Page 140 of Sins of Innocence

Working.

He calls the girls to wish them goodnight every night. And me as well.

Its…sweet.

And unexpected.

Dagda accompanies me dropping the girls off in the morning and picking them up. Then, either he, or another soldier under Kieran's command, remains in the hall outside the apartment until my new husband makes it home.

Two nights, he hasn't made it back to the apartment at all.

It's understandable, right?

First, it's not like we have a real marriage. Or one based on love anyway. He doesn't miss me so much, he has to come home no matter what.

Not like I'm starting to miss him.

Second, he's stepping into his role as lieutenant in the mob and while he doesn't talk about that—because Kieran—Ellie does. Probably more than he'd be happy knowing she did.

Besides being in charge of the investigation into how far Kenneth spread his mutinous rot, Kieran also now oversees the legitimate businesses run by the men under him that used to be under Kenneth Shaughnessy.

Ellie says both the legitimate and mob based businesses are being run like they're in the dark ages and she's knee deep in helping with the modernization. She demanded Kieran bring me in to help get accounts and inventory systems digitized.

I've got no experience with inventory systems, but Ellie's not about to let that stop me from using that big brain you were born with.

So, I work for Kieran from after I drop the girls off at school until just before I have to pick them up. And get paid about four times as much as I was making for Kenneth Shaughnessy. I'm on the official payroll and everything.

That feels so good, knowing I'm not trapped in a dead end job that pays peanuts, but am able to use the education I worked so hard to get. I love the challenge of modernizing the accounts, but enjoy seeing Kieran every day even more.

Not that we work together, but he almost always picks me up for lunch and we text throughout the day.

If only he spent every night with me, our marriage would feel as real as anything I had with Troy. Or more than.

I love picking my daughters up from school and hearing about their days when everything is fresh and they're excited to talk about it.

Mom is in alt having the extra time to devote to her new hobby. Ancestry research.

Lord save us if she finds another tenuous link to a High King's lineage. And by tenuous, I mean pretty much in the realm of fantasy. The High Kings ruled parts of Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th Century.

But mom got her DNA tested months ago and found out that like literally millions of other people of Irish descent, she carries genetic markers for the lineage of Brian Boru.

Now that she has more free time because I can pick the girls up from school, she's spending it online and planning a trip to Ireland to visit some of the oldest cemeteries to get a feel for my ancestors.

When she leaves, there will be one less person to hear any noises Kieran and I make at night.

Knowing my daughters are sleeping on the other side of the wall is a pretty spectacular deterrent to sexy times with my new husband. And both of us working the hours we do during the day precludes us taking advantage of an empty apartment.

Just like a real marriage.

And right now, when he just handed all three of my daughters brand new iPhones without a single word to me beforehand, the marital disharmony feels all too real too.

Sadie already has a phone, for heaven's sake. And he didn't bother to ask if I wanted Neeve and Joy to have them.

Which I categorically did not before the whole thing went down at Sadie's school and I learned about Kenneth Shaughnessy's coup plan.

With me as his unwitting scapegoat for getting Mick Fitzgerald out of the way.

Now, the idea of all my girls having phones isn't such a bad one. But Kieran should have asked me before giving them to the girls.