Epilogue
LEAH
One Year Later
“Okay, hold right there, don’t move!” Delia stands behind her camera and snaps a few shots.
The fact that my best friend is here, doubling as the event’s professional photographer for The Fox’s Den launch party, means the world to me.
She was there at the very beginning, when all of this started.
Delia was the one who dragged me to that gala and, without knowing it, set me on the path to the three loves of my life.
I still thank her for it.
“Okay, that was perfect!” She peeks out from behind the lens to smile at us, her green eyes popping against her bright red hair.
Rowan is standing on one side of me for the shot, with Declan and Emmett on the other. All four of us are lined up in front of the door with the nameplate beside it, the one I’ve walked past a hundred times since Rowan first showed it to me. Today there’s a ribbon across it.
The library on the other side is exactly the cozy, welcoming space I yearned for growing up.
I’ve sat in the reading nook with the fox pillows more times than I can count while the building around it was being finished.
Now, it’s finally a place for families to come and read, and, specifically for today, to get me to sign a copy of my new children’s book.
It’s my dream come true—my own launch party, signing my own book, in a library that was built around a story that used to live only in my head. Had it not been for a scribbled fox on a napkin, or the way Rowan notices everything and says nothing, none of this might have happened.
“Shall we?” Rowan hands me the scissors.
On one side of the ribbon is the library, quiet and ready, the first shelves anywhere to hold signed copies of my book. On the other side is a crowd waiting to get in.
I cut the ribbon and am met with a round of applause from a crowd much larger than I expected.
“How did you get so many people to show up?” I ask him as the stream of bodies begins filing past us. “Was it through your contact at the publishing house?”
“I didn’t do a damn thing as far as that goes,” Rowan says. “And neither did Declan or Emmett. You did, Leah. These people are all here for the book signing because they love your book.”
That seems unbelievable, but after the amazing year I’ve had, anything is possible.
I give Rowan a huge hug before walking inside with all three guys behind me.
Delia comes too, setting up her camera equipment in the corner so she can catch real-time photos of fans getting autographed copies.
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that anyone would wait in line for my signature. It still seems too good to be true.
In fact, everything feels good now. Especially having all four of us under one roof.
Thanks to Declan’s fast-tracking of the contractors, Rowan’s design, and Emmett’s relentless nagging to get it done, the three separate top-floor penthouses at Koi Tower became one huge living space.
A home for us to share.
Now when we go back to Koi Tower, it isn’t to get off on separate floors or spend single nights at one of the guys’ places. We all simply go home together, and I couldn’t possibly love it more.
“I have to admit, Rowan,” Declan says as he watches kids pour into the reading nook for the first time. “You outdid yourself on this one. It’s a magical forest in here.”
“Yeah.” Emmett gives a small, impressed chuckle. “You do really know how to work wonders with design. I’ll give you that.”
“Wasn’t me. It was Leah’s drawings.” Rowan walks me to the table where I’ll be sitting for the signing.
I shake my head and stop him before I sit down.
“It feels special because we made it together. The fox and the story were in my head, and then on napkins and notebook paper. You brought all of it to life for people to come and enjoy.”
Rowan’s face lights up, and Emmett catches it. “I think we make a pretty good team, don’t we?”
“Indeed, we do.” I sit and start to sign the books as they’re handed to me, talking with people who have read and shared the story with their children, and getting lost in my own thoughts at the same time.
Emmett is right; we do make a wonderful team.
And even though we were prepared for another scandal once the four of us went public, it turns out that nothing big came of it.
That was a huge relief. It could have gone the other way, and we still would have handled it, but I’m very glad it didn’t.
Declan had lawyers lined up to fight defamation suits and to have any inflammatory gossip pulled offline.
But once people knew that three of the Oliver brothers were all in a relationship with the same woman, most of them wrote it off as billionaires being eccentric.
When people asked questions, none of us ever gave comments. With no fuel added to the fire, the sparks of gossip got snuffed out before they turned into an actual public image wildfire. Eventually, anything that might have become an unflattering story simply died down.
And that isn’t the only thing that we’re relieved about.
Victor Walsh never made it to trial. A loan shark’s client list is full of dangerous people with things to hide. Once Walsh was locked up and facing a long sentence, one of his clients decided he couldn’t risk Walsh trading their secrets for a deal and had him killed in county lockup.
And since he died, the threat to our family died with him.
“Madeline!” I let out a small squeal when I see her come into the library with baby Mila in tow. “I’m so glad you could make it!”
“Of course! I wouldn’t miss your launch party for the world!” Mila giggles at me from her stroller.
Who knew that at the end of all of this, I would wind up close friends with my ex-boyfriend’s ex-wife. It would almost be amusing if Kian hadn’t done so much damage along the way. That said, he also brought some people together.
If it hadn’t been for Kian’s giant fuckups, that night at the gala might never have happened. I might never have found my way to Declan, Emmett, and Rowan, and Madeline and I might never have become close friends. So, I suppose there are some redeeming things to credit to Kian after all.
The guys must think so too, because they’re giving Kian the second chance he probably didn’t deserve before.
After Madeline divorced him and cut off the accounts he’d been living out of, rightly so, Kian was left broke and in need of a real job.
This time, no one cleaned up his mess for him.
