Page 11 of Irish Betrayal

And that…that was worse.

Daniel swallowed hard, every instinct in him screaming not to leave her like this. But the look on her face—the way she held herself, like she was bracing for something⁠—

It stopped him.

Slowly, reluctantly, he stepped back.

Then again.

“I’m not done with this,” he said, the words and hands quiet but certain. “With you.”

Her expression didn’t change.

But her hands trembled.

And as Daniel turned and walked out of the garden, one thing settled deep in his gut. This wasn’t just about distance, about her leaving, and wanting no attachments. Blair wasn’t like that.

It always came back to the feeling that she was hiding something. Blair wasn’t some flaky woman who jumped in and out of a man’s life.

She wasn’t just a genius, she was trustworthy and loyal. Being hearing-impaired and rarely using her voice, she was still the person their group heard the loudest. When she said something, she’d already thought about her words a hundred times before they left her body.

She wouldn’t have kissed him if she hadn’t one hundred percent wanted to. She sure as hell wouldn’t have touched him, let him touch her, more than touch her, if she hadn’t wanted him to.

He was missing something. There was a piece of her puzzle that she was deliberately hiding from him.

And whatever it was⁠—

He was going to find that piece.

five

STEM Summer Program

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Six years ago

BLAIR DAISY BARR

Dear Diary~

I wonder sometimes if I’m getting too old for journaling. It feels weird now.

I’m home from Trinity camp.

It was good.

My friends and I had so much fun staying with the O’Faolains.

Daniel isn’t nearly as annoying as he used to be, so there’s that. I caught Jonathan and Daniel’s best friend, Ciar Murphy, smoking in the alley behind Bébhinn’s mom’s interior design business.

I was playing hide and seek, which I usually win at since I can squeeze into small spaces. Ugh, I’m thirteen with the body of an eight-year-old, I swear!

He asked me not to tell, which, duh, of course, I wouldn’t. I did make him give me a drag of his cig.

First and last, I can assure you of that. NASTY!

Daniel caught ME taking the drag, and then he and Ciar got in a fight. I left the two idiots to it. Why do boys like to beat each other up? My Aunt Aileen says it’s one of God’s mysteries. She would know. Her brother is my dad.