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Diarmuid

 

 

 

Then—Dublin, Ireland

 

 

I fell into the couch and laid back, resting my eyes shut and enjoying the silence in having the whole house to myself. Ava had gone back to Ballyannagh, the west coast village just outside of Limerick, where we both grew up.

She’d been pissed off at me for not going back with her, but I was too damn tired from this week. I needed a bit of space from her. We’d been bickering more than usual lately and it was driving me up the wall.

I’d organised with Danny to go to the football match tomorrow at Crowe Park, Mayo versus the Dubs, but tonight was all mine.

A banging on my front door made me groan. “That’d be fucking right,” I muttered to myself. I strode to the door and swung it open, a curse on my tip of my tongue. I halted when I saw it was Saoirse, shivering in the rain. I’d given her my address just in case she ever needed it.

Now she needed it, I could see from the furrow of her brow.

She needed me.

“Saoirse?” I gently pulled her inside out of the rain. “Jesus, you’re soaked. Stay here. I’ll get you a towel.”

She stood in my hallway, shivering, as I ran to the hot press to grab the biggest, fluffiest towel we had. I hurried back and wrapped her in it, drying off the worst of the rain. We left her soaked sneakers drying in the hallway and I led her to the living room where I turned on the fireplace and sat her in front of it.

I pulled up the footstool and sat beside her, leaning forward, my elbows on my knees. “Talk to me, Saoirse.”

“My ma brought home a guy…” she swallowed. “He’s not a nice man.”

My blood boiled at the fear in her voice.

“Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?”

I will fucking kill him if he did. I swear to God I will murder him and bury his body where no one can find it.

She shook her head and my veins flooded with cool relief.

“He just scares me. I didn’t know where to go.”

“You did the right thing coming here. You can come here any time, you know that, right?”

She nodded, her eyes round and full of hope. “Can I stay here tonight?”

I hesitated for a second before I spoke. “Of course. But I gotta ring your ma to let her—”

“No.” Saoirse’s eyes widened so I could see the whites all around her irises. “Please don’t ring her.”

“I have to.” There was no question in my mind, regardless of how poorly Ms Quinn behaved as a parent. Saoirse was still under her legal care.

Saoirse grabbed my arm before I could rise up. “She won’t care where I am, I promise.”

It hurt me to think that could be the case.

“I’m not arguing with you, Saoirse,” I said firmly. “Either I ring her and let her know where you are or I take you home.”

She let go of me, sinking back into the chair and glaring at the wall.

I let out a soft sigh. Saoirse was pissed at me, but she could never stay mad at me. Letting her mother know that Saoirse was here was the right thing to do. I’d get that out of the way, then I could focus on cheering her up.

I walked into the kitchen, grabbing my phone along the way, and rang Ms Quinn’s home number.

A woman answered the phone with a crackly voice as if she’d just woken up. “Hello?”

“Ms Quinn?”

“Who’s this?” Suspicion clouded her tone.

“It’s Diarmuid Brennan. The Juvenile Liaison Officer assigned to Saoirse.”

“What she done now?”

I gritted my teeth. “Nothing. I’m calling to let you know that Saoirse’s here and she’s safe.”

There was a pause. “Well, I’m not picking her up in this bloody weather. Don’t have a car, do I?”

I swallowed the fierce retort that was begging to unleash from my tongue. “If it’s alright with you, she can stay here the night and I’ll drop her off in the morning.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, whatever. But don’t come too early.” Then she hung up on me.

I rubbed my forehead. Un-fucking-believable. Saoirse’s mother was a real piece of work. I walked slowly back into the living room.

“I told you she wouldn’t care,” came the quiet voice of the broken girl huddled in the towel.

The truth in Saoirse’s words sliced me open. What could I say? That her mother did really care for her deep down? That the woman who was supposed to love her above all others was just going through a selfish phase? That this world would stop being cruel when she grew up?

All things I knew—and she knew—were lies.