Page 409 of Manhattan Bossholes

“You bastard,” I snarled, lunging for him, and he ducked away from me, falling off his barstool and landing hard on the ground.

He scrambled to his feet and backed away from me. “It’s like I told Olivia. You don’t need to tell Catie she’s mine if you don’t want to. I just want to spend some time with her, while she’s here…”

But I’d stopped listening. I was hearing his first sentence on loop.

It was like I told Olivia….

I didn’t want to believe that Olivia would betray me like this. That she’d talk to Seamus behind my back and keep a secret this big from me. I’d trusted her. She knew what the O’Rourkes meant to me, what they represented.

But my stomach was sinking. Now I knew why she’d been so dead set on me talking to Seamus.

“Stay away from my family,” I ordered. “Or else.”

Seamus flinched.

I stormed out of the dark bar and out into the sunlight. Outside, people were walking up and down the narrow streets like nothing extraordinary had happened. But my whole world felt like it had been turned upside down.

Sinead had trusted an O’Rourke, and he betrayed her.

I’d trusted Olivia, and she betrayed me.

The part of me that had begun to open up, begun to fucking hope, the more time I spent with Olivia, closed down like a gate slamming shut. I needed to remember the truth—if I didn’t keep my guard up, people would hurt my family. Even the good people could be manipulated and twisted by the horrible ones.

I couldn’t trust anyone to have my back. Not really.

I jumped in my car and drove back home, my rage burning hot and mean.

I slammed the front door behind me and stalked through the house until I found Olivia. She was playing outside in the backyard with Catie.

“Olivia. Inside. I need to talk to you.”

“One second,” Olivia called. “Let me finish this up…”

“Now,” I barked.

Her eyes widened.

Olivia patted Catie on the shoulder and gave her some instructions, then followed me into the house.

“Declan, what’s wrong⁠—”

“How long have you known Seamus was Catie’s dad?” I demanded.

She flinched. “Five days.”

I hadn’t realized how badly I wanted her to say What are you talking about? Seamus is obviously lying until she spoke.

“I was going to tell you,” Olivia rushed to explain. She reached for my arm, but I yanked it out of her grasp and stepped back. Olivia’s presence—Olivia’s touch—always made me feel more at peace with myself, and that wasn’t what I needed right now. I couldn’t let Olivia soften the anger I’d spent more than a decade sharpening into a weapon.

She swallowed and tried again. “I thought if you could see him as a person, instead of just an O’Rourke, then you wouldn’t react like this. You could see the good side.”

“What good side?” I demanded.

“Catie could get to know her father. And maybe you…” She bit her lip.

“What? Spit it out,” I demanded.

“You could participate fully in this town, in your community, without feeling like you have to block yourself off from everything in order to avoid the O’Rourkes all the time,” Olivia said. “I don’t want you to go back to being alone in this big, empty house when I leave.”