Page 105 of His Forced Irish Mafia Bride

His jaw tightened. I took another step closer.

“You destroyed people,” I said. “My family. Sean’s family.” I gestured slightly toward Sean. “And you acted like it was normal.” I paused. “Why?”

He looked at me properly then, like he was deciding how much he could say.

“It wasn’t destruction,” he said carefully. “It was control.”

I shook my head. “That’s not an answer.”

“It was necessary,” he continued. “The situation would have collapsed anyway.”

I let out a short breath. “So you decided to make it collapse on your terms.”

He didn’t deny it.

“And my father?” I asked. “Did he choose any of it?”

Father Michael hesitated, and I stepped closer. “Say it clearly,” I said. “Did he agree to any of it, or was he forced?”

Another pause. “He was put in a position where refusal was not possible,” he said.

I nodded slowly. “So he never made any choice to be part of this.”

Silence followed, careful and controlled.

Sean’s voice came from behind me, low. “Answer her.”

Father Michael looked between us, then back at me. “Yes,” he said. The word landed heavily. I didn’t move.

“Good,” I said quietly. “That’s all I needed.”

I didn’t say anything for a moment. The truth was already out.

But what my mind kept coming back to wasn’t Father Michael. Or even my father. It was Sean. The way he was standing there like he was used to this kind of weight. Like it was normal to carry something this heavy without showing it.

I hadn’t seen that before. Or maybe I hadn’t wanted to. My chest felt tight, but not in the same way as before.

I looked at him properly now.

He looked tired. In the way he stood. In the way he didn’t fully relax even when nothing was happening. And I realize something I didn’t like admitting.

This started hurting him long before I ever knew his name.

“You’ve been carrying this for a long time,” I said quietly.

He didn’t answer.

I swallowed. And for the first time, I didn’t feel angry at the truth. I felt something close to guilt. Not for what I’d found.

But for what it had done to him once I did, for pulling the past into the open and making it real in a way that couldn’t be ignored anymore. The silence between us felt different now. I looked at Father Michael again.

The truth hadn’t just exposed what was hidden.

It had changed the shape of everything around it, including us. And that damage wouldn’t go away just because we finally knew why it had happened.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Sean