CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
JACK
The guest house door closes behind Sophia and Madison with a quiet finality. I stand frozen on the path, the mountain air suddenly chilling despite the afternoon sun.
She couldn’t even look at me. Couldn’t bear to be in the same room.
“Jackson.”
Charlotte’s voice, cold as lake water in winter, slices through my spiraling thoughts.
I turn to find all three of my sisters standing in a loose semicircle behind me.
Emma’s face flushes with barely contained fury.
Lily’s eyes fill with disappointment—somehow worse than anger.
Charlotte, the eldest, stands with perfect posture, her expression like carved granite.
“Not now,” I say, my voice rough. “Please.”
“No. Now .” Charlotte’s tone leaves no room for negotiation. She nods toward the vineyard. “Walk with us.”
It’s not a request. In the McKenzie family hierarchy, Charlotte has effectively replaced our father as the authority figure years ago. Even Mum defers to her on most family matters.
I follow silently as Charlotte leads us away from the main house, down a worn path between rows of Pinot Noir vines heavy with fruit. The harvest will begin in days—another family tradition I’d abandoned.
When we reach a small clearing with a view of Lake Dunstan, Charlotte stops. The spot is familiar—our childhood hideaway, where we’d come to escape Mum’s social gatherings or Dad’s vineyard lectures. A neutral territory of sorts.
Charlotte turns to face me, her CEO mask firmly in place. “You manipulated her for months, Jack. Months.” Her voice is controlled but vibrating with rage. “God, no wonder you left New Zealand, you wanted to try out being poor for a while.”
“That’s not what happened—”
“Isn’t it?” Charlotte cuts me off. “You play at being a working-class hero while knowing you have millions in the bank. Do you have any idea how insulting that is? Not just to Sophia, but to people who actually have to worry about paying bills?”
Emma steps forward, tears already streaming down her face, her anger never far from the surface. “She trusted you. Madison trusted you! She was calling you her stepdad!”
“No, she wasn’t—”
“To Chloe, she was!” Emma shouts. “Your girlfriend’s child was telling her friends you were going to be her stepdad someday. I saw the texts when she was showing me pictures! Do you even see what you did?”
The revelation hits me like a physical blow. Madison had been imagining a future with me in it—a future I’d now probably destroyed.
“I didn’t know,” I say weakly.
“Of course you didn’t,” Lily says, her voice quiet but cutting.
“Because you were too busy playing pretend to see what was happening right in front of you.” She takes a step closer, her normally gentle demeanor replaced by something harder.
“This isn’t just about her, Jack. It’s about you never believing someone could love you for you unless you curated the version they saw. That’s cowardice.”
“Look, you know what happened with Vanessa,” I say, my voice tight. “After what she did, how she planned to use me, use the family…I was terrified of—”
“Oh, don’t you fucking dare,” Lily cuts in, her quiet demeanor vanishing instantly. “Don’t you dare use Vanessa as an excuse for this.”
“I’m not—”
“Aren’t you?” Charlotte’s voice is ice. Her voice takes on a severe, mocking tone. “Poor little Jack got his heart broken by a social-climbing parasite, so naturally he had to lie to a single mother who probably hasn’t had a vacation in years.”
“That’s not—”
“Vanessa was one woman,” Emma says fiercely.
“Yes, she was a manipulative cow, we all agree. But that was years ago! Are you going to let that one bad apple poison every chance you have at happiness? Did Sophia give you any indication—any at all—that she was like that? That she’d value your bank account over you? ”
I open my mouth, then close it. “No.”
“So instead of trusting the woman you claim to love,” Charlotte continues relentlessly, “you decided to manipulate her reality based on your own baggage. Classic.”
“You’re nothing like Vanessa,” Lily says, her voice gentler but no less firm. “She was calculated and cold from the start. You’re just…scared. And that’s almost worse, because you know better.”
The comparison stings because they’re right. Using Vanessa as justification is weak, and I know it.
“I was trying to protect—” I begin.
“Protect who ?” Charlotte interrupts sharply. “Her or yourself? Because from where I’m standing, all you did was set up Sophia for maximum humiliation when she inevitably discovered the truth.”
“You lied to her while she was raising a daughter alone and saving lives,” Charlotte continues, her voice gaining intensity. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I never claimed to be—”
“You broke her trust,” Emma cuts in, her voice cracking with emotion. “And what do you think this is going to do to Madison? That poor little girl’s already watched her father disappoint her mother for years. She was just starting to believe in you, and now this!”
“I am NOTHING like him!” The words tear from my throat with unexpected force.
“Aren’t you?” Lily asks, the quiet question somehow more devastating than Emma’s shouting. “You both manipulated her reality. You both made her question her judgment. You both betrayed her trust.”
I stagger back a step, the comparison to Troy like a knife between my ribs.
“She’s a woman who gets spat on and punched and still shows up for the next shift,” Lily continues, twisting the knife deeper. “And you didn’t think she could handle you?”
“That’s not fair,” I manage.
“What’s not fair,” Charlotte says icily, “is bringing a woman and her teenage daughter to the literal opposite side of the world before revealing your little deception. Was that the plan all along? Get them so far from home they’d have no choice but to deal with it?”
“No!” I protest. “I was going to tell her before—”
“Before what?” Emma demands. “Before you arrived? Before you booked the tickets? Before you fell in love with her? There was never a good time because you were a bloody coward, you absolute fucking drongo!” Her words echo across the vineyard, startling birds from the vines.