Mr. Oliver didn’t bail out his foolish son, and Declan didn’t cover over Kian’s mistakes.
Kian was left to deal with the consequences of his actions for once in his life.
And for once in his life, he surprised everyone in a good way instead of a bad one.
He had a deep conversation with Madeline after the divorce proceedings ended.
Instead of bullshitting her, he tried a new path: honesty and repayment.
I don’t think Madeline believed him at first. Hell, I don’t think any of us did.
But Kian seemed so heartfelt about wanting to be a better man for his kid that everyone was willing to give him one more chance to prove himself.
No free passes this time. Just the chance to show everyone that he was willing to put in the effort to repair the relationships he’d damaged.
And he’s trying.
It hasn’t been a year quite yet, but it’s been enough time for a new Kian to emerge. Not one I would ever want back in my life, but one I’m no longer uncomfortable around, and even willing to accept as part of the Oliver family.
Declan, Emmett, and Rowan made their brother a low-level job offer at the company, in return for him agreeing to therapy.
It’s the kind of job that the old Kian would have rolled his eyes at while trying to mooch money off his wife or father.
The new Kian humbly accepted the position and has been working there ever since, trying to earn a place back in the family business.
He also started a repayment plan to his brothers for all the money they had to shell out cleaning up his screwups, including the ones he made with me that Declan fixed.
All in all, I think Kian is on the path to repairing old wounds and making up for past mistakes, even if he can’t completely erase them, and hopefully being a more present father than Mr. Oliver was when Kian was growing up.
Mila has a whole slew of people around her who will love and protect her now: two co-parents working together, a grandfather who is emotionally back in the picture, a trio of uncles who fawn over her every time Madeline brings her to the penthouse, and me, the one who gets to hold her while they fight over whose turn it is.
“Leah.” Declan leans over my shoulder as I sign a book for one of the readers in line. “How does it feel?”
“What do you mean?” I hand the signed book back to its owner and turn to look at the guys.
“This.” He nods at the line. “Full-time author. No more cover gigs for other people’s books.”
“It’s everything I wanted.” I mean it. “I love it. It’s just—”
All three men look at me, waiting for me to list the reasons it isn’t enough so they can swoop in and fix them. I love them for that, and I’m grateful. But this one isn’t a problem they can solve with a phone call.
“Just what?” Rowan raises a brow.
Then I look out at the line of kids standing with their parents, clutching copies of The Fox’s Den in their little hands. And I can’t help thinking that someday I might want to be not only the person writing and signing the books, but the person reading them to a child too.
I hesitate before answering, only because I’m not sure how well my truthful response will be received. That, and the fact that we’re in the middle of a launch party in the middle of a library, surrounded by people.
“I’m not really sure how it would work,” I say quietly to the guys as they sit beside me. “But I wouldn’t be completely opposed to the idea of growing our family a bit.”
I reach for the next book being handed to me and pick up my pen. But before I can scribble the signature, Rowan’s hand touches mine.
“Leah, are you saying that you want to have children?” He sounds more awed than shocked.
I glance first at him and then over at Declan and Emmett to read their faces before replying. All three of them have the same wide-eyed, barely contained excitement.
“Yeah, I think so. Maybe sometime down the road. But I know that would probably be a difficult thing to—”
“Don’t you know by now?” Declan interrupts me with a smile. “There isn’t anything we wouldn’t give you.”
Emmett grins. “I would definitely be able to entertain a kid.”
I giggle at what appears, at face value, to be such a simple statement. But I’ve learned there is nothing simple or surface-level with these men. And that makes the prospect of actually creating a family with all three of them seem like a very real possibility.
“I love your book!” A little girl beams as she reaches the table and hands me her copy to sign.
“Thank you,” I smile at her. “What was your favorite part?”
She stops to think, tapping her finger against the side of her temple in a gesture that makes her look wise beyond her grade-school years.
“I think my favorite part was when the fox found its family,” she answers. “Not because it had a home or because it wasn’t alone anymore, but because it was happy.”
She reaches for her book and turns to one of the pages, pointing to the fully fleshed-out illustration based on the design I doodled on a napkin at that awkward family dinner, the night Rowan caught a glimpse of it.
“See?” She insists with a big smile that scrunches up her cheeks. “Look how happy he is in that picture! That means he got a happy ending, and now he can make other foxes happy too.”
Beside me, Rowan leans forward to look and instantly recognizes the exact drawing.
“You’re not wrong,” Declan tells the little girl. “Happy endings do make happy foxes.”
She nods at him as if she’s been instantly validated, then skips off with her book to go back to her mother, who is waiting at the side of the line.
“Yeah,” Emmett chuckles under his breath. “I think I might have a lot of fun with a kid or two.”
“Two?” I ask, surprised at how easily the guys are suddenly on board with the idea.
The thought of it swirls around my head for the rest of the event and even into the next day.
Three men who love me and want to create a family with me.
One fiery red-headed friend who has stood beside me this whole time, and a new one who came out of the least expected place.
Bridged relationships getting repaired, the start of a new career, and, for once in my life, the very strong feeling that I am no longer running, no longer looking for the next exit or preparing for the next abandonment.
Instead, I am building things out of love.
This fox didn’t just find a den; she found her tribe.