Page 49 of Colin (The Doherty Mafia)
I had feelings for him.
No, I was in love with him. There was no point downplaying it. The only reason I hesitated to work with Aldo was because of how I felt about Colin.
But if he really was the man I was told about—a stone cold killer—who could murder his own girlfriend and make it look like an accident. What was he capable of doing to me?
And what would he do when he found out about my involvement against his family?
Once again, I was back at square one. I was back at not being able to trust anybody. Just when I thought I found someone I felt safe with, someone whose family I wanted to get to know…it was all falling apart.
How had I convinced myself it would work?
Why did I think I ever had a chance with him?
What if Aldo was right?
I knew I couldn’t ask Colin directly because he would want to know how I found out. That was an answer I couldn’t give him, especially not now when I knew what he was capable of doing to me.
But was I willing to take him down?
Twenty-Six
Colin
I called the family lawyer because I wanted them to take care of the annulment. Because Marley reminded me about it that day, because she made it very clear that she wanted to end things between us as soon as possible. And she was right. There was no point in prolonging something that didn’t have the right to exist in the first place.
But then, why did that phone call feel like a mistake?
As soon as I got off that call, I wanted to call them back and tell them to stop. To just give it a few days.
They said they would need to get in touch with her, they needed legal documents from her—and I told them I’d arrange a meeting.
But now I entertained the idea of not communicating with Marley about it. Just letting it drop and seeing how it went.
What if we did give it a few weeks? A few months?
What if we actually gave this marriage thing a shot?
I hadn’t forgotten the fact that we were practically strangers to each other. We had only been married a few days.
But that wasn’t how it felt to me.
It felt like I actually knew her. Like I had known her for a long time. I woke up in the mornings with her next to me and I woke up feeling fuckin’ great. No matter what else was messed up in my life, that feeling wasn’t. And I wasn’t prepared to let go of that feeling just yet.
What was the worst that could happen at the end of the next few weeks—if we discovered that it wouldn’t actually work? An annulment. A divorce. Whatever.
Didn’t this relationship feel like it deserved a chance? Or was I just kidding myself?
I regretted the things I told her that morning in a rage.
I reacted to the way she spoke to me. I was defensive when she brought up the annulment. It seemed like she was through with me and I wanted her to feel like I was through with her.
But I wasn’t.
I was falling for her more and more every day. I needed to tell her those things. I needed to tell her everything before I lost her.
I rode back to the apartment a few hours later, hoping she would still be there. But she wasn’t.
I checked every room of the loft, but she was gone. The bag she brought with her was gone too.
The dress and shoes I bought her last night were laid out neatly on my bed—so it was pretty obvious that she did this on purpose. She wanted me to know she was gone. Maybe she didn’t want me going after her.
But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t just sit in my apartment and do nothing.
I wasn’t going to let her walk out of my life like that.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Isabelle sounded pretty worried over the phone.
I’d already called a few guys who worked closely with the family as informants. I wanted to get the word out on the street that Marley needed to be stopped if she was seen trying to leave town. But apparently, nobody had seen her that day. Nobody knew where she was.
“I got back to the apartment and she was gone,” I replied.
I paced around the living room with a can of beer in my hand and the phone in the other. Alcohol was the only thing that was going to keep me sane.
“But why? Did you guys have a fight?”
“We argued a little in the morning,” I admitted.
Then I heard Isabelle sigh and I could almost picture her rolling her eyes.
“I mean, I don’t know what I have to do to drill this into your head. Into all of your heads. Stop fucking it up with these women who are good for you. Marley is good for you. You guys are good together. I get that it started off as a drunken mistake, but that wasn’t what it looked like to me.”