“You think I don’t know that?” I shoot back, my own anger finally surfacing. “You think I’m not painfully aware of how badly I’ve screwed up? I love her! I love them both! And I’ve probably lost them forever because I was too scared to trust that she’d see me, not the money!”
“And why wouldn’t she?” Lily asks, her voice softening slightly. “What evidence did you have that Sophia Mitchell, of all people, would care about your bank account?”
“That’s the bloody irony, isn’t it?” I laugh bitterly. “She wouldn’t have. But I couldn’t see that because I was too busy projecting my own insecurities onto her.”
“Well, at least you’ve figured that out,” Charlotte says dryly. “Only about ten hours too late.”
We fall into tense silence, the only sound the rustle of leaves in the autumn breeze.
“She’s gone, you know,” Lily says finally. “I gave her the keys to one of the estate cars. She and Madison went to Lake Wanaka.”
My head snaps up. “What? When?”
“About twenty minutes ago,” Lily replies. “They needed space.”
“Space or a way home?” I ask, panic rising. “Are they coming back?”
“Their bags are still in the guest house,” Lily assures me. “But honestly, Jack, I wouldn’t blame her if she caught the first flight back to America.”
“Jesus Christ.” I sink down onto a stone bench, head in my hands. “What do I do?” I pull out my phone, fingers already typing a message before my brain catches up.
“No,” Charlotte says firmly, snatching the phone from my hands. “Do not bombard her with texts. One message. Simple, direct, no excuses.”
“Give me that—”
“I’m saving you from yourself.” Charlotte holds the phone behind her back. “What were you going to say? Some long, rambling explanation about why you deceived her?”
“No, I—”
“Yes, you were,” Emma cuts in. “Because that’s what men always do. Try to explain away their mistakes instead of just owning them.”
I glare at her. “That’s not fair.”
“None of this is fair,” Charlotte replies. “Especially not to Sophia.” She holds out my phone. “One message. Make it count.”
I take the phone, staring at the blank text field. What can I possibly say that would matter now? What words can rebuild the trust I’ve shattered?
Finally, I type:
Jack: I should have told you everything from the beginning. I was wrong and I'm sorry. No excuses. I understand if you need space. Just please let me know you're safe.
I show it to Charlotte, who nods once. “Better than I expected from you, honestly.”
I hit send, then immediately regret it. “What if she doesn’t respond?”
“Then you respect that too,” Lily says simply.
The minutes drag as we stand in silence, the weight of my mistakes pressing down on me. Just when I’ve convinced myself she won’t answer, my phone buzzes.
Sophia: At Lake Wanaka with Madison. We're safe. Need time to think.
Relief floods through me. “They’re at the lake. They’re okay.”
“See?” Lily’s expression softens. “They haven’t run for the airport. That’s a good sign.”
I type back quickly:
Jack: Thank you. Take all the time you need. We'll be here when you're ready.
“Now what?” I ask, pocketing my phone.
“Now,” Charlotte says, “you figure out how to prove to her that the man she fell in love with is real, even if his bank account isn’t what you pretended.”
“And if she can’t forgive the deception?” The question that has been haunting me since we arrived.
“Then you accept it,” Emma says, her voice still thick with emotion. “But you don’t stop trying until she explicitly tells you to. She deserves that much.”
The enormity of what I stand to lose hits me all at once. Sophia’s quiet strength, her sharp wit, her competence in crisis. The way she touches my face when she thinks I’m sleeping. Madison’s infectious enthusiasm, her unfiltered questions, her fierce protectiveness of her mother.
My family. The family I’d chosen, who’d chosen me back.
My throat tightens painfully, and I turn away, not wanting my sisters to see the tears threatening to fall. But Lily’s hand is already on my shoulder, turning me back toward them.
“It’s okay,” she says, her anger giving way to empathy. “We’ve seen you cry before, Jack.”
I shake my head, fighting for control, but it is a losing battle. The tears come hot and fast, every wall I’d built crumbling under the weight of what I might have lost. “I’ve really fucked this up, haven’t I?”
“Monumentally,” Charlotte confirms, but her hand finds my other shoulder. “But if she’s half the woman you think she is, she’ll at least hear you out. Eventually.”
“If she doesn’t,” Emma says, her own tears starting again, “I’ll miss her. And Madison.” She sniffs. “That kid has serious rugby potential.”
I laugh wetly, wiping at my eyes. “God, Em.”
“What? She does.” Emma manages a watery smile. “Just, you know, when you grovel and beg for forgiveness, maybe mention I’d still like to coach her. If she wants.”
“I’ll add it to my list of desperate pleas,” I promise.
Lily pulls me into a hug, and after a moment, Emma joins, her strong arms wrapping around us both. Finally, Charlotte—who rarely initiates physical contact—completes the circle.
“For what it’s worth,” Charlotte says against my shoulder, “I think you did find yourself in America. You’re a better man than the spoiled brat who left here years ago.”
“Even if I am a manipulative coward?” I ask, only half-joking.
“You’ve always been a bit of a coward,” Charlotte replies. “But then you ran into burning buildings for strangers, so we forgave you that flaw.”
“Sophia might too,” Lily adds gently. “If you’re brave enough now to face the consequences and fight for her.”
We stand there among the vines, the four McKenzie siblings united again, as the sun begins its descent toward the mountains. For the first time since arriving at the estate, I feel a flicker of hope.
Not that Sophia would forgive me—that is entirely her choice, one I’d have to accept whatever she decides. But hope that somehow, I can show her the truth: that despite my deception, the man she’d fallen for is real.
And he is fighting for his way back to her.