Chapter 44
Forty-four
Kingston
At the next week’s Sunday dinner, the dining room is alive with chatter, as it always is, though the chandelier’s glow softens everything, spilling warm light over the polished wood of the long table.
Steam rises from bowls of carrots and parsnips glazed to a shine, the buttery smell of potatoes mixing with rosemary and garlic.
Bread baskets sit between bottles of our best vintages, corks already pulled, the air tinged with oak and dark fruit.
I slide into my chair, Elise beside me. She adjusts her napkin on her lap, her hand brushing my thigh under the table before resting there, steady and familiar.
Across from us, Ryker spears a piece of chicken and waves his fork for emphasis. “You’re the only woman alive who can outdrink me, Ginny, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.”
Ginny smirks, her hair spilling over one shoulder as she takes a deliberate sip of wine. “Maybe you’re just losing your edge.”
The table laughs, and Ryker’s mock-offended groan rattles the silverware.
“Don’t take it personally,” Beckett calls from farther down, his arm slung casually across the back of Sadie’s chair. William is sleeping in a bassinet in the next room. “We’ve all known for years you’re a lightweight.”
“Lightweight?” Ryker leans back like he’s been struck, then points at Beckett. “Coming from the man who once passed out after half a bottle of pinot—”
Sadie nudges Beckett with her elbow, cutting him off before the story can get any worse. Her cheeks are flushed, but her smile is real, wide in a way that makes Beckett look younger, softer.
Next to them, Theo is busy with his own mission. He stretches an arm toward Beckett’s plate when he thinks no one’s looking, pinching a roasted potato between his fingers.
“Hey,” Beckett swats at him, too late. “You’ve got your own food.”
Theo just grins, cheeks bulging, grease shining on his chin.
“Yours taste better.” Trinity smiles at him with a shrug.
The table erupts again, laughter spilling from one end to the other. Sadie slides her plate closer to Theo without comment, and the boy beams, victorious.
Greyson shakes his head, hiding his grin behind his glass. Trinity leans into him, whispering something that makes him laugh out loud, a sound none of us hears often enough.
At the head of the table, Dad lifts his glass to quiet them all. “To family,” he says. “And to this place.”
We raise our glasses, the clinks echoing. I sip the wine, the dark richness coating my tongue.
As the conversation resumes, Dad turns his gaze down the table, catching Elise in it. “I heard you adjusted the barrel room schedule last week,” he says. “Smart move, shifting the pinot earlier. Saved us a headache.”
Elise stiffens for a second, and then inclines her head, cheeks warming. “It was nothing. Just timing.”
Dad shakes his head. “Timing is everything in this business. Don’t downplay it.”
She murmurs a thank you, and I feel her hand tighten on my knee. She belongs here. I’m so grateful everyone is finally seeing it.
Declan leans close to Tarryn, murmuring something that makes her laugh. Her face softens, as she tips her glass toward him.
I glance around the table, counting without meaning to.
Greyson and Trinity, with Theo seated between them, stealing bites off their plates.
Beckett and Sadie, heads tipped close together.
Ryker and Ginny, already bickering like it’s foreplay.
Tarryn with Declan, her hand brushing his knuckles every so often.
Elise beside me, the only thing that feels like calm in this storm of voices.
She turns, her shoulder brushing mine. “It almost feels normal,” she whispers, her lips curving into a smile.
I nod, even as my gut twists. I don’t know why, but suddenly, it feels like the calm before the storm. I force a smile anyway and squeeze her hand under the table.
After a moment, the scrape of a chair echoes louder than it should as our laughter fades. At first, I think someone is getting up for more wine, but then I hear it, the heavy tread of boots in the hall.
Our heads swing toward the door, and Max steps in, his shoulders squared, mouth curved in that smug half smile I’ve hated since I was a kid.
His suit’s pressed, his tie knotted tight, his hair slicked back like he’s walking into a boardroom, not a family dinner he wasn’t invited to.
