Between Two Rourkes

Chapter 9

Lyra's POV

"What's in this for you, Luca?"

Maelis asked the same question I had burning in my mind.

And I really looked forward to hearing the answer.

"Don't think for a second that I believe this sudden proposal is out of the goodness of your heart," she continued, taking a step closer. "You've never cared about people before. You avoid Rourke gatherings like a plague and you've made it abundantly clear that you want nothing to do with this family. So what are you getting out of this little arrangement?"

"Maybe I'm just tired of watching the Rourke family get their way every single time."

"Spare me the martyr act," Maelis snapped. "You want something. You always want something. Money? Early access to your trust fund? A way to spite your brother? What is it?"

"Not everything is a transaction, Maelis."

"In this family, it is." She gestured around the room with one perfectly manicured hand. "Nothing happens without a reason, nothing is given without expecting something in return. That is how we operate and survive." Her gaze slid to me, then back to Luca. "So I'll ask you again. What are you getting out of this?"

He grinned.

"Maybe I just don't want to see another woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a Rourke," he said quietly. "Maybe I don't want to see another kid grow up regretting the fact that their mother got mixed up with a Rourke in the first place."

The air went ice-cold.

I could literally taste the tension that had overcome the entire atmosphere.

Cassian's face went blank, but I saw the muscle jumping in his jaw.

"Luca—"

"Don't." Luca's voice was deadly. He released me and took a step toward his half-brother, and suddenly he seemed bigger, and much more dangerous. "Don't pretend like you actually care about being a father, Cassian. You couldn't even care about being a husband."

"That's not fair, I was a good husband to Lyra."

"Were you?" Luca laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You had five years with her. Five years where she was right there, trying to love you, trying to make something real out of that contractual bullshit and you couldn't give her anything. Not love, not honesty, not even the courtesy to tell her from the onset that you were frolicking with Seraph."

"You weren't present in our marriage so you definitely do not know what you are talking about."

"I know exactly what I'm talking about." Luca's voice rose and I could hear years of buried resentment spilling out. "I know what it's like to watch someone you care about waste years on a Rourke who can't see past their own emotional constipation. I watched my mother do it with your father for twenty years. I am not going to watch Lyra do it with you."

Cassian took a step forward.

"This isn't about you or your late mother. This is about my daughter."

"Your daughter?" Luca's laugh was mocking. "You didn't even know she existed until your mother's private investigator found out. You don't get to claim her now just because your ego is bruised and your genetics finally cooperated for once in your life."

Cassian's face went white, and then red.

"How dare you speak to me like that?"

I was still standing there like a dummy.

"What will you do about it?" Luca crossed his arms. "You want to play the concerned father now? Where was this energy when Lyra was your wife?"

Luca gestured toward me without taking his eyes off Cassian. "She's been gone for two years and you never once came looking for her until you found out about Eleanor."

"That's because I didn't know where she was."

I looked at Cassian's suddenly foreign eyes.

He was lying.

"Bullshit. You are Cassian bloody Rourke. You have resources most people can't even imagine, so if you had wanted to find her, you would have. But you didn't, did you? Because it was easier to just let her go. To move on with Seraph and pretend like those five years never happened."

Why did I have the feeling that this 'Seraph' had also meant something to Luca?

Maelis stepped between them.

"Enough." Her voice was firm and irritated. "This emotional display is beneath both of you."

But Luca wasn't finished

"You know what is beneath us, Maelis? The way you manipulate everyone in this family like they are chess pieces. The way you hired a private investigator to stalk people. To invade Lyra's privacy and violate her sense of security in her own home."

"I was protecting my family."

"Protecting?" Luca's voice dripped with venom. "You mean controlling because that is all you've ever done. Control Cassian's life, control Father's business decisions, try to control me even though I'm not even your son. You couldn't stand the thought that Lyra escaped from that possible future, could you? That she got away from your perfect little dynasty."

Maelis's composure melted slightly.

"Watch yourself, boy."

"Or what? You'll cut me off? Disown me?. You have no power over me, Maelis. I'm not Cassian. I don't care about the family business or the Rourke name or any of the s**t you hold over everyone's heads. I especially don't care about your approval."

"Then why are you here? If you care so little, why involve yourself in this mess?"

"Because someone has to stand up to you people." Luca's voice echoed through the house. "Someone has to tell you that what you do, the manipulation, the control and the complete disregard for other people's autonomy, it's toxic. It's wrong and I'll be damned if I let you do to Eleanor what you did to Cassian. What you tried to do to me."

"I raised Cassian to be successful—"

"You raised Cassian to be emotionally stunted." Luca rolled his eyes. "Look at him. He had a wife who loved him and he couldn't even recognize it because you taught him that love is a transaction. And instead you led him to pick Seraph. Her, of all people."

We both knew she wanted to resort to the classic line of.

'you had no right '

Luca continued it.

"I have every right though. I'm part of this f****d-up family whether you like it or not. And maybe I can't save myself from the Rourke curse, but I can damn well try to save Lyra and Eleanor from it."

She turned to Luca. "You think marrying her will solve anything? You are twenty-three years old, Luca. You have no job, no real income beyond your trust fund, which, I might remind you, is still controlled by your father. You live in a rented wing of someone else's house and you can barely take care of yourself."

"I'm doing just fine," Luca said evenly.

"Are you?" Maelis tilted her head. "Because from where I'm standing, you are a final year student playing house with a woman and child you met just a few hours ago. How long do you think that is going to last? A week? A month? What happens when you get bored, Luca? When the novelty wears off and you realize that you've trapped yourself in exactly the kind of domestic situation you've spent your entire life avoiding? Marriage."

I instantly felt uneasy.

She was right.

God, she was right.

Luca had known me for less than twenty-four hours. And now he was offering to marry me? To become a father to my daughter, to literally take on the full weight of the Rourke family's wrath?

Why?

"I won't get bored. You have no idea how much of a thorn I can be when I'm pretty set on something."

"You say that now. But we both know your track record. How many girlfriends have you had in the past three years? Six? Seven?" She paused. "How many lasted longer than two months?"

Luca didn't answer.

"That's what I thought." Maelis turned to me, and her smile widened. "So tell me, Lyra. Are you really willing to bet your daughter's future on a twenty-three-year-old boy with commitment issues and a hero complex?”

I had more than a million thoughts running through my head.

“And the worse part? Luca didn't even tell you about his little secret."

My stomach dropped.

"What secret?" I heard myself ask.

Maelis's smile turned predatory. "Oh, he didn't tell you? How interesting." She turned to Luca. "Should I, or will you?"