Epilogue
EPILOGUE
JULIAN
I t’s been a week since we had the discussion after we rescued her from campus. Since she told me she was all in. And God, I’ve never felt more fortunate in my entire charmed life. The reporter who reached out to me is being strangely easy to work with, but I’m not positive how long that will last. I spend half my time keeping the businesses running and making sure that my dad has no inkling that anything is off or that anyone is on to him.
I spend the other half with my private legal team, devising a plan and figuring out how to get to the bottom of all this. The thing is, I knew the moment I read the email that it wasn’t a lie. I was never a witness to it; my father tends to keep me out of his private company affairs—no pun intended, and I never heard any rumblings of it. But the thing is, I know him. I know his nature. I’ve seen the way he discards people, how little he knows about the people who work for him—including his own sons—and how much he cares about how productive they are. When the world is moving toward flexibility and a work-life balance, he stands ten toes down, forcing a culture that he himself has never had to respond to.
I don’t hate my father. Even through all of this, despite what I may find out about him, there’s still a kid in me that adores him and holds on to the idea that one day he may turn out to be the man I always hoped he would.
But grown-up Julian knows the truth—that if I want a man like that in my life, then I’d have to become him.
I’m in my study at the penthouse, staring out over the city but not taking in any of it. I dial both my brothers from the burner phone Nat ordered for me when all of this happened. Sawyer gave them a tip that I was going to call.
They both pick up at the same time, and it’s really good to see their faces. Keaton appears to be on a balcony, and Brooks is lying on a beach. I roll my eyes.
“Do you ever work?” I ask him. He laughs and shrugs.
“What’s up, J?” Keaton asks, ignoring both of us. “Why are you calling us from this number? And why did Sawyer have to tell us?”
“I need you both to be somewhere private,” I say. I see Keaton stand up immediately and move into his apartment. The expression on Brooks’s face goes from his normal carefree to “oh shit” real quick when he sees Keaton moving. He stands up from the chaise and jogs across the beach. When his camera stops shaking, I see that he’s in some fancy resort suite.
“I’m good,” Keaton says.
“Me too,” Brooks says. I sigh as I lean over the phone in my desk chair.
“Boys, we’re in for it,” I tell them. “And the only way out is if we’re together, and we take down the king.”
Keaton stares at me wide-eyed. He knows what I’m saying. Brooks is confused, and I sigh. This isn’t how I wanted to try to convince him of what we wanted to do, but I don’t have a choice. There’s no slow rollout to this. He’s either with us, or he’s with my dad.
I tell them the story. I read them the email, and then I wait a beat.
“Fuck,” Brooks says, rubbing his temple. “Do you think he did it?”
Keaton scoffs.
“Of course he fucking did it,” he says. “He does whatever the fuck he wants.”
“Fuck,” Brooks says again.
“So what are you thinking, J?” Keaton asks.
“I think you both need to come to New York. Tomorrow,” I say. “I’ll have legal ready to meet with us. Looks like our post-Cato plans are going to need to be rolled out faster than we had initially thought, Keat.”
Keat thinks for a moment, nodding.
“Let’s do it,” he says. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”
There’s a silence on the other end, and we both wait to gauge Brooks’s response.
“I’ll be there too,” he says. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about. But I know that there’s no one else in my life I trust more than you two bastards.”
I smile faintly and nod.
“Tomorrow,” I say. They both nod.
“Tomorrow,” they say in unison.
I hit the red button and take in a deep breath, rubbing my temples. I hear a soft knock on my office door.
“Come in,” I say. She does, prancing across the floor like a little doe. And God, does it do me good to lay eyes on her.
“I brought you some tea,” she says. “You’ve been in here all day.” She sets the mug down on my desk then climbs onto my lap and pulls my head into her chest. It’s such a cathartic feeling when she holds me like this. Like, for a few short minutes, I don’t have to be the brains of the operation, or the family coordinator, or the CEO. I can just breathe against her.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I say, pulling off her to pull her down into a kiss. She smiles.
“Don’t be sorry,” she says. “Just drink.”
I smile and nod, taking a sip of the perfectly brewed tea.
“Do you know that you are my entire sunshine?” I ask her. She tilts her head, a little smirk playing on her perfect lips.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that everything for me points to you. My day can be…this,” I say, motioning to my desk and all the mounds of paperwork, “but my axis still points to you. My direction is clear. You’re the reward I get when I get through a day like these last ones. You are the fresh air when it feels like I can’t breathe.”
She smiles, leaning down so our lips are just centimeters apart.
“And you are my moon,” she says. “Because when I feel like I’m starting to spin out of control, you pull me back.”
“What a pair we make, then, huh?” I say. She shrugs and kisses me again. “I need to tell you something. But first, come with me.”
I lift her off my lap and lead her out of my study, down the stairs, and to the elevator. I nod at Tyler, and he follows us in then opens the doors when we get to the car.
“Where are we going?” she asks, and I smile. I wonder if she ever gets tired of these surprise adventures. But this one is a doozy. I just shrug as I take her hand, stroking the back of it with my thumb. After a few minutes, she knows, and I love how familiar she’s becoming with all things Everett. “Bedell House?”
I smile and shrug again.
The ride is peaceful, mostly quiet. A few things here and there, but she doesn’t ask any questions because she knows now that I’m a hard nut to crack. Finally, Tyler pulls us in and up the long driveway then turns right once we’re on property and pulls around to the west tower. He stops and helps her out.
“What are we doing here?” she asks. I smile.
“Where’s your key?” I ask her. She pulls the chain out from her shirt, lifting it off over her head. I use it to open the door then lead her up the stairs. When we get inside, I pull her into the room, and she looks around, confused until she sees a black velvet box on the windowsill.
Her eyes widen as she stares at it.
I lead her to it, picking it up and spinning toward her.
“Sawyer Jean, I’m in love with you,” I tell her. “This next part of our lives might get a little rocky, but I know we will figure it out because I have you. I’m not proposing tonight,” I tell her. And her eyes bounce from the box, to me, back to the box. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion. I take her hand. “I want to do that when the potential downfall of my family legacy isn’t hanging over me. I want to do it when our lives aren’t consumed with other things. But tonight, I want to promise something to you. And I’m asking for you to promise me something in return.”
“Okay…” she says. I open the box, and inside sits a thin band with teeny, tiny diamonds around it.
“This band was my great-grandmother’s. This was all my great-grandfather could afford before he struck the oil. He gave it to me on my twenty-first birthday. He told me to hold onto it until I found the woman who’d wear it. The woman who’d love me even if we never struck oil, just like she did for him. It’s been in my safe ever since…until today.”
She stares at it, her eyes filling with tears.
“So, you never gave it to?—”
“Nope. Not even then. I guess I just knew, deep down. But then I met you, and I realized, Sawyer, the real oil strike was when I found you.”
She blinks, the tears streaming down her face.
“So, what’s the promise?” she asks. I slip the ring out of the box and take her hand.
“Just to love me and stand with me while I dismantle everything in my life and figure out how to put it all back together again. And then when I do, promise to say yes when I beg you to be my wife. Promise you’ll consider spending this crazy life with me. Promise that if you ever decide you want to start a family, it’s with me.”
She smiles as I slide the ring on her finger.
“I promise,” she says.
I kiss her long and hard before I pull away.
“Oh, and there’s one more thing,” I say with a smile as the tower door swings open…