“So she’s said.” He reached inside his coat pocket and he pulled out a velvet box. “Can you give this to her? You don’t have to say it’s from me. I found it recently. It was her mother’s. I thought... well. I don’t know what I thought.”
Tani’s first instinct was to reject the gift, but Sammy stirred in her lap, and she softened. Eve had other jewelry from her mother, but she should have every single item under the sun to remind her she had been loved, and loved deeply. Tani accepted the box.
Brendan’s gaze dipped down to the little girl. Tani didn’t expect him to ask her name or to hold her and he didn’t. What he did do was pull out another item, an envelope with Tani’s name on it, and hand it to her. Then he stood and started to walk away.
Curious, she opened the envelope. It took her a second to realize what she was holding, and she gasped. “How did you get this?”
He stopped but didn’t turn around. “I’ve owned it for years. As my father would say, that’s what Chandlers do, right? We look out for Okas.”
She smoothed the deed, stunned. It could be fake, but it looked official enough. It listed her, Tani Oka-Kane, as the property holder on record of the house that was right next door to the property she was currently sitting on.
She looked off into the forest surrounding her, in the direction of that house. It was the house she’d grown up in. The house she’d been married in. The house her children had been born and raised in.
And the house where she’d suffered a heartbreak so intense sometimes she still woke up at night with tears on her face. “I don’t want to live there. That’s why I sold it.”
“You have a few kids. I’m sure one of them might like the idea of living in their childhood home again.”
Not Jackson, though he would visit. Gabe wouldn’t accept it, though his paternity was public knowledge now.
Olivia, though. Tani imagined how her daughter would squeal in delight. Probably run right over and try to slide down the banister again, though she was a mother now herself. Tani bit her lip and folded the deed up. “I don’t understand why you did this.”
“No thanks necessary.”
“I didn’t thank you. This doesn’t redeem you, you know. You can’t buy redemption.”
He shrugged and continued walking. She hesitated, but before he was out of earshot, she spoke. “Brendan. You may have held on to some property for me, but I’m holding on to your family. Evangeline, Nicholas. They are mine now, as much as Jackson and Livvy and Gabe. Do not dare hurt my children ever again, or I swear to God, you will see a side of me no one has ever seen.”
He didn’t stop or acknowledge her words. But maybe he knew: there was no need for a response to a promise.
Eve fixed Maile’s veil and smiled at her in the mirror. Mr. Perez had designed the perfect wedding gown for Maile, a glamorous confection of cream lace and satin, with a fitted skirt and a low-cut bodice that showed off her curves.
“You doing okay?” Livvy asked. Her hair was a light pink, dyed for the first time since her daughter was born, and arranged on her head in an elaborate cascade of curls.
Maile exhaled. “Yup. A little nervous about standing in front of people.”
“I was too mad to be nervous on my wedding day,” Livvy said fondly.
“I was worried about Kareem not being able to control R2 at our ceremony,” Sadia chimed in. She was sitting at the small table in the bedroom, going over a list in her journal, trying to make sure she’d taken care of all the details for the reception following the wedding. R2, bigger but still very much a puppy, lay at her feet and wagged his tail at his name. She and Jackson had had a small wedding ceremony only a couple months after Livvy and Nicholas’s.
“Gawd, all this marriage in the air.” Madison checked her reflection in the mirror and puckered her lips. She wasn’t part of the wedding party—Livvy, Eve, and Gabe were standing up for Maile, with Jackson in the kitchen where he was happiest—but she’d become good friends with everyone in the room, as well as Sadia’s younger sisters. “No one breathe on me. Eve can go and get hitched but I am way too young for this.”
“Gabe and I haven’t even talked about that.” Which was okay. They were both so happy and in love, Eve almost didn’t want to rock the boat by thinking too hard about the future. She grinned at her best friend. “Reesehasbeen looking at you kind of intensely while we’ve been wedding planning.”
“Shut. Up.”
The door opened and Tani slipped in, cradling a swaddled baby in her arms. Livvy’s eyes softened as she accepted the infant. “There you are. I was wondering where you disappeared to.”
“Apologies, I lost track of time on the walk.” She shook out her dress, which was a slightly darker shade of purple than Livvy and Eve’s.
“Sammy can make you do that,” Livvy cooed. “Thanks for taking her,” she said to her mother. Their relationship had greatly improved with the buffer of a child between them.
Tani placed the diaper bag on the floor and sought out Maile, who had stood upon her entrance. “Well.” She walked over and rested her hands over the other woman’s arms. Slowly, Maile leaned down and pressed her forehead against Tani’s. They were silent, and the rest of the room fell quiet as well, R2 curling into a tight ball.
“Thank you for being my maid-of-honor,” Maile whispered.
“You were mine.” Tani patted her friend. “You don’t thank family.”
Eve glanced at the other women in the room. Family was what they were, by blood or by choice. A messy, loud, complicated family.
