Page 34 of His Forced Irish Mafia Bride

My breath slowed as I turned to another page. Then another. The structure of what I was reading stopped behaving like history.

It started behaving more and more like fiction.

My fingers tightened around the paper. Then I saw it: my father’s name, again, but not in the way I’d expected.

It wasn’t an accusation, but his involvement was mentioned in references to meetings and advisory notes—things like financial oversight, even decisions that suggested his proximity to the system Sean controlled now.

I paused and read it again. This version of my father didn’t fit the one I’d known for years.

And worse than that, there was something more complicated than betrayal underneath all of this. I pulled another file open, more quickly now. Pages slipped slightly under my grip. There were more mentions of him, but in different contexts. Some implicated him in ways that aligned with him committing a betrayal big enough that he’d have to pay for it with his own daughter, while others placed him closer to decisions that would contradict him being involved in that betrayal. My throat was dry. Both versions of my father existed in these files, and it was impossible to know which one was real.

I stepped back from the desk without realizing it. I looked down at the files again, trying to find something fixed insidethem, something that would anchor the rest of it back into reality. But every answer opened into another contradiction. Every clarification introduced something new that didn’t belong. I exhaled slowly. The story I was looking at wasn’t just incomplete, it was arranged around my father’s past actions. The thought sat heavy in my chest as I turned another page. Just as I returned to the documents, the door opened again. I didn’t look up immediately. It wasn’t because I didn’t hear it; it was because I already knew who it was. I tightened my grip on the files without thinking.

“Maeve.” His voice was calm, and I finally turned.

Sean was standing near the doorway. His gaze dropped immediately to the files in my hands, then rose back to my face. He didn’t ask why I was there. He didn’t ask what I’d seen. For a moment, neither of us spoke. The silence stretched differently than it had with Declan. Sean stepped forward slowly, like he was choosing exactly how much space to take back from the room with each movement.

His eyes flicked to the desk, to the open drawers and the scattered folders. His expression shifted. He fully understood what I was doing.

“What,” he said quietly, “are you doing.” It was phrased like a question that expected me to confirm what he already knew.

I lifted the file. “Just reading this,” I said. My voice was steadier than I felt.

A pause. His gaze didn’t move from mine; it was rattling me. “That’s not an answer,” he replied.

I took a step away from the desk so I could see him properly. His expression didn’t change, but something in his attention sharpened. I spoke anyway.

“My father’s name is in here,” I said. “And it doesn’t always make him look guilty of betraying you.”

He didn’t deny it, but he didn’t confirm it, either. Sean took one more step into the room, much closer to me now.

His voice dropped slightly when he finally spoke again. “What exactly do you think you’re doing, Maeve?”

CHAPTER TEN

Sean

I didn’t speak immediately when I saw Maeve in my office. I just stopped moving. Of course, I’d expected her to pry, but I didn’t expect it this soon.

Maeve held my stare, refusing to look away even though she knew exactly what this situation looked like. I stepped farther inside my office, and the door clicked shut behind me. The sound of the door closing barely registered with me. The room seemed to get smaller around us, cutting us off from everything outside. I didn’t sit down or raise my voice. I just looked at her.

Then I started walking closer to her. I took one step, then another, moving slowly.

It wasn’t meant as a threat, but it changed the way the room felt. Maeve stiffened a little, but she didn’t move back.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing, Maeve?”

Maeve let out a breath and said, “I think you know. I’m not going to be kept in the dark like I have no say in my own life.”

I said nothing. The fact that I didn’t respond pushed her to say more.

“You can’t just decide when I get to leave. You can’t cut me off from everything. That’s not protection, Sean. That’s control.”

She stopped talking. She was waiting for me to correct her or deny what she’d said. I didn’t give her the satisfaction.

I stopped walking and stood close to her, but not touching her. My eyes were still on her face.

She held my stare for a time. Something about her lips tantalized me. She wasn’t scared, but she wasn’t totally defiant, either. That intrigued me. The silence between us didn’t feel empty.