Not one word escaped my throat.
Because this wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t.
I couldn’t deal with this. My scar itched and sizzled. Itched and sizzled. Itched and—
Then blackness descended around me.
“I think she’s coming around.”
Gentle hands wiped a cool cloth over my forehead.
“Marj? Honey?”
Bryce. I reached for him.
My rock.
My heart.
My everything.
Bryce would help me. Bryce would tell me I was seeing a ghost and nothing more.
“It’s okay,” he said in a soothing deep voice. “Everything is okay, sweetheart. Can you sit up?”
I nodded and attempted to pull myself up. Where was I? I quickly recognized my bedroom. I’d been in the dining room, hadn’t I? No, the living room. How had I gotten here?
“What happened?”
“You fainted, baby.”
Fainted? I’d never fainted in my life. Fainting was for girls.
“Where is everyone? Tal? Joe? Ryan? Jade?”
“They’re all fine. They’re still here. I told them I’d take care of you.” He smiled. “In fact, I want to take care of you for the rest of your life.”
A proposal? My mind was muddled. Was Bryce proposing to me in my bedroom when I couldn’t yet think straight?
“I…”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
“I thought…”
My father.
My father’s body. My father’s face. My father’s voice.
But that was impossible. He was dead.
I’d watched him die in this very house months ago.
“Easy, baby. You okay?”
My head spun a little as I gazed into Bryce’s sparkling blue eyes. Such love was reflected there. Love for me.
I was the luckiest woman in the world.
“My fa… I saw him. I heard his voice.”
“Yes, honey. You did.”
No. Couldn’t be. Couldn’t be.
“I didn’t. I didn’t. He’s dead.”
Bryce cupped my cheek. “He’s alive. And he has a story to tell. But he’s not staying long.”
I melted into Bryce’s arms, tears welling in my eyes.
Should I be angry? Happy? Surprised?
I didn’t know. Myriad emotions bubbled through me, weakening me.
I didn’t like to feel weak.
Weakness was for girls.
Not for a Steel.
“Do you want to see him?”
“Bryce, why? Why would he…?”
“He had his reasons. Again. But the reasons no longer exist. He’ll tell you everything.”
“I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to…”
Didn’t want to what?
I had no idea what I wanted, other than to stay in Bryce’s arms for eternity.
“Sweetheart, I know this is a lot to take. Your brothers all gave him holy hell for this latest escapade, and he admitted to deserving all of it and more. He won’t be here for long.”
“Won’t be here for long?”
“No,” Bryce said. “He turned himself in. He self-surrenders tomorrow.”
I gulped down a sob. “What?”
“He’s ready to pay for his crimes, honey. He worked a deal so Dominic, Alex, and the others won’t be charged. He’s paying for everything he did to cover up the trafficking ring.”
“But he had reasons… He was just…” I stopped, shaking my head. Yeah, he’d tried to protect my mother, but there was no justification for the lengths he’d gone to. No justification for faking his death not once but twice.
Bryce kissed the top of my head. “He’s going to prison for the rest of his life.”
“But he’s sick…isn’t he?”
“No, Marj. He’s not.”
So he’d lied about his cancer. About his death. About so much.
But he was my father. The father I’d loved. What was I supposed to feel?
The door creaked open.
“You okay, baby girl?”
His voice. His soothing voice. The voice that taught me right from wrong. The voice that helped me when I needed it, the voice that told me when I didn’t need help and could figure it out on my own.
The voice that had made me strong.
The voice that would be so ashamed if he knew what I’d resorted to…
No. I wasn’t ready.
“Not yet,” I said into Bryce’s shoulder.
“Give her some time,” he said.
The door creaked gently shut.
Crying was for girls.
I didn’t cry.
Give her some time, Bryce had said.
If he was going to prison tomorrow, he didn’t have time. I’d have to suck it up. Talk to him. Yell at him. Tell him he’d fucked up. He’d violated our trust. He’d aided criminals in his attempt to keep our mother safe. Then I’d have to hug him. Tell him what he meant to me. Tell him that I loved him.
“Marjorie,” Bryce said, “listen to me.”
I wiped my nose on his shoulder, looked up, and met his gaze.
“You’re going to have the chance at something you thought was lost to you.”
Yeah. My father was alive. I still didn’t quite know how to feel.
But Bryce continued, pulling a small box out of his pocket. It was black velvet tied with a golden ribbon. “Your father’s attorney already got the warden to agree to a furlough when we decide on a date. If you want, he’ll be able to walk you down the aisle.”
Epilogue
Bryce
Golden.
Everything about this day was golden.
I stood at the makeshift altar in the backyard of the main ranch house. A little over a year ago, I’d been at this same spot as a guest at Ryan and Ruby’s wedding.
Joe stood next to me in a black tux that matched mine. I’d insisted on a tux. A man didn’t marry the classiest woman on the planet in anything but a tux.
Melanie sat with baby Brad, now eight months old, perched on her lap. He was a gorgeous child. His hair was dark like Joe’s, his eyes sparkling green like his mother’s—his mother, who’d been a guide to me, helping me deal with the guilt. Finally, I was ready. Ready to marry the woman of my dreams. Ready to move on with my life—my amazing life.
Talon sat next to Melanie with Diana Jade in his arms. The baby’s big brothers doted on her. We all hoped she’d sleep through the ceremony.
Ryan and Ruby sat on the other side of the aisle, next to my mother’s empty chair. At Marj’s bridal shower a week ago, Ruby had announced she was expecting. Her pretty face glowed.
Colin had kept in touch with Marj. He and Cade were slowly healing. Ted Morse had tried to reconcile with his son but hadn’t had a lot of luck. None of us were going to put a good word in for him. His wife had left him high and dry in a highly publicized divorce when everything went public after Brad’s incarceration. Losing his money and lifestyle was the ultimate punishment for Ted Morse.
I looked down the aisle at my beautiful little son, his hand tightly in my mother’s. His blondness was so like my own at that age, my mother said constantly. So like mine, and so like…my father’s. We could both say it now without wincing. We didn’t have to banish all the good memories…though I had finally gotten rid of his cherried-out Mustang in favor of a more conservative set of wheels that would keep my family safe.