Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A very walked out of the room after she got dressed and immediately looked for Knight. She knew Delaney was upstairs with Donovan getting looked over by the doctor they had requested to come look her over. She’d been beaten while she was being held hostage.

“Hi.” Avery waived at the older man and the two boys who looked so much alike.

“You look like your grandmother when she was younger. It’s amazing. I know you don’t know who I am. I’m Patrick O’Malley. These are two of my children, Rian and Cian. Cian is the eldest and Rian the youngest by two minutes. Twins.”

Avery couldn’t help but smile. It was obvious the man was nervous talking to her the way he rambled.

“My grandmother? So, what you said about being my father is real? Why did you leave my mother and never come back? You have other children. Was it because you and my mom had an affair?” Avery felt herself rambling out the questions with her nervousness as well.

“Never any of those, sweetheart. I honestly didn’t know about you until Knight called to tell me you were in trouble. They had suspicions about your lineage and got the confirmation from your w…mother. She never told me she was pregnant with you. Had I known about you, I would have come for you.”

“How did you know my mother?” Avery asked, hating the way her voice sounded so childlike.

“My da wanted me to get a college degree after I had finished high school. I met your mum there. I was young, stupid and only looking for easy p…a quick lay. Your mother was all too willing. I later found out, after I’d asked her to marry me, because I fancied myself in love for some horrible reason, that she had targeted me. She knew who my da was and only cared about the money. I had confronted her when I found out she had taken nearly a hundred grand from my father to call off the wedding. She laughed in my face saying she could never love someone like me. She had apparently been aiming for my father. She didn’t know my mother was as ruthless as my da. She was a true mafia queen when it came to protecting her family.”

“Oh my God!” Avery exclaimed, ashamed of her mother.

“You…you said these two are your sons. W-what will your wife and other children think of you having a daughter that she didn’t have?”

“When Knight called, she was in the room with me. My wife, your step-mum is very much like my mum was. She knows everything. While we were heading back here and you were getting cleaned up, I called her. She’s on her way here now to see for herself that you are safe and in good hands.”

Avery started at the news that the man gave her. This woman, who’s never met her is rushing down here to check on her?

“Da told her that you may not be coming back with us because Knight here has staked his claim on you. While it’s ultimately your decision on what happens here, we want to make sure it’s your decision. Do you love Knight?”

Avery looked between the man she now came to recognize as Rian and Knight. She studied Knight for several moments before she allowed the smile to tug her lips.

“I do. He came after me. He protected me multiple times before this incident and showed me how much I meant to him each time.” Avery looked back at Patrick O’Malley and tilted her head to the side as she studied him. “Even with me choosing Knight, w-will I still get a chance to get to know you. Know the rest of your family?”

“Try and keep us away. You are my daughter. Yes, I have other children, but you are my daughter as well. I have a lot to make up for.”

“No. You don’t. It wasn’t your fault that you didn’t know about me. My mother was a selfish woman. Always had been. The only thing we can do from here is move forward. Get to know each other. Be a family.” Avery told the man as she stepped away from Knight to walk over to her father and wrapped her arms around him.

“I meant what I said. You hurt my daughter, I will skin your arse alive and feed it to my dogs. You guard her with your life.” Patrick warned Knight, staring him down.

“Sir, while I respect you and rightfully fear you to an extent. I’m more scared of your daughter. Now that I know she is truly your flesh and blood, I can see where she gets her blood thirst from. You have no worries from me.”

“Good. Then I won’t have to reactivate the hog farm. Although, in your case, since she’s staying with you, I’ll make sure you know if you hurt my daughter, then I will carve your balls off with a spoon and keep them in a jar to play with now and then as organic stress balls. Now, let me see this beautiful daughter my sons were telling me about. Yes, they are right. Patrick, she’s the spitting image of your mother. God it’s like looking at photos in the flesh. She would have loved you, Avery. I’m Riana. Welcome to the family.”

Avery didn’t know what to think when the woman pulled her out of Patrick’s embrace and pulled her in for her own hug. This is what it means to have a mother’s unconditional love.

“Just like that?”

“Just like what dear?” Riana asked Avery, pulling back to look down into Avery’s eyes.

“You just met me, and you said I was your daughter in your threat to Knight and what you would do if he hurt me.”

“Ah. Aye. Just like that. Rian and Cian told me everything that happened to you with your birth mother and that thing that was your sister. You’re an O’Malley, through and through. Your mother knew that. She knew you were royalty, and she couldn’t cash in on it if she had tried. Had Patrick or I known about you, I would have made sure he would have gotten you and you would have been raised with warmth. Hugs. Love. Patrick, dear, you left that bitch alive, didn’t you?”

“Yes, dear. She’s still alive in the interrogation room. I wanted to let her know that her plan failed, and that Avery is alive and knows the truth of her parentage. If Avery wanted to say one last goodbye before I dispatched her carcass straight to hell, then she could have that.”

“Avery, do you want to see your mum one last time?”

“No. Knowing what I know now. There’s nothing left to say. She’s never been a mother to me.”

“Good. Now, Knight, have one of your boys take me to deal with the trash. Cian, come with me.”