Page 75 of Irish Betrayal

Blair didn’t think he meant that kindly. “Tell Mom I can’t wait to see her. I love you both.”

Dad: We love you too. More than that O’Faolain prick.

“I’m hanging up now. Love you. Bye.”

After speaking with her dad, Blair slept better that night than any since she’d come to America—except the night Daniel stayed, but then, that had been more like passing out.

She was glad her dad knew at least something was going on with Peter. Whoever had given him the heads-up had done her a favor.

Peter could not be allowed to do what he’d done to her to anyone else, and all threats aside, her dad would make sure that predator would see the inside of a jail cell.

Daniel told her yesterday that Peter had been fired from his job at Trinity. He never made it to his appointment at the college. Blair couldn’t imagine him throwing his career away like that simply because she no longer wanted him in her life.

He was clearly insane, and insane people didn’t make rational decisions.

Blair asked Daniel to check and see if Mindy Shulk was still working in the Science department.

She’d quit with no notice last week.

Blair told Daniel that Peter had a thing with her, and that maybe the two of them decided to run away together. That theory eased Blair’s mind tremendously. She had feared Peter might have stayed in the States and was still following her.

It would make it more difficult for the police to find him eventually. Still, she knew that her father and her uncle Thomas could easily track him. Mindy too. It was Blair’s hope that she would agree to testify against him as well.

Mindy would probably need a lot of therapy. They both would.

Blair sighed, her chest caving under the pressure. She couldn’t let it overwhelm her. There was a tiny human in her belly counting on her to stay strong mentally and physically.

Today had already been a long one. That morning, she cleaned out the small desk in the corner of Linda’s office. Tidied her spaces in the lab and, most importantly, turned in her thesis on why she thought the Ouachita Indigobush had survived along the Muskogee stretch of land along the Arkansas River. The soil was perfect for the finicky bush. Her ideas for making the plant flourish, rather than die out as it had in many other areas, were simple. Undo the river diversions. The Ouachita Indigobush loved snuggling with rivers.

Saying goodbye to Dr. Bartel was bittersweet. Linda helped Blair stay focused and on task, all while encouraging her and leading the team by example, demonstrating the professor’s hard work and dedication.

However, the excitement of getting home to Daniel made saying goodbye easy. Plus, she knew that she and Linda would stay in touch.

Dr. Bartel could tell that there was something between her and Peter that Blair hadn’t told her, but she was caring enough to stand by her anyway. Linda asked Blair to let her know if Peter ever showed up again. She was as surprised as Blair that he hadn’t responded to Trinity.

From OSU’s campus in Stillwater, she drove the hour and fifty minutes to Muskogee to pack up the few belongings she had left and to say goodbye to Katy and William Stanton, making sure to wear her baggiest jeans and t-shirt.

Blair was a tiny woman and even though she had a nicely rounded—very small—baby bump, she felt like she was filled from under her breasts to the top of her privates. Her mom said pregnancy was a trial when the woman is small like them because there was nowhere for the baby to go but out.

Clearly this baby hadn’t gotten the memo and decided to take up Blair’s entire torso. She hadn’t let Dr. Mitchell perform an ultrasound, wanting the first time to be with Daniel.

After many heartfelt thanks to her host family for granting her an all-access pass to their amazing property, Blair left Muskogee behind and was almost finished with the forty-nine-minute drive to the Tulsa International Airport, where she would turn in her Jeep at the rental place and make her way to her terminal.

Enjoying the last ten minutes of driving in America, Blair cracked the driver’s window and let the cool, late afternoon breeze brush through her curls.

She felt like she was finishing a chapter on more than one part of her life, and it felt good; her masters, Peter, and Daniel. Though Daniel was more like finishing the prologue of their life and beginning the actual story.

Blair pulled into one of the Hertz car rental parking spaces, grabbing the keys and her carry-on and backpack, thankful for the hundredth time that she was a light packer, unlike, ahem, Gray and Mags. Bébhinn was a hiker. She knew how to pack light.

The multi-level garage wasn’t busy, thankfully, so she wouldn’t have to queue up for an elevator. The only car to pull in after her was a small Toyota Camry.

Blair busied herself with gathering bits of trash from the Jeep and stuffing them into a plastic bag from her favorite Oklahoma convenience store, QuikTrip. As she took her bags out and set them on the pavement, she saw a shadow of a person moving somewhere behind her in the glass of her Jeep.

It was probably whoever was in the car, doing the same thing she was, unloading bags and throwing away trash in the nearby bin.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the person. They were wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled all the way up, casting their face into shadow. Definitely a man. Prickles of unease skated up her spine as she watched him throw trash away.

Her fingers slid over her phone that was in the pocket of her zipper jacket, unlocking it while she continued to fiddle with shoving the last of the items into her backpack.