Read A Christmas Miracle for Daisy (Taming of the Sheenans Book 5) for Free Online Page B

flatly, breaking the heavy silence. “I played hardball with you, and I won.”
    “You’re still doing it.”
    He shrugged. “The stakes are high. I have to call the shots. Get things done.”
    “Cormac, you took a child I loved away from me.” Tears stung her eyes. She blinked hard. “You made sure there was no room in her life for me. She was my goddaughter and you cut me out…physically, emotionally, legally.
    “I did.”
    “You’re not even the least bit remorseful.”
    “It was what Daryl and April wanted. I had to respect their wishes.”
    “So righteous.”
    “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
    “No, you’re not. You’ve never been sorry you hurt me.”
    “That’s not true. You’re the last person I’d ever want to hurt. And Daisy—” He broke off, shook his head. “That was never the plan. Nothing was supposed to happen to Daryl and April.”
    But something did.
    She exhaled in a rush as the reality hung in the air between them. April and Daryl died two and a half years ago and yet Whitney was still grieving, and still reeling from the loss.
    Worse, she didn’t understand how her name had been left off the will. April had asked Whitney to be one of Daisy’s guardians. She’d told Whitney that she was needed—
    Whitney rubbed at her forehead, head starting to throb. “This is too painful,” she whispered. “We can’t keep hashing the past.”
    “Agreed.”
    “We need to let it go.”
    “Yes.”
    Finally they agreed on something. Whitney nodded, determined to see this through. “Let’s put the past in the past, and move forward.”
    “So you will head to Marietta through the holidays?”
    “No, I can’t. We’re done. I can’t move forward with you.” Her gaze met his and held. “When I’m around you, there is no forward, there is only back, and back hurts. Everything about our past together hurts. Daryl, April, Daisy, you, me. So let’s just end this. Let’s end it now. Let me go. Can’t we please agree to let each other go?”
    He drew a slow deep breath. His voice so deep it rasped when he spoke. “What about Daisy?”
    She gulped for air, shocked. What about Daisy?
    “You’re really playing dirty now,” Whitney whispered, remembering how she’d been there for all the ultrasounds. She’d gone to the Lamaze classes with April, practiced breathing with April, had helped shop for the nursery and then painted and decorated the nursery when April was put on bed rest.
    And then the accident in Las Vegas and Daryl and April were gone and Cormac was raising Daisy.
    Cormac, the bachelor, who loved no one and nothing.
    Cormac, who’d broken her heart, ending their relationship because Whitney had dared to love him too much, and Cormac Sheenan didn’t love at all. “Still so ruthless.”
    “Just reminding you of facts. You were there from the beginning, a beloved aunt…a second mom. You were there in the delivery room, April’s birthing partner, and then her night-time nanny for months when Daryl was in Iraq. So yes, you can let me go. And I can let you go. But what about Daisy? Are you going to let her go?”
    Whitney closed her eyes, holding the grief in. “You’re being cruel.”
    “I am not trying to be cruel. I’m trying to be honest. Trying to let you know that this…conflict…between us is hurting her. She’s part of this, of us, whether you like it or not.”

Chapter Five
    ‡
    W hitney couldn’t sleep that night.
    She gave up on sleep at two, leaving bed to turn on the TV and stare blindly at reruns on a movie channel. She’d hoped the action adventure drama would help take her mind off of Cormac’s visit to the office today but all she could think about was him, and how he’d put Daisy on the table.
    Basically he made Daisy a bargaining chip.
    Even now she reeled inwardly, shocked, as well as disgusted. Had he no shame? Was he truly that self-absorbed?
    She’d known he was ruthless. One didn’t create a media conglomerate without focus, drive, and