No one’s seen Max in weeks, maybe months, and there’s been not a word from him.
Suddenly, he shows up at family dinner, as if he hasn’t been missing at all.
The remaining conversation dies. Even Theo goes still, his eyes wide as he pulls his hand back from Trinity’s plate.
Dad stands, his frame filling the space at the head of the table like the patriarch he is. “You were not invited,” he says, voice low and edged with steel.
Max shrugs, strolling into the room. “This is still my family, isn’t it? My family home?” His eyes move down the table, lingering on each of us like he’s taking inventory. They pause on Elise for half a beat too long, and my hand tightens under the table, ready to rise if I need to.
“No,” Dad says. “You lost that right.”
Max laughs, like a blade drawn from a sheath. “Funny. I don’t remember anyone asking you to decide that for me.”
Beside me, Elise straightens, her posture tight. Down the table, Tarryn’s lips press into a line, her hand dropping from Declan’s to her lap.
My blood is already thudding in my ears, my jaw locked.
Max doesn’t move toward a chair. His smile only sharpens.
Dad plants his hands on the table, knuckles whitening, and his voice cuts through the silence. “Enough games. We all know what you’ve done, Max.”
Max tilts his head, mocking. “Oh? Please. Enlighten me.”
Dad’s jaw ticks. “The chardonnay vat. You tampered with it, ruined an entire vintage, turned it to vinegar. You sabotaged the sprinkler system. You had Zach poisoning the well. Burned down the cottage so Tarryn and Elise lost their home. And most recently, you paid a well-known fixer twenty thousand dollars to cut vines and plow through our blocks. Millions of dollars have been lost because of you and your anger.”
That last bit is news to me, and as I look around the table, I can see it’s news to everyone but Mom as well. Sadie’s hand flies to her mouth. Ginny stiffens beside Ryker, who is already half out of his chair. We’re all stunned silent.
Ryker’s voice is sharp. “I knew it. I told you something was off. Who else would pull that kind of stunt?”
Beckett leans forward. “You did not just sabotage wine, Max. You put people’s lives and jobs at risk. Families rely on this place.”
“You endangered more than the vineyard,” Greyson adds. “Poisoning a well could have harmed half this valley. Do you even care?”
Max scoffs, a sharp, ugly sound. “Do you ever get tired of being dramatic? You all have had everything handed to you. Paradise Hill, the respect, the money. It should have been mine. Everyone knows it. But no, Father could not see past his golden boy.”
Dad doesn’t waver. “It should have been yours. You’re right.
But when he needed you, you were gone. You did nothing to prove yourself, nothing to show him you could shoulder the weight.
He didn’t even leave you half. Do you understand that?
He left you nothing, because you earned nothing.
The only reason you have had any place here at all is because I kept you on out of pity. ”
The words strike like a hammer. Mom stiffens, her hand trembling around the stem of her glass. “You never forgave him for leaving,” she says, looking at Max. “That’s what this is really about.”
Max’s eyes move to her. “This is about what he has done, not what I felt.”
Ryker lets out a low whistle. “Pity is too kind.”
Max’s smirk slips, replaced by something jagged.
He slams his palm against the table, rattling glasses.
The wine trembles in crystal stems, droplets splashing over white linen.
“You self-righteous bastards. You think you have the right to humiliate me? This family betrayed me the second it let outsiders in.” His glare slices toward Elise, then to Ginny.
“You’ve let Dempseys sit at this table. You’ve already sold your souls. ”
Heat floods my chest, but Elise’s fingers dig into my leg under the table. I cover her hand with mine before I do something I’ll regret. She lifts her chin, refusing to shrink from him, and pride flickers through me.
“This coming from the man,” Tarryn argues, “who devised your plan of sabotage with Evelyn Dempsey.”
Greyson nods, his jaw tight. “You have proven yourself, Max. Just not the way you wanted.”
