“Seamus McDonough,” Liam hisses. “Seamus McDonough inherited that land.”
I frown. “Ava’s grandfather?” He was at the gala. I remember the way Ava looked at him. Not with the newfound awe of meeting her biological grandfather, but with suspicion and fear.
“Whoever is holding her isn’t her grandfather,” Liam sneers. “He’s just wearing his face.”
Bridget snorts. “That’s not creepy.”
Liam rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean.” He gives her a pointed look. “The man may look like Seamus McDonough, but he isn’t.”
“Then what happened to the real Seamus McDonough?” Mark’s brow furrows. “If this man has been parading around as him, he would have had to get rid of him, right?”
Liam nods. “Ava suspected that whoever this guy is, he’s been playing at being Seamus for a while now.”
“How long?” I wonder. “Someone would have had to notice at some point that he wasn’t really Seamus. Mannerisms. Vocal pitch. The way he drank his coffee. Unless he had been studying Seamus for years and practicing each and every little thing, someone would have picked up on the fact that he wasn’t who he appeared to be.”
“Someone like Katherine McDonough,” Vas speaks up from behind me. He is leaning against the wooden table situated in the middle of the room.
Liam turns to mysovietnik. “Why do you say that?” he demands roughly.
Vas smirks, his eyes lighting up with a challenge. He knows something that Liam doesn’t—or something Liam already knows but refuses to acknowledge.
“You should really listen when your daughter tries to talk to you about her,” he reprimands.
“Katherine ran away,” Liam snarls. “There was nothing to talk about.”
“We all know that isn’t true,” Vas barks. “The proof was in Portland. You’re just refusing to accept it because you know what it means.”
“It doesn’t mean anything!” Liam roars. The Irish leader takes a heavy step in Vas’s direction. I am tempted to intercede, but something tells me a few fists might need to fly in order for Liam to see some sense. “Katherine McDonough ran becauseshe was scared. She didn’t want to commit. She didn’t want the pressure. She caved, and she told me as much.”
Vas snorts. “A letter told you as much,” he points out.
“A letter in her handwriting.” His words drip venom.
“And someone’s handwriting can’t be replicated?” I ask, tilting my head at him. “Like two people can’t be in one place or share the same face?”
“That’s not the point…” he trails off.
“Think, Kavanaugh,” Vas hisses at him. “Think about everything Ava has told you. About how her mother first disappeared. It was the day after Seamus sent you to Portland, right?”
Liam pauses for a moment, his eyes raising up and to the left.
“She went missing the day after you left,” Vas tells him. “Katherine didn’t show up for class that day. Another student went to check on her because they were supposed to meet for lunch. That student found her apartment door open and the room trashed.”
“That wasn’t in the report.”
“Of course it wasn’t,” Vas sniffs. “Whoever took her wanted it to seem like she disappeared. You know this. Neil Romano told you this. His parents died saving her the first time.”
“Just because he said it?—”
“Why would he lie?” I question Liam. “Stop blinding yourself to the truth, Kavanaugh, when it’s written in blood right before your eyes.”
“There is something big going on here,” Vas continues. “It’s been going on longer than any of us can imagine, and if we don’t get to the bottom of this, none of us will survive this war.”
Liam hangs his head. His shoulders are stiff, fists clenched at his sides as he wars with himself. Everything he has known is being obliterated, piece by piece. Katherine being abducted means he failed to protect her. To believe her. The man he looksup to isn’t who he appears to be, and if I am right, reality is about to get even harder for him and his family.
But that isn’t my story to tell.
“What do you want to do?” He raises his head and stares at me. “My men will follow your lead.”