Chapter Twenty
Evan
New York
By most objective measures, I was winning.
The numbers on my screen were green, and the board was more than calm—it was confident. Deals were closing, projections were holding, and even Elena had stopped watching me like a temporary placeholder.
“Honestly, Evan,” she said that morning, leaning against my doorframe with a stack of files in hand, “this quarter is trending exactly where it was when Bella was running things. Maybe even better in tech.”
I leaned back in my chair, letting that praise sit for a second. “Bella said the same to me yesterday.”
Elena blinked. “Yes?”
“I knew she couldn’t completely trust me to take the reins, but she seems to be relaxing now.”
Elena laughed, already turning back toward her desk. “It’s a new era.”
Maybe it was. The company was steady, my father had discovered the miracle of staying out of my way, and hundreds of families depended on this place running well.
My biggest challenge sat right beneath the surface, waiting for a moment of silence to strike. Firebrook Valley. Nora. I pushed the thoughts of her down like I had every day since coming to New York.
Turning Nora away had been the right choice.
The only one I could live with.
The door to my office flew open.
I looked up slowly to find Brady standing in the doorway. Had something happened? I rose to my feet, ready to help in any way needed.
He stepped inside and shut the door behind him with a quiet click. Had Nora told him she’d come to me?
Shit.
Was this about to be exactly what I’d hoped to avoid?
“Busy?” he asked with an edge to his voice.
“Never too much for you,” I replied.
He nodded once, as if that tracked, and glanced around the office. “It’s weird to see you looking like you belong here.”
“It took some getting used to, but the people here are incredible and that has made all the difference,” I said.
“I’m sure,” he agreed, moving farther into the room. He was unhurried, with his hands loose at his sides.
Something wasn’t right. “What’s going on?”
Brady held my gaze. “Nora came to see you.”
Fuck.
I exhaled slowly, instantly defensive. “Yeah, she did.” I could have lied, told him it was completely innocent, but this was my little brother and he deserved the truth.
His nostrils flared. “And you didn’t think that was something you should mention to me?”
“Nothing happened . . .” I started, but his brow lifted slightly.
I rubbed the back of my neck. It was a sticky situation.
I didn’t want to hurt Brady, couldn’t lie to him, but also didn’t want to paint Nora in a bad light.
She’d made a mistake, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a good person. “Nothing ever will.”
Brady tilted his head slightly.
I said firmly. “She’s with you. I respect that.”
Silence followed. Brady studied me for a long moment before finally speaking. “How can you be so smart and so stupid?”
“Sorry?”
“We’re not together.”
The words were simple, flat, and quiet, yet they hit like a punch to the ribs. I blinked, stunned. “What?”
“We’re. Not. Together.” he repeated. “Nora and I.”
“But—” I shook my head, trying to clear the confusion.
“We’re friends,” he said. “Nothing more.”
The room went very still as something in my chest shifted hard. “But she said,” I said, my voice slower now. No, she never did say she was with him. “The trips, all the photos . . . you two—”
“We spent time together because we understand each other and she’s an awesome person. That’s it.”
I stared at him, my mind frantically replaying and recalculating every moment, every assumption, and every decision I’d made over the last month. “You’re telling me that Nora isn’t . . . with you.”
He clapped a hand to his forehead. “Why is that so difficult for you to believe? And what reason would I possibly have to lie about it?”
As his words landed, my stomach began to churn. All at once, the pieces of the puzzle rearranged: the barn, her face, and the way she’d looked at me when I’d sent her away. Holy shit. I sank back into my chair.
“You really fucked up,” Brady said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
He let out a slow breath and looked away for a second, as if resetting something in his own head, before looking back at me. “And you really hurt her.”
“I—” I stopped. I didn’t have an excuse or a defense.
“She came to you, ready to tell you how she feels about you, and I don’t know what you said to her, but she hasn’t been the same since.”
That was the line that did it. My chest tightened as I asked quietly, “What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means? She’s sad. Crying when she thinks no one is looking. And I need to know something.”
I waited.
“Do you love her?”
I inhaled sharply, and years of caring how she was and wanting nothing more than to know she was happy washed over me. I’d made sure she was protected, even from myself when I was at my most confused. “I do,” I said hoarsely, “but I haven’t done it well so far.”
“I love you,” he said clearly, “but I’m fighting an urge to punch you in the face. What did you say to her?”
I groaned. “I didn’t want to hear about any issues she was having with you. I told her to leave.” I swallowed hard. “I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Brady sighed. “If we were dating, it would have been. And, reluctantly, I appreciate that, but I don’t need you to step aside for me.
” He wasn’t harsh or loud; he was stating the truth.
I looked up at him as he continued. “Our family has a real problem with communication. All you had to do was talk to me and I’d have told you there was nothing but friendship between us, but for that kind of conversation to happen you have to stick around. ”
“I’ve never been good at staying,” I muttered.
“No, you haven’t. That’s something you should work on.”
I ran a hand over my face. “I don’t like who I am around Dad,” I said, the confession slipping out before I could stop it. “I don’t want to be him.”
Brady’s eyes sharpened slightly. “I’m your brother, Evan, not your therapist. Dad has his faults, but he also has good qualities.
The same is true about you. Like with Nora,” he said with a quiet certainty that left no room to argue.
“You made a lot of assumptions about her without having any idea what she did for me,” he added.
“Do you know what happened last year at my school?”
“No.”
Brady filled me in about the invite he and some of his friends had to a frat party, how they’d convinced him to go and how it had all been a setup. “They were going to plant something on me, film me—then use it to get me expelled.”
“Who did that?”
“Doesn’t matter. It was handled. What matters is Nora heard about it. And she stopped it. She walked into a frat house alone, punched one of them in the face and dragged me out of there.”
Wait, what?
That didn’t fit with my image of someone I needed to constantly protect.
Despite everything, a flicker of something broke through; that sounded exactly like her.
“She didn’t call anyone, didn’t make a scene, and didn’t protect herself. She protected me.” He met my eyes. “That’s how we became friends. I owe her more than I could ever repay. She ignored the feud, her father’s wrath, and possible legal consequences for herself and helped me.”
“Nora is incredible,” I said quietly.
“She really is, so why treat her like she isn’t?”
“I thought she was yours.” That excuse no longer rang like enough. I dug deeper. “And she needed someone more stable than I’ve been. Dad was never enough for Mom. I didn’t want to do that to Nora.”
Brady let out a breath, shaking his head. “Then be better than that. Do better.”
“I will.”
He studied me for a second longer, deciding whether to believe me or not, before stepping back. “One more thing. Those guys at school? I don’t think it was just about me. It felt personal toward our family.”
A cold weight settled in my chest. “Did you tell Dad?”
“Yeah,” Brady said. “He said it has been handled. None of them graduated so I guess it was.”
“But?”
“Just be careful,” Brady said. “It doesn’t feel like it’s over.” Brady stepped closer, clapping a hand on my shoulder in a firm, grounding gesture. “Do you need me to do anything here so you can head back to Firebrook Valley?”
“No,” I said, looking at him with fresh eyes. When had my little brother become a man who was ready and willing to take over in a storm?
He turned toward the door, then paused. “Then go fix this.” His voice was oddly commanding. He opened the door and walked out, closing it softly behind him.
Damn.
The office went too quiet. I stood there for a long time, staring at nothing as the truth settled in, piece by piece. Nora wasn’t with Brady. She came for me. And I sent her away—not because I had to, but because I chose to.
I fucked up, Nora.
Not just once, but with all of this.
If you do forgive me, I’ll spend the rest of my life being the husband my father should have been.