Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
Aspen
“Absolutely not.” I look at my brother like he’s lost touch with reality.
He’s in the middle of making a plea for forgiveness on Bishop’s behalf.
“I need distance from him. I have to figure out how the hell I even wrap my head around letting him near our daughter again. I don’t have any interest in discussing things with him, and the fact that he went to you again is just icing on the cake. ”
“He didn’t go to me. I asked him,” Levi explains, staying calm even as I lose the threads of mine.
“I understand he’s your friend and that you go back even further than he and I do. I know you feel an obligation to him because of what he did for you, but this is not your business.”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“How?”
“Zephyrine’s safety might depend on it. Certainly, any semblance of peace in this family long-term depends on it.”
“How would Zephyrine’s safety depend on it?” I stop short of folding the last bit of my laundry and turn to look at my brother.
“The last relic she’s been sent to hunt down. It’s the sword that Dad and Uncle Creighton were fighting over.”
“I assume Bishop knows where it is?”
“He does. It’s buried somewhere on his family’s property. Or at least we hope it is. If it survived a forest fire and Zephyrine’s brothers combing through every blade of surviving grass looking for it.”
“How do they know?”
“They own a security company. I assume they inserted themselves when they became aware Bishop was involved with us. Not to mention the property is adjacent to the ranch, and we know they’ve been trying to find a way on it for a while now.”
“Yeah. Hazel and Ramsey told me about how Curtis was searching the property, looking for something. I assume that’s what he wanted with Hazel too.
But it’s not here. It’s on Bishop’s family ranch?
” I clarify the details I know. With us traveling back and forth to Boston before we moved here, I wasn’t part of every twist and turn this ride has taken to get us all where we are.
“It is.”
“And what does this have to do with me?”
“The ranch is in his grandmother’s possession. She’s willed it to a distant cousin when she passes away. But she told Bishop and his half brother that if one of them has a child, she’ll reconsider. She just wants to make sure that it stays in the family for at least a couple more generations.”
Suddenly, everything is much clearer. Our daughter is Bishop’s heir apparent. The one and only so far as I know.
“You want to use Fallon in this scheme?”
“Not use her. Give her something. The land is hers. Or it should be. If things had been handed down in the normal order, she would have gotten the property.”
“So what, he wants a DNA test?” I’m trying to figure out where I’m needed so immediately in all of this.
“No. His grandmother knows Fallon’s his. She’s seen her.”
“He told someone without telling me he was planning to do that?” My temper threatens to rise again, and Levi holds out his hands.
“No. His grandmother was here on a visit to the Purgatory Falls Inn. Recognized it as the ranch he ran away to as a kid. Saw pictures of the family in the library of the inn and put two and two together,” Levi explains.
I have a hard time believing she just stumbled on all that information and wasn’t snooping for it when she realized what ranch it was, but it’s the least of my problems right now.
“Then why not will it to her?” I’m not sure how I feel about Fallon inheriting property from Bishop, but if it’s hers by rights, then I don’t want to see her lose it because of stubbornness. On my part or anyone else’s.
“Because his grandmother wants it in the family for several more generations. Key word being family.”
“And she’s his family.” I assert the obvious. I’m happy to prove it with a DNA test if that’s what she needs to confirm her suspicions.
“His grandmother wants evidence that there’s a whole family unit. One that’s united. She doesn’t want to see the land getting split up or becoming the subject of a court case.”
United? My brow furrows as I try to make sense of what he’s saying, and then I realize, taking a step back in the process.
“No.” It’s a visceral reaction on my part. “If it’s what I’m thinking, absolutely not.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m not marrying Bishop.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a ludicrous thing to even suggest.” I stare at my brother in shock, trying to figure out why the hell he would need me to answer that question.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” My brother continues to be overly calm for my liking.
“Fallon gets an inheritance. Her own place someday. A chance to expand our family’s holdings in the area.
She gets to know her father, and he gets to know her.
Bishop gets to help us find the relic and do something meaningful for his daughter’s future. Something only he can do.”
“And I get what exactly? Trapped in another failed marriage?”
“Bishop will do everything he can to make up for the past. To make you happy.”
“Is that what he told you to convince you this was a good idea?”
“He didn’t tell me. I know him. I know he’ll do his best to make you and Fallon happy.”
“Until it’s hard. Which won’t take long. Then he’ll get frustrated and bored. Then regret making this decision. I’m not putting Fallon through another divorce so quickly.”
“I don’t think you could get divorced quickly.
I think that would upset the grandmother.
You’d be stuck together as long as she’s alive, more than likely, if you wanted to keep the peace.
Given her sensitive feelings over all this, I could see her making it a condition of the transfer of the land that it would revert in the event of a divorce before Fallon inherits. ”
“Just what I’ve always wanted. To be some man’s golden ticket in his pursuit of land acquisition.” I roll my eyes at my brother and get half a smile in return. “That’s not what I meant when I said I wanted to help this family.”
