Page 28 of The Lies That Shatter
Bree shakes her head as she continues to rock Nate in her arms, though he isn’t making any noise. “No. We thought Desmond was coming, but he called about ten minutes ago to say he couldn’t make it.”
“Fucking coward,” I shout, and Bree’s eyes quickly fall to the baby in her arms, who begins to grumble, before both she and Liam throw a death glare in my direction.
“I’m going to take Nate and lay him down in his pram next door. You assholes make sure you keep your voices down. If he wakes up, I swear I will stab each and every one of you,” Bree snaps though her voice is barely above a whisper, but it’s enough to have us all clamping our mouths shut as we watch her carry Nate into the next room.
There’s nothing to stop us from continuing on with our conversation, but we all know there’s no point having thediscussion without Bree here. She’s our leader, after all, so we’d only have to repeat everything when she gets back.
So, we all just sit in silence, waiting for her to return, whilst also hoping that none of us does anything to wake up the baby, because the look on Bree’s face when she threatened us was fucking terrifying. That woman loves to get stabby with her knife, and with all the hormones flying around her body, and her lack of sleep, I don’t think the fact we’re her family will be enough to save us.
As soon as she returns, she flops back down onto the sofa next to Liam. Without saying a word, he places his arm around her and pulls her into his side, tucked under his shoulder. She wastes no time snuggling into him, and releases a content sigh as her eyes flutter.
I’m so used to seeing Bree as the hardass mafia leader, I forget she’s only twenty-five. She’s a new mum, operating on very little sleep, and she’s trying to prepare for the upcoming war we know is creeping ever closer. Even though she has the weight of our whole family on her shoulders, she’s never looked stressed. Even now she just looks tired.
Shane, who see’s Bree as his sister, must have noticed the same thing. “Are you okay, Bree? You look tired.”
“Yeah, Red. We can reschedule, if you’d like?” I chuckle as my sister-in-law gives me the same disapproving smile she uses whenever I call her by her nickname. I’ve been calling her Red since the day we first met, and though she pretends she hates it, I know she doesn’t.
“You just want to reschedule in the hope Des or Ev will turn up next time,” she says to me, before turning to Shane. “I’ve got a baby who doesn’t sleep for more than three hours at a time. I’m breastfeeding, so nobody can help, and sadly, this job doesn’t come with any maternity leave. Quite the opposite, in fact. People seem to think this is the perfect time to challengemy leadership. That this is when I’m at my weakest, but they’re wrong. Am I tired? Yes, I’m fucking exhausted. But I’ve got this, so you don’t have to worry.”
“At least people who aren’t loyal to you are making themselves known right now. We don’t have to go and weed them out. It’s like the trash is taking itself out,” Kian adds with a laugh, sending a wink Bree’s way. She just rolls her eyes the way she always does with Kian. But he’s not wrong.
“Definitely. And little do these idiots know, being a mum actually has made me stronger. I have so much more to fight for now,” Bree replies, and Kellan agrees.
“As a parent, you have a lot more to lose, but so much more to fight for. We’re determined to make the world better for them, and that makes us stronger than all the assholes who try to take us on,” Kel adds, and Liam nods his head in agreement.
The rest of us don’t really know how to add to this conversation. We all have family that we love and we’d fight to the death for, but it sounds like being a parent is something you can only relate to when you join the club. It changes you, makes you so much more. At least, for my brothers it has, and it makes me wonder why Desmond never had that paternal need to protect.
“I will have to take your word for that. The only example I have to go on is Desmond, and he’s hardly Father of the fucking Year,” I snap, my anger beginning to sizzle again. I take a sip of my coffee, ignoring the burn when it stings my throat, as all eyes turn back to me.
“What did Dad and Ev do?” Liam asks, looking tentative.
“Did you know they have someone else undercover with the Whitlocks’?” I ask, deliberately being vague to see if any of my other siblings have been lying to me.
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“Who?”
They all shout at the same time, and I can’t work out who said what, but I heard enough to know that none of them have any idea about McKenna, which I’m happy about. I don’t know what I’d do if I found out any of these guys betrayed me too.
Bree shushes everyone, and like the good little soldiers we are, silence fills the room. “Tell us everything.” It’s a clear instruction, and the sleep-deprived young mum, struggling to keep her eyes open, is replaced by our ruthless leader.
“It’s McKenna. They talked her into going undercover as a nurse for Mel’s dad. She’s working in the fucking house…with Whitlock,” I grind out, my spare hand curling into a fist, whilst the other grips my coffee mug handle even tighter.
All their eyes widen in shock, and it just re-confirms that none of them had any idea. They couldn’t fake this reaction. Bree seems astounded, but Liam’s as furious as me.
“They fucking did what? And Evan knew? I expect this sort of shit from Desmond, but not Ev,” Liam snaps, his cheeks flushing red as he snarls Dad’s name. Their relationship has come on leaps and bounds recently, particularly after the old man faked his death, but he still has a long way to go to make things right with us all.
Liam has the worst relationship with Dad. He walked away, not giving a shit about what Dad thought. While the rest of us stayed, continuing to seek his approval, and having to live with the constant failures.
Recently, my siblings told me that things with Dad aren’t as they seem. That the way he acted in the past was all an act, and he has his reasons. But I’m having a hard time believing it. Even if it’s true, forgetting the trauma from my past it’s easy.
I spent most of my childhood torn between desperately needing to seek his approval, and hating him with every fibre ofmy being. I despised the way he treated us. So many times he’d beat us just to show his men he had control at home.
I hated the way he dismissed Mum like she didn’t even matter, like she was nothing to him. We all grew up feeling the same way, like we meant nothing to him. We were expendable. And now I’m expected to believe that was all an act. That he wanted people to think we meant nothing to him, so they wouldn’t use us to get to him.
He pretended my sisters weren’t his real daughters, and he didn’t tell us that Kellan was our biological brother. He pushed us to be criminals, to turn our emotions off and to do things that no children our age should ever have to do.
