A to Z Challenge – D is for Donovan Riley

Name: Donovan Riley

Age: 54 years old

Description: Donovan is tall with wide shoulders and a still strong build, despite the few years he’s been retired from the police force. He’s got thick black hair that’s silvering now and sharp green eyes.

Short Bio: Donovan is the oldest of five children. His sister Shaelyn is about 1.5 years younger than him. His brothers, Devlin and Brannon, were born four and seven years after him. And his baby sister, Maureen, is almost fifteen years younger than him. Donovan always wanted to be a cop, like his father, Conal. And that’s just what he did.

About the same time, he married his high school sweetheart, Chrissa Rian. Shortly after that, their first son, Rian, was born. Their second son, Adrian came along 18 months later. Then came Callum and Donovan’s first daughter, Darcie, over the next five years. Four years after Darcie, Connor was born, and another two years later, came the baby, Doreen.

When Doreen was four, she died in a house fire, and Donovan felt like his heart was extinguished with the flames. The only way he could find to cope, even as his parents took his family into their home, was by drinking the pain away. That went on for a year, until his father pulled him aside and said enough was enough, his family was still here and they still needed him. He started working to heal the cracks in his family after that, but his oldest son was already leaving for college, Callum would disappear for days at a time, when he wasn’t actively getting into trouble, Connor withdrew into his books and drawing. it seemed there was only so much he could do to keep his family together.

And it wasn’t quite enough. Rian moved away after marrying his own sweetheart, Tammy. They only came home a few times a year. Adrian ended up following Donovan’s footsteps onto the police force. Callum fell into drugs. Darcie married her high school boyfriend, David, after getting pregnant just before graduation. And he never had any idea how to reach his youngest son, who continued to be more interesting in books and drawing than anything else.

But, things slowly got better. He now has six grandchildren to spoil. After doing some time in prison, Callum is clean and trying to make a better life for himself. Adrian is happy and ready to settle down with his girlfriend, Kayla.

Snippet:

He nodded at the two figures. James turned back, and Adrian had stopped in the middle of the bridge. He had both of Kayla’s hands in his. “What is he doing?”
“That’s the exact spot where his father begged Chrissa to marry him.”
“That depends on who’s telling the story, brother.” Donovan stepped up behind them. “I didn’t have to do much begging. My charming good looks did most of the work.”
Brannon scoffed at his brother. “You still believe that, Donnie? If I’d been older than thirteen, she totally would have chosen me.”
“You know, Bran, I can still toss you in that pond.”

Flames A-Z: Pierce Riley

There’s not a whole lot I can say about Pierce Riley right now.  Moselle because there’s not a whole lot that I know about him yet. I haven’t really delved too much into Adrian Riley’s cousins,  other than the Magaldis.  But,  he has three other sets of aunts and uncles on his dad’s side alone.  Pierce is the oldest child of Nessa and Brannon Riley, the youngest son of Brenna and Conal Riley.  Pierce was born on October 8, 1992 (yes,  I give all my characters birthdays). 10 months later,  his sister,  Lacey, was born.  Another nine years (well about the months shy of), their younger brother Cody was born. And just short of two years after that, the baby of the family,  Aideen came along.

Pierce hasn’t told me much more about himself.  If he’s anything like the rest of the Riley(and Magaldi) family,  I’m going to enjoy finding it all out.

Flames A-Z: Donovan Riley

Donovan has showed up in just about every one of the Flames stories, at least briefly, I think. He’s never been a major character, though.

Donovan married Chrissa Rian, and they had 6 children: Rian, Adrian, Callum, Darcie, Connor, & Doreen. He came from a fairly large family himself, with 4 brothers and sisters. His youngest died in a fire when she was four years old. And her loss nearly destroyed Donovan. He basically checked out for the next year. He still went to work, but as soon as he was off duty, he drank and crashed at one of his sibling’s houses. he couldn’t face his own family, feeling like he’d failed them in letting Doreen die. Until his father basically held an intervention. None of them would enable him anymore. he had to face what had happened.

He was able to repair relationships, but it took work. And he was sure he’d lost his son, Callum, to a life of drugs and alcohol. And he felt he was to blame for that as well. He actually has a conversation about this with Callum near the end of Flames of Recompense:

She nodded and ran off, then he approached his father. “Dad.”
Donovan Riley looked up at him. Then, he was up on his feet, throwing his arms around Callum. “God, you had me worried, Cal.”
Callum was stunned for a moment then he slipped his arms around his dad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-”
But, Donovan was stepping back. “I want to speak with you, Callum. Can we walk?”
“Sure. Okay,” he said then followed his Dad out into the hallway.
“What you said to me this morning,” his dad said when they’d turned down the next hallway, “it’s not true. Not any of it.”
Callum saw his dad swallow “I’m sorry, Dad. But, I do know I’ve disappointed you.”
“I’ve disappointed myself,” his dad countered. “I know…well, I know I didn’t handle things well. Not anything. We tried to get you help when you were a teenager, but maybe it wasn’t enough.”
“I don’t think anything would have been. I was hellbent on destroying myself.”
“I know the feeling,” his dad said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
His dad let out a long sigh. “When…when your sister died, I left. You stayed at my parents’, but I was never there.”
“You and Mom separated. We know that.”
But, his father shook his head. “You only know the simple explanation. We never legally separated. I couldn’t live with you guys, I couldn’t live with myself. I went back to work after the funeral. But, I barely even functioned there. And as soon as my shift was over, I’d find myself at the bar. Drinking until Dougal or Brannon, or Devlin came and dragged me out. Then, I’d crash on their couch.” He looked back over at Callum. “Every single night. When I was off duty, I was either sleeping or drinking. And I missed out on a year of your lives. I missed so much. I wasn’t around when you started drinking. Maybe I could have nipped it in the bud if I had been.”
“Dad.”
Donovan shook his head, though. “My own dad finally sat me down and told me I was destroying myself, my family, my future. Him and my brothers weren’t going to enable me any longer. If I was going to keep drinking, I’d have to find somewhere else to sleep. Then, he told me your mom was crying herself to sleep every night. I’d stopped thinking about her grief, about yours. I only thought about myself. That stopped after that talk, though. I got sober, and I went back to beg your mom for forgiveness.”
“She granted it.”
His dad’s lips twitched then. “After much groveling and proving myself worthy. When you were arrested, Cal…” He trailed off and ran his hands through his thinning hair. “God, I’m sorry. I know you think I hated you or some such nonsense. But, I looked at you, and I saw myself. I saw all the ways I’d screwed things up. If I’d been there after Dory,-”
“Dad, stop,” Callum said, putting his hand on his father’s arm. “The things I did to myself were because of me, not you. Even if you’d been there, I don’t know that it would have stopped anything. For a long time, I did blame you. I blamed Mom, Adrian, everyone except me. But, I’m the only one who should have been blamed. And if I lose this thing with Megan, I’ll be the one at fault, too.”