Page 148 of Liberating Lily

She glanced around as the car came to a stop. Were they home? She wasn’t even aware of the drive. She was in too much of a daze.

Harvey ended up carrying her into the cabin and straight to the living room, where he wrapped her up in a blanket and sat on the sofa with her in his arms.

“That was so hard,” she told him.

“I can see that on your face, mo bhreáthracht. You look exhausted.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so sorry you have to go through all of this.”

“None of it is your fault,” she told him.

She knew directly where the blame lay.

“Maybe not,” he said as he turned on the television. “But I do wish I’d gotten you away from that bitch earlier. If I had, I might have saved you a whole lot of pain.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t know and you were waiting for the right moment. Why were you friends with Rick? You never really explained.”

“Ahh, that. Ronan wanted me to get close to Rick. Rick has a gambling addiction and his father kept covering it up. Dear Rick attempted to use his sister as collateral for a bet.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t accepted and Rick likely got the money from his father. However, Ronan wanted me to keep an eye on him since we’d had business dealings with the family. I discovered more family secrets, like the senator’s love of massages with happy endings and Ronan decided to slowly ruined Rick and his father. He had to do it carefully because Rick’s father is a senator. Even though he’s a slimy, sleazy one. So I stuck close, and fed Ronan whatever I found. We worked hard to ensure they lost everything.”

“You did?”

“Oh, yeah. And I’ve still got my eye on old Ricky even though he’s fled to Europe. He’s now owes money to some very angry people overseas. And his father won’t be able to save him.”

“You don’t think he had any idea about what was going on, do you? About Dr. Wallace and the pills?”

“I don’t,” he said. “He didn’t seem to have any knowledge when we questioned him. He never once mentioned anything about videos or Dr. Wallace to me. And I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to keep that sort of thing to himself.”

She nodded. That was her guess too.

“How about we sit a while and watch some TV, and then I’ll make us a light dinner. We’ll just have a quiet night, the two of us, together.”

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you, Harvey Gallagher, but I’m so grateful that you’re in my life.”

“And I’m so grateful that you’re in mine, Lily.”

34

Harvey pulled up outside a gorgeous-looking red brick building in Back Bay. This neighborhood was beautiful, filled with older houses and green trees. She glanced around, trying to take it all in.

It felt scary being away from the cabin. It was weird. She thought she'd be excited to be back in the city, but the cabin had become more of a place of refuge.

It had started to feel like home.

But it was time to keep moving forward.

These last few weeks, she’d been lost, completely in her head. She’d barely done anything, gone anywhere. It wasn’t until she’d started seeing a therapist that she’d begun to fight her way back, to function better. She’d started getting up and showering and moving around on her own, without him having to do so much for her.

That was why he’d finally felt comfortable moving them back here to his house. She couldn’t hide forever. It was time to be a bit braver. She wasn’t going to let the doctor and her mother rule her life forever.

“We don't have to do this if you're not ready.” Reaching over, he took hold of her hand.

What would she do without him? He'd been there for her through everything. And she couldn't imagine not having him in her life. She just hoped that once things settled down, they still felt the same way about each other. Although Harvey seemed to be very certain in his feelings, so she guessed it was just her.

“I'm ready for this,” she said. “It's time.”

He nodded. “I'll be glad to see what the place looks like after Fiadh's friend redecorated.”