For a fleeting moment, Aiden’s face blanched before it quickly turned to stone. “Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph...”

“Aiden.”

His chair scraped against the hardwood floor as he stood. “You eejit son of a bitch.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Twenty-three years blew through him like a freight train, taking him back to the angry little boy he used to be. With blood pounding in his ears, Aiden stared into a face that could have been a mirror. In twenty more years, his father’s face would be his own. The unfounded fear his mother had told him to ignore finally found him and grabbed his shirt collar. Aside from the receding hairline and a red face battered from years of salt air and drink, this was indeed the father he remembered.

“Yer gawkin’ mighty hard, boyo,” Liam said in a familiar grumble hardened by years of tobacco. “Got something on yer mind?”

Aiden couldn’t find his voice. To his left, Antonia made a strangled noise and moved to stand. The cashier, a young woman with oversized hipster glasses looked between the two men, wondering what to do.

Liam squinted. “Do I know ya, boyo?”

Anger boiled over and spilled before he could contain it or his mouth. “I don’t know why you feckin’ wouldn’t, boyo. You’re still legally married to my mam, Clare Hannigan. My brothers Liam, Sean, and Ryan still belong to you as well.”

Only the sound of a coffee grinder punctuated the heavy silence of the cafe. The American family had quit their chatter and the kids looked up from their mobile devices with renewed interest. Liam eyes widened in recognition as he stared at Aiden a little closer. “Aiden Donagh Byrnes,” the old man muttered. “For all me sins, it’s you.”

Hearing his father say his name was a jarring experience, but he held on to the rage he’d cultivated. Aiden kept the rage safely stored away in a small box in his heart, nursing it for such an occasion. He promised himself that if he ever crossed paths with the man who fathered him so cavalierly, he’d open the box and salt the earth with his anger. “For all your sins, I’m he.”

“Aiden,” Antonia said. She stood at his side and touched his arm.

He barely heard or felt her. “Outside.”

Liam didn’t have to be told twice, the old man forgot about his coffee and exited the cafe without a word. Aiden pulled away from Antonia and followed him.

“Aiden, don’t go out there,” she said.

He looked over his shoulder, meeting her round and panicky eyes as she watched him move away.

It didn’t slow his pace.

Outside in the cold, gray air, Liam waited on him with hands stuffed in his coat pockets. “Listen, son. I know yer probably sore about—”

Aiden didn’t let the man finish his sentence before punching him square in the jaw. His mind blank as his fist connected with bone. The follow-through on his jab knocked him off-balance and he stumbled over his feet, falling into Liam.