Dirks leaned forward, locking eyes with me, firm but not cruel. “This is how we finish it, Jer. This is how we set her free. This is howyou getset free, too. You’ve carried this place like a chain. Now you get to drop it.”
My throat closed around the words I couldn’t form.
The lawyer slid the papers across the porch table, pen already uncapped. “Initial here. And here. Then both signatures on the bottom.”
My hand shook as I scribbled my name. Dirks followed, pressing Luna’s authority into the ink.
The lawyer glanced over everything one last time, stacking the pages into a neat folder. “That’s it. The transfer will be finalized today. Funds will be wired into your account by five p.m.” He snapped the briefcase shut, adjusting his glasses likeit was nothing monumental, just another Tuesday. “The ag company now has full control of the property. House, fields, and all associated land.”
He was gone. Like that, it was over.
I stared out at the corn, at the house that had rotted me from the inside out, and bile rose in my throat. “Jesus Christ,” I muttered, pressing my palms to my knees. “It’s done. It’s fucking done.”
Dirks leaned back in the chair.
“I can’t even stand to sit here another second. This soil... it makes my skin crawl. Every breath feels dirty. I don’t want it, Dirks. I don’t want a single splinter of this place. I’ll—” I stood abruptly, pacing toward the edge of the porch. “I’ll see you back in Chicago. I just— I need a second.”
Dirks rose slowly, his gaze steady on me.
“Tell Luna. Tell her it’s done. Tell her... she never has to think about this place again.”
“Jer. Come over.”
I turned, shaking my head before he could even finish.
“She’s waiting.”
“No. I can’t. Not right now. I can’t see her like this.”
Dirks frowned. “Jer?—”
“I have to do something first. If I walk in there right now, all she’s going to see is the fucking mess I am. The blood on my hands from not seeing what was happening to her back then.”
“You think she wants perfect? You think she’s waiting for some shiny, cleaned-up version of you?”
“I don’t know what she wants, but I know what I need, and that’s to face this fucking thing before I face her. Because if I look at her right now, if I see her eyes on me... ” My throat closed, the confession clawing its way out. “I’ll break, Dirks. And if I break, I don’t know if I’ll be able to put myself back together.”
Finally, I forced myself to take a step off the porch, then another, my back to him. “Tell her I’m not running. Tell her I just... I have to do something first.”
56
luna
“I cannot believe it was so easy and that it took us so long to come up with it.”
“It was the best of both worlds,” Dirks said, leaning back in the passenger seat, his hand on my thigh as we pulled into the narrow drive that led to my small guesthouse.
“I’m happy to be home.”
“Yeah, Luna girl. Me, too.”
I leaned back against the headrest, staring out the windshield at Nova’s porch light glowing against the evening sky. My body ached with exhaustion, but it was the kind of bone-deep tired that came with finally laying something heavy down.
“I’m glad we stayed in that town last night.” I slid my eyes over to his. “I’m even more glad we’re back. It’s only been a day since you signed, but it feels like forever ago.”
He gave me a small, crooked smile but didn’t say anything. He never bragged, never asked for credit. That was Dirks—steady as the ground beneath me, even when it shook.
I reached across the console, my hand finding his jaw and turning him toward me. “Thank you. For what you did, for stepping in when I couldn’t. You’ve always been my steady. Always what I needed.”
