Deirdre returned to the living room from the garden and changed the subject, “I’m hungry, Mrs. Engel.”“In a minute, sweetie. Your porridge will be ready soon!”The night, surprisingly, turned out to be a restless one. Then, the next early morning, Deirdre found herself woken up by a shrill commotion with Mrs. Engel’s best attempt at consolation thrown in. She rose, put on a coat, and pushed open her door.The racket became clearer and sharper. It crashed into her ears. “For the last time, where the h*ll is Brendan Brighthall!? Tell him to get down here right now! I am not leaving until everything’s even! “How could he do this to me? I sacrificed my entire youth, my better years, to the Brighthall Group! I let them drive me like I was a slave! And he’s repaying all that devotion by sending me away to some foreign country and forcing my children’s schools to expel my kids!?“What the f*ck is this!? If he’s not going to give me godd*mn explanation, I’m taking this to his old reside

”He’s alright. His wounds just tore a little.”Deirdre felt a pang of guilt. “Sorry, that was me. I didn’t know he was hurt when I pushed him.”“It’s okay. It’s got nothing to do with you at all. Even if you didn’t push him, his wounds would have been torn open anyway. He had been driving all the way here from Central Hospital.”Deirdre froze. That was half an hour's journey! Had he gone mad?She pushed away the complicated feelings as they arose and asked, “What’s with his injuries? I thought he’s been spending his time with Charlene. Did something happen halfway through? An ambush?”“Spending time with Charlene?” Sam was taken aback. “Who told you that? He wasn’t spending time with Charlene.”“No?” Deirdre’s mind turned blank. Brendan had lied to her about the business trip, but Charlene was not the ulterior motive, after all? Then where had he been?No. It did not matter where he had been. He had lied to her. Nothing was going to change that.“So, he was ambushed?”Sam look

Sam almost gave her the answer straight away. He had to stop himself right before it happened and change it to something less direct. “It’s… someone very important to you.”“Someone important… to me?”His answer threw her mind into disarray. She knew Sam would never lie to her over something so trivial, but if that were the case, then who could this person be?A figure took form in her mind, and she immediately rejected it. It could not be her. She was dead.Her mother was dead.“Who?”“I can’t tell you, Miss McKinnon.” Sam intoned helplessly. “All I’m allowed to say is that I did not lie when I said Mr. Brighthall had not been spending his time with Charlene at all. Instead, he had been using all this time to redeem himself in your eyes.“When he was attacked by a gunman yesterday, all he cared about was calling you to tell you he’s fine. But his phone was switched off, and maybe that was why he raced to this place from the hospital as quickly as he could.”Deirdre remembere

Deirdre thought of Kyran. Those moments used to be so sweet…And now she felt an equal amount of dejection. She nodded as she pushed back against the tide of emotions. “If you don’t mind, fine.”Deirdre fell asleep shortly after that. Imagine her surprise when she found herself still cuddling with him—she had used Brendan’s arm as her pillow since last night, and she had not changed her position at all. Reeling from her shock, she quickly sat up. Brendan massaged his numbing arm. “Oh, you’re up?”“Aren’t you supposed to go to work?” she blabbered. Her pregnancy had made her lethargic as of late. By this point, it was already 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. On the other hand, Brendan was an early riser—he would wake up at 6:00 a.m. and go to work at 7:00 a.m. sharp. So why was he still here?“I’m injured.” Brendan’s eyes were transfixed on Deirdre. They would not leave her. “As such, I’m staying at home to recuperate. I’ll only go back there once I'm healed up.”Deirdre thought he made s

”You’re wrong. You can help me.” Brendan’s lips began to loom close. His face seemed to be zooming in on her eyes. She still could not make out much of his features, but she could feel his breath washing over her.She instinctively froze. “How was I supposed to help?”“Kiss me to relieve me of my pain.”Deirdre’s expression darkened. “This cr*p again?” she snapped and ignored him altogether, rising to her feet as though she was going.Brendan reached out and caught her in the wrist, and the pain of something being torn open flared on his arm.He took a shaky breath, and his fingers quivered. Still, he refused to let go.“Brendan? Are you okay?”He fixed his eyes on her alarmed expression and reacted with a helpless grimace. “I know you hate my guts, Deirdre, but my injury came from rescuing your friend. Can’t you at least be a little nicer to me while I’m recovering?”Deirdre found herself having no counterargument. She would freely admit to loathing Brendan with every fiber of