Taken from the comfort of home, leaving behind her family and friends and all that matter to her, when the ink hadn’t yet dried on her college diploma, Aileen was bought by rivals and taken to be bred like her mother before her. Forced to marry Cormac McCarthy, to carry his baby, she now ignores anyone who questions her. She insists she’s a McCarthy and has no ties to the family she left.
A tragic loss, and hard to imagine that modern day Ireland still hearkens back to traditions from our forefathers, the women sold into mob life have no will of their own, no personal opinions save what their husbands believe, no say in their future. Mindless muppets under the control…As I read on, my blood boils. I glance at the name of the writer of this article and don’t recognize it, but note fine print below the title.
Information in collaboration with Sheena Hurston of News Republic.
Has the woman no fear? No shame?
“Careful, Cormac,” Aileen says, her light blue eyes cast to the sea in front of her. “You’re liable to pop a blood vessel.”
It’s then that I realize my hand is shaking and I’ve clenched the paper so tightly it’s crinkled like elephant’s skin.
“Where did you get this from?”
“I found it,” she says with a sigh, pulling her shawl tighter around to shield herself from the wind, but I imagine she’s shielding herself from me.
“Where?” She didn’t find it randomly. This was planted. Someone wanted her to see this.
She turns to face me, her eyes icy blue. Cold.
“In the library,” she says, her lips pursed. “Naturally.”
I want to shake her, until her pretty blonde hair comes loose from the knot on top of her head and tumbles onto her shoulders, until she loses that haughty, icy look of anger.
“You were in the library,” I state stupidly, still clutching the goddamn paper.
“Yes. I went down there this morning before you got up.” She sighs and looks back out at the sea. “Then I found the torture room.”
“The torture room?”
She purses her lips and shakes her head. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,” she says through clenched teeth. “The room where you do evil things.”
The interrogation room. We met in a room just like that.
“This is nothing but bloody lies, Aileen,” I say, shaking my fist at the sea. I’d toss the paper to the cliffs, but I need to bring this to Nolan.
“Is it?” She turns to me so sharply, I’m afraid she’ll fall. I reach a hand out to steady her but she backs away to avoid me. Her foot catches on a loose pebble. With a shriek, she stumbles, falling. My heart takes a great leap but I move on instinct, reaching a hand out to grab her. I grasp fabric and skin and hair as I yank her back to me and we fall to the rocky ground. She bangs her head on my shoulder, and I hold her to me.
“Are you okay?” I ask, holding her shoulders to look into her eyes. “Did you hurt yourself? God, did you hurt the baby?”
She grimaces, reaching a hand to her head. Closing her eyes, she whispers, “No. God. I’m fine. And the baby’s fine.” But she can’t hide a tear that rolls down her cheek. She swipes it angrily away.
“Aileen,” I say. I draw her to me. Holding her. I hate that she’s hurt, that they’ve done this to her. “This doesn’t matter. None of it does, lass. They publish lies, and we ignore them.”
“Do they?” she challenges.
“Of course they do. You know that article isn’t true. It’s meant to sensationalize, but they don’t know about the real workings of our family.”
How devoted I am to her. How I’ll devote the rest of my life providing for her needs, and the needs of my family. How I’ll do anything within my power to keep her safe, protected, well cared for.
She nods with a sigh. “I’m hungry, Cormac,” she says in a little voice that tugs at my heart. “Can we go back?”
I nod. “Mam and Caitlin want to take you to the shops.”
Her eyes light up. “Oh?”
I stand take her hand, and lift her to her feet. “Only one condition, lass.”
“What’s that?”
“I come with you.”Chapter 18AileenJust when I think for one moment that I’m starting to heal from all this… that I can forget the past that haunts me, and welcome the present, accept this as my lot in life… something happens to remind me how wrong I am.
I wonder if I can leave, how that will go. What would Cormac do? Would he find me? Would he come for me? We’re bound together with this child growing in my womb, and yet still, I wonder…
Where would I go? Would I have the freedom I long for if I left this place? Is it even Cormac and Ballyhock I want freedom from?