“Bear,” Gavin said and reached for me, pulling me into a hug.
I took deep breaths to keep from crying all over him.
“She starts treatment soon,” I said, my voice muffled. “I don’t know anythin’ more than that, but when I go see ’er tomorrow, I’m askin’ for information on everythin’ and what the course of action is.”
Gavin kept his arm around my shoulder. “I’m so sorry that she is goin’ through this.”
“Me too, bud.”
“And your da,” Gavin growled. “The piece of shite.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” I said, and then filled him in on the conversation I had with my da over his affair after the cancer bombshell was dropped on me.
“What a fuckin’ arsehole!” Gavin exclaimed when I finished speaking.
“I know,” I agreed, “but he is right. We need me ma to focus on beatin’ ’er cancer. If she knew he cheated ... I don’t want to think of how she’d react.”
“That’s fucked up, Alannah.”
“I know.”
Gavin removed his arm from my shoulder and scrubbed his face with his hands. “I thought I was in a fucked-up situation, but you’ve taken the cake, babe.”
I smiled at him. “Your situation ends with a little baby, though.”
“A baby,” he repeated in awe. “I can’t believe I’m goin’ to have a baby.”
“When are you goin’ to tell your family?”
“No clue,” he answered. “I need to absorb it first.”
I stilled when Gavin looked at me, his gaze hard.
“Don’t tell Bronagh.”
My mouth dropped open.
“No,” Gavin warned before I could object. “She’ll let it slip to Nico, and he’ll tell Kane, and Kane will tell Aideen, and shite will kick off.”
I scratched my neck. “Bronagh and I don’t keep secrets from each other, though. Ye’know that.”
“It’s only for a little while,” Gavin assured me. “Just until I get me ducks in a row and get the courage to tell them.”
I tilted my head back and sighed. “Fine.”
“I love you, bear.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, hugging him back when he pulled me into his embrace. “I love your dumbarse, too.”
When Gavin went home after we spoke, I was so drained from the day’s events that I didn’t go back to Bronagh’s house as I had initially intended to. I had planned to send her a text and tell her I’d swing by the next day instead, but I couldn’t find my phone. I thought of the last time I had it: after I spoke to Gavin and drove home from Bronagh’s house. When I realised where it was, I groaned in annoyance.
I left my apartment and made my way to the lobby of the building, waving at Joseph, the night guard as I passed by. When I retrieved my phone from my car and locked it, I heard a soft cry. A cry that was dangerously close to that of a baby. With my heart pounding, and all my senses on high alert, I spun around, and squinted my eyes, hoping it’d help me see better.
It didn’t.
I jumped when I heard the cry again, and walked briskly in the direction it came from. All sorts of scenarios were flooding through my mind. I had seen on the news plenty of times about people abandoning newborn babies and leaving them out in the open with no protection. I prayed to God that wasn’t the case, but when I came across a cardboard box in-between two parked cars, my entire body tensed, and I just about died on the spot. I crept forward, and when I found the courage to peek inside the box, I nearly deflated with relief when I saw it wasn’t a baby … but then sympathy flooded me when I realised what I’d stumbled upon.
Someone had abandoned a helpless, tiny kitten.
“Oh, baby,” I uttered, my hands clutched to my chest.
When the kitten cried again, I was horrified to discover how much it sounded like an infant. The poor thing looked terrified, so I carefully reached into the box and picked it up. I held it against my chest, wincing when its nails dug into my skin as it held on for dear life. I hurried back into my apartment building, walking at an angle towards the elevator so Joseph couldn’t see the kitten. There was a strict no animal policy in the building, but I couldn’t leave the kitten out in the cold to fend for itself.
I simply couldn’t.
When I made it up to my apartment, I grabbed a smaller throwover blanket from my settee and wrapped the kitten inside it. I set it down on the settee and stepped away. I was relieved to see the kitten didn’t try to escape; it simply stayed snuggled inside the safety and warmth of the blanket. I got out my phone and phoned Alec. He worked in an animal shelter and was the only person I could think of to call.