“I know. But it would help. You’d get to help me.
Help Zeph. Settle this mystery for the family and close this chapter.
If we did this, we’d need your help once we got the land anyway.
We’d need you to try to find the thing in the first place.
You said you wanted purpose in this family, that you wanted to make a difference and help us all heal.
That’s why you came home, right? This is a good shot at changing the future for us.
Even if it’s not necessarily what you had in mind. ”
“Yeah, this was not remotely what I had in mind. A situation where the sister is married off in an alliance for her brothers’ advantage and to further her child’s prospects.
Sounds familiar.” I eye him warily. “I’m glad I spent all those years in grad school struggling to be a mom and get on tenure-track, working late nights, clawing my way up the ladder of the boys’ club just so I can marry Bishop to satisfy his grandmother’s demands. ”
“I’m not pushing you. If you say no, if you tell me you don’t want to do this, I’ll respect that. You know Grant is already in your corner.”
“Grant knows about this idea already?”
“I wasn’t going to have to go up against both of you.”
“You and Bishop aren’t up for a fair fight?”
“The two of us versus the two of you would be anything but fair. You’d run circles around us.
Besides, I don’t see this as a fight. I see it as a proposal for everyone to get something they want.
Maybe not under the most ideal circumstances or exactly how you’d have planned it, all things considered.
But tell me you don’t have any feelings left for Bishop and I’ll let it go. ”
I narrow my eyes at my brother and plop down at his side, letting out a loud sigh of frustration and a little bit of irritation that he’d call me out.
“Set aside my reasons for not wanting to do this or any remote possibility of interest I could have in another version of reality. What about Fallon? Me going from one marriage to another so quickly. Especially when I already need to find the words to tell her that Bishop is her dad.”
“I think you just tell her, and luckily, or unluckily for you, I think that information steals the show from anything else. You marrying him might actually make sense to her, especially if you give her the long-story-short version of what happened.”
“She’s going to struggle with it. You know how close she is to Ethan. How much she loves him. I worry that if she hates this, she’ll leave me.” My heart sinks at the thought. However difficult things have been in our relationship lately, I can’t imagine my world without Fallon in it every day.
“She won’t leave you. She looks up to you more than you know, and she loves it here with all of us. She misses Ethan, sure, but you’ll make sure she can still talk to him and visit with him, right?”
“Right. Assuming Bishop doesn’t interfere.”
“He won’t. Or at least, I don’t think he will. Not so long as Ethan continues to respect what you and Fallon want. He wants what’s best for both of you.”
“And he won’t get jealous over that? Wishing she had the same enthusiasm for spending time with him?”
“He might. But he’ll get through it, and if they spend enough time around each other, they might find their own father-daughter bond. All of you together under one roof would give him the best chance of that happening.” Levi makes his case.
“All of us together,” I repeat as I suddenly realize what that would mean. I’m almost convinced until I remember that it will mean us sharing a room, a bed, a life together. For years, potentially. But I’m not discussing that part with my brother. That’s the part I’m not sure I can endure.
“Talk to him?” Levi asks.
“I don’t even want to see him right now. Let alone talk to him. It’s going to have to wait until I’m ready, and I don’t know when that will be.” I need time to mull this all over, consider all the risks, and decide if it’s the right thing for us.
“Unfortunately, time is short. Zeph’s brothers are on the property already. Likely scouring it.”
“What?”
“They’ve been posing as, or at least own, a security company that his grandmother has watching over the property.
I guess there was a break-in a while back.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they staged it to create the opportunity.
If we don’t do something, there’s a chance they’ll find it before we even have a chance to look. ”
“So it’s a shotgun wedding now too.”
“Isn’t that appropriate for the two of you?” Levi smirks, and I punch him in the arm. “Maybe it’s just course correction.”
“I’m not forgetting or forgiving him.” I cross my arms.
“No one said you had to do that.”
“But you think I will.”
“I think Bishop will do everything he can to earn your forgiveness, and I think you have a big heart that’s capable of it if the person truly deserves it.
If you ask my opinion, Bishop deserves your mercy.
He hurt you. There’s no denying that. But given the choices he had in front of him…
I’m not sure if I would have made a different decision in his shoes.
That said, you’re my sister. I love you, and I love Fallon.
I’d never let anyone, not even my oldest friend, hurt you if I could stop it.
If it hurts you too much to do this, I’ll understand.
You just say the word, and I’ll start working on an alternative.
All I ask is that you consider the option with an open mind. ”
I love my brother. I also hate when he makes a fair point in an argument.
“I appreciate your perspective,” I reluctantly admit.
“So you’ll talk to him? At least consider it?” I can hear the hope in Levi’s voice.
“I’ll talk to him. I don’t know if I’ll consider it or not.”
“I’ll take it.” Levi’s amused grin forces one last eye roll out of me before he hugs me and heads out the door.