a word.
I can hardly breathe. “When? When did your father talk to mine?”
She hesitates, almost like she’s trying to protect me. “Two days… maybe three before the fire.”
Two days my father knew about Keira and never said a word to me. Why?
My world is shaken. The man I’d admired, that I aspired to be, that I’ve spent ten years fighting to avenge knew Keira was pregnant and said nothing. And Hampton, finding my father’s refusal to insist on the marriage, saw it as the last straw of disrespect. He killed us all, or at least tried.
I look up at Keira. “I didn’t know. If I’d known?—”
“I know,” she says, and in those words I’m reminded what a fucking asshole I am. She believed in me back then. And I didn’t. I failed her and our child. I failed my parents and my brothers by hiding my love for Keira instead of telling my father upfront. And he failed me by not telling me when Hampton came to him and told him about the baby.
I don’t even know what to say or do. I’m so utterly lost.
25
KEIRA
I’d expected anger, maybe even denial, but as I watch Phoenix's face as the truth crashes over him, what I see is a man who’s had the rug pulled out from under him. My heart breaks at what he must be feeling knowing his father had kept the truth from him. That my father not only killed his family, but the family we could have had all these years.
I’m not sure how to help him except to explain it all. “After the fire, they sent me away. If you’d come back, I wouldn’t have been here.”
He looks at me, and all I see is a man lost.
“After she was born, I came home with Brigit but as my god-sister. My parents said if I ever claimed her as my own, they would send her away where I'd never see her again. So I agreed to their terms. I could keep her close if I pretended she wasn't mine. But I loved her like a daughter. And every day, I looked at her and saw you. She was all I had left of you, Phoenix. The only proof that what we had was real."
I go to him, kneeling in front of where he sits in my chair. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from my father. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about our daughter. I'm sorry for every momentyou missed with her." I look up at him, hoping he hears my sincerity. "And I'm sorry that when you came back, I was too afraid to tell you the truth. I was trying to protect her from more pain—from more violence. That's all I've ever tried to do."
I lower my eyes, unable to bear the storm of emotions crossing Phoenix's face. "I understand why you hate me. I've always understood. Your family was murdered because of me, because we fell in love. Because I got pregnant with your child."
I lift my gaze to his. "Please, Phoenix. Brigit is innocent in all of this. She's just a child. Our child. Don't punish her for what happened between us, for what my father did to your family."
My fingers tighten around his, desperate for him to understand. “You can hate me. You can make me pay for everything my family did. I'll accept whatever punishment you think I deserve. But please, I'm begging you, don't hurt Brigit. Don't make her suffer for sins she had no part in."
Phoenix stares down at me, his expression unreadable. "Is that what you think of me? That I would hurt a child? My own child?"
The disbelief in his voice makes me flinch. "I don't know who you are anymore," I say truthfully. "The Phoenix I loved would never harm a child, but the man who came back…" I trail off, unable to finish.
"You think I would use our daughter against you?" His voice is dangerously quiet.
I force myself to meet his gaze. "You threatened her before you even knew who she was. You said you'd find her to control me. I've spent all these years protecting her from my parents' world. Can you blame me for being afraid you'd use her as leverage? That you might take her away to punish me?"
I swallow hard. "Or worse, that you'd look at her and see nothing but a Kean, nothing but the family that destroyed yours."
I stare at Phoenix, waiting for his rage, his rejection, his judgment. But all I see is vulnerability.
“Keira.” Phoenix pushes from the chair, lowering himself to his knees before me. His hands reach for mine, hesitant at first, then gripping them firmly. "I was so consumed with vengeance that I couldn't see beyond anything but my own pain."
A muscle works in his jaw as he struggles with words. “I should have come for you. Should have known you would never betray me, trusted what we had. I just…” He looks down. “I came back to punish you, to make you suffer, thinking the worst of you, and all this time, you were protecting our child.”
