“Do you think they’ll be mad?” I ask him. “When I tell them?”
“Decker will be mad because he’s ready to be mad. Lucky will be hurt because he likes to see the best in people and he expects the same level of trust that he puts in them returned to him. Jack will be hurt too, but he’ll also understand why you did it, so he’ll logic his way into it hurting less.”
I think he’s spot-on. “Do you have any insights on if the triplets disagree about telling their parents they know about their dad?”
“Lucky’s wanted to tell them from the beginning. Decker’s wanted to keep it from them. Jack’s been—well, he’s beenfucking Switzerland. But you heard what they said about the curse. They’re all in together. On everything.”
I stare out the window at the trees and brush illuminated by Rhys’s headlights as he turns into the driveway. “Daphne doesn’t know I’ve been on her side this whole time. Since she was disinherited.”
“Doesn’t she?”
“She might now. I hope she does now. But she definitely didn’t at first. I thought—for a while, I thought she was replacing me with her best friend. And as much as I was grateful that she had Bea to lean on, it hurt to think I could be replaceable in her life when she could never be replaceable in mine. And that’s when I knew I couldn’t play the middle anymore. I couldn’t be the CEO in training under my father and also be Daphne’s big sister.”
He doesn’t say anything, but he’s said enough that I can guess what he’s thinking.
You have been though. You’ve been doing both.
“My life is about to change drastically,” I whisper.
“And you’re gonna fucking own it,” he murmurs back.
Warmth spreads from my chest down to my arms.
The past four years, I’ve felt very, very alone.
And also like I deserved to be alone.
I didn’t stand up enough for my sister, so I didn’t deserve her. I stayed at Aurora Gardens instead of taking an immediate stand that I didn’t work with people who were unnecessarily cruel, that I didn’t want to be related to people who were unnecessarily cruel, therefore, I participated in the unnecessary cruelty.
And I questioned myself—was I playing the long game, or was I staying where it was safe out of fear of how it would look or how it would feel to do the same thing Daph did and walk away entirely with her head held high?
She bloomed and thrived in her new life, and she started it withnothing.
They even turned off her phone without giving her a chance to salvage her number.
Sheowned it.
She owned her new life while I set myself on a course of action that I knew would take a long time, that I couldn’t tell anyone about, and that I’ve been fucking determined to succeed at, but where I’ve been the only person who could tell me that I was doing a good job and that my plans would work.
So having Rhys believe in me?
Having him tell me I’ll rock the next chapter of my life?
It’s an unexpected boost that I didn’t realize I wanted—needed—and it’s doing funny things to my insides.
He pulls the truck to a stop in front of the cabin, shifts into park, kills the engine, and unbuckles his seatbelt.
I unbuckle too, but when he reaches for his door, I reach for him.
Because this man?
This giant of a man with a steady heart and a sharp mind and a steely determination to embrace justice for his own reasons?
I need to kiss him.
I need to kiss him until I can’t breathe.
And I need it right now.
