Page 153 of Stay Wild Darlin’

The air left my lungs.

She didn’t want a relationship with Cora.

She wanted leverage.

She wanted funds.

She wanted to use my daughter to pay off a fucking debt.

Beau saw the anger I was struggling to hide, because before I could move, he stepped between us, hands pressed to my chest.

I clenched my jaw so tight something shifted in my molars.

“She’s high, man. You know it. This?” He gestured toward Brooke, who sat slouched and glassy-eyed at the table. “This isn’t the girl you were with back then. That version of her might be in there somewhere, buried deep, but it’s not who you’re looking at.”

I couldn’t stop shaking.

Beau leaned in closer, eyes locked on mine. “She’s broken. Whatever’s eating her—it’s already taken most of her. Don’t let it take you too.”

I stared at him, chest heaving, trying to hear him over the roar in my head.

“Tell her no,” Beau said softly. “Say your peace and go.”

I closed my eyes for half a second, trying to push the rage down. The heartbreak. The humiliation.

Beneath the mess, the madness, the bitterness, there was still a girl I’d once known. A version of her that had dreams that didn’t end in desperation. That girl was gone or maybe buried so deep she didn’t even remember what she used to want.

I swallowed hard and said it quietly, barely more than a whisper between us. “You could’ve had anything, Brooke. You could’ve had it all. A quiet life on the ranch⁠—”

“I didn’t want that, Dalton. I was so fucking tired of being second string to everything in your life. I was always there for you when it was convenient, but you? You were out every weekend screwing around with buckle bunnies. I wanted you to see me.” She looked up at me, eyes red, raw. “Like the way you looked at her today. Poppy. I wanted that. I wanted you to look at me like that.”

Like that, it hit me.

I’d never looked at Brooke the way I looked at Poppy because I never loved Brooke the way I love Poppy.

I never had, and I never would.

“I . . . I’m sorry, Brooke,” I said quietly. “But no.”

Her breath caught. “No?”

“No to everything. You already knew the answer to that. You’re not getting custody. Besides, what court would award you that after you abandoned Cora? You’re not coming around here again. You chose to leave. Stay gone.”

She blinked, stunned into silence.

“Go back to him,” I said, jaw tight. “Go back to Montana. Go back to whatever mess you crawled out of, but don’t bring it here.” I paused, something twisting in my chest. “I can’t help you. Not anymore. It’s not my job to fix you. I want you to get clean. I want you to get sober. When you do—when you really do—call me.”

She opened her mouth, eyes wide, but I held up a hand.

“Not for money. Not for leverage, but because you want to be a better parent. Go back to your folks if you have to. Beg them to put you in rehab. Fight for yourself. Because if you ever want Cora to know you . . . you have to show up as someone worth knowing.”

There was a long, empty pause.

Brooke wiped at her face, her hands trembling slightly. She looked up at me again, eyes a little clearer, like something finally cut through the fog. “Is she a good role model?”

I paused. “Who? Poppy?”

Before I could say more, Fable stepped in. “The best.”