I Woke Up at the Altar and Said No to the Mob Heir Who Let Me Die, but He Remembers Too novel · Chapter 17 of 40

Chapter 17: Lighthouse

"Say it properly," I said.

He did.

"In the other life, I asked her after you died. I asked her the way I'd ask one of Senan's men."

He rubbed his scarred knuckles with his thumb.

"She told him you drove to Dedham every Friday for lining silk. She told him the morning before. He said he only wanted to scare you out of Boston. Out of my house. Away from Nessa."

"And she believed him."

"She wanted to."

"Then she told you I'd packed a bag."

"She did."

"Had I?"

"No." His voice was very quiet. "I checked your room after. Your clothes were all still on the hangers. Your machine was on the table with a hem half done."

In the back, Una had turned the water off. She was listening. I didn't care.

"She's still in that house," I said. "With him at her Sunday table."

"She is."

"Does she know what he is?"

"Not yet." He looked at me. "When I tell her, you'll know first. That's the rule."

Nessa sat up in the wrapping paper with her crown over one eye.

"Is it still my birthday?"

"For two more hours," Cormac said.

"Then I want a piggyback."

He gave her a piggyback up the stairs, because I said he could.

He didn't look around my room. He put her on the bed and took off her shoes and backed out the door.

He asked about Halloween the next Sunday, on the phone, after Nessa had handed it over.

He'd never asked me for anything for himself before.

"She wants to go trick-or-treating in Southie. Where her father took her. I'd like to take her." He paused. "With you. If you'll come. You can say no."

"I know I can say no."

"I know you know. I'm saying it anyway."

I looked over at Nessa, who was pretending to sleep and listening with her whole body.

"Yes," I said.

Nessa kicked her feet under the covers and pretended to snore.

She wanted to be a lighthouse.

Not a princess. Not a witch. A lighthouse.

"Like in your song," she said. "The girl at the harbor. She needs a light to see the boats."

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