“And so?” I pressed, and she clutched the remote, cocking her head to the side, visually annoyed with my response. “It’s Ethan, your son, our son, a human fucking being, who as you may remember has made a series of mistakes, one of which nearly got our other fucking son killed.”
“You’re blaming that on him—”
“Who else am I supposed to be blaming it on?” I snapped, pushing off the wall. “He left his brother, he left the family!”
“So did Wyatt—”
“Wyatt is not the Ceann Na Conairte!”
“He lost his wife!”
“Another stupid fucking mistake!” I yelled back. “The daughter of Shay ‘The Fool’ O'Davoren? Who also happened to be an incompetent fool. It must run in their family and still he chose that woman! It’s like we taught him nothing! Both him and Wyatt. We should have left everything to Dona instead of throwing her to the pathetic little prince!”
“Oh, really? Are you going to kill your sons to make it happen? Because I doubt Ethan would have let her live—”
“Ethan is weak! If anyone would have let anyone live, it would have been Dona!”
“Do you hear yourself? We are talking about our children’s lives!”
“Do you hear yourself? The almighty Bloody Melody using her heart to make decisions—”
BANG!
“FUCKING SHIT MEL!” I hollered, grabbing on to the tip of my ear which was now bleeding. The remote was gone from her hands, and in its place her motherfucking gun. Her nose flared out like a dragon ready to burn down the village. She held the gun up. “How many times do I have to tell you to use your goddamn words, woman!”
“I was using my words, but it didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere—”
“More like you couldn’t defend your fucking position.” I grabbed one of the napkins, as well as ice from the wine bucket on the damn table to hold to my ear. “I am too fucking old, and I have been married too fucking long to be dodging your motherfucking bullets. Shoot at me again—”
“I still have the gun in my hands, Liam.”
“And?” I snapped, looking back at her. “Is that supposed to be a threat? What are you going to do, shoot me again? Go ahead love, you just keep making more work for yourself while I recover.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she exhaled saying nothing and placing the gun on the side table.
“This has escalated—”
“You think?” I snapped again before laying down on the couch. She came over sitting on the edge of the seat and reached up to the napkin from me, holding it herself.
“It’s a flesh wound, you old wimp.”
“It’s a wound and it’s unnecessary, especially seeing as you know I am old, you should be more delicate—ahh...” I clenched my teeth as she pressed hard into my ear.
I smacked her ass and she snickered. “Sorry love, was that not delicate enough?”
“No, not at all, but I’ll let it go since you’re at least not glaring anymore.” I grinned when her eyes met mine. She slowly relaxed and I went on. “I know you love them. I love them too, I want to protect them too, I will help you protect them, but we cannot deny the fact that Ethan is not living up to what we have expected of him…and that might not be all his fault. Maybe we didn’t train him well enough. Maybe we left too soon. Maybe he only pretended to be strong in front of us—”
“No.” She shot up quickly, turning back to the screen, dropping the ice and napkin on my chest. Thanks, love. She got closer, taking the remote with her and rewinding. She watched him and this new woman fight in the wine cellar. She paused and went back again and again.
“Are you going to tell me what the no is for?” I asked, picking up napkin and sitting up straight. She turned back to me and smiled, truly smiled. I was a bit worried but couldn’t help but smile back. “What?”
“What if he hasn’t been pretending to be strong, but has been pretending to be weak?” She said seriously, and I wasn’t sure what expression I was making but she seemed to know what I thought of that.
“Ethan? Pretend to be weak? Mel, love, the one thing I can say about Ethan is that more than anything, he loves strength and power—”
“Then why Ivy?” she asked, hands outstretched.
“He knew her as child—”