At the far end, Tarryn pushes her chair back. She rises without a word, chin high, and slips from the room. After a moment, the front door opens, and she bellows, “You can leave now.”
Dad’s voice is final. “You’ve betrayed yourself. Don’t you dare blame anyone else.”
Max’s laugh is bitter now, scraping out of him like gravel. “You will regret this. Every last one of you.”
Tarryn returns, and I wonder if she’s lost her nerve to slam the door behind Max.
But she isn’t alone. She returns to the dining room with our family lawyer at her side, and behind him are two uniformed police officers.
Their presence hits like a bucket of cold water, dousing whatever fire Max was trying to build.
His eyes widen for a second before narrowing, his face twisting with disbelief.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” His laugh is jagged, too loud.
“You’d betray your own blood and bring in the police?
” He shakes his head slowly, mock sorrow heavy in his tone.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, not with the way you’ve let Dempseys crawl into this family. ”
My pulse spikes hot. Elise stiffens beside me, but she doesn’t flinch. She holds his stare, calm where I feel fire burning through my veins.
“You did this, Max,” Tarryn counters. “You have been behind every bit of destruction this vineyard has suffered.”
Max snaps forward, pointing a finger at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not in bed with Evelyn Dempsey. She was behind the well poisoning. I had nothing to do with it. That was her working with Zach. She’s the snake, not me.”
Murmurs ripple down the table, disbelief and anger mixing like smoke.
Max jabs a finger at Dad’s chest, eyes blazing. “You can’t arrest your own brother.”
The room goes still. My jaw locks so tightly it begins to ache.
Dad shakes his head. “Everyone here knows Zach’s birth father is Henry.
Everyone knows he acted under your direction.
Don’t you dare try to twist this now.” He doesn’t blink.
“You orchestrated everything. And you may have done it with Evelyn’s help.
But the police will figure it all out. Millions of dollars in damage, and you have left us no choice. ”
The lawyer clears his throat, but the officers are already moving.
Max steps back, disbelief flashing across his face before rage takes over. “You can’t be serious. You’d drag me out of my own family’s home? For what, because I finally told the truth?”
The officers step forward, firm hands gripping his arms. The clink of cuffs echoes loudly in the hushed room.
Max thrashes once, twice, but the officers hold him tight. His eyes burn as they sweep the table one last time. “You’ll regret this,” he spits. “Every one of you.”
He stares Tarryn down. “You’re not capable of running this place. This vineyard will be gone within a decade.”
I can’t take it anymore. “Max, the difference is, you thought you should’ve been given the vineyard. You’ve worked against our father from the beginning, when all he did was support you. We’ll all be here standing with Tarryn and Elise, making sure the vineyard is successful while you rot in jail.”
With that, everything sets in motion, and a moment later, the slam of the front door vibrates through the walls. Wine streaks across the white linen like blood, from a glass Max knocked over when he struggled. No one moves at first.
Then Mom sighs. “I wish we didn’t have to go that far.” Her eyes glisten as she looks down the table at Dad. “He’s your brother.”
Dad shakes his head. “He’s also the man who’s been tearing this family apart from the inside. There’d be no vineyard left if we let him keep going.” His voice catches faintly, the first crack I’ve heard from him in years.
Mom shakes her head, tears slipping free, and sinks back into her chair, her hand pressed to her lips.
Ryker exhales hard. “Good riddance.”
I look at Tarryn. “How did you know to have the police and the lawyer here?”
She smiles. “I’ve been working with Cal, and his team was following Max. I talked it over with Dad, and they knew to call the police and our lawyer once he showed up.”
Beckett folds his arms, his gaze steady on Dad. “We move forward without him. We’re stronger this way.” He clears his throat. “No more paying the price for his selfishness.”
I cover Elise’s hand with mine, pressing steady, reminding her we are in this together. She doesn’t look away from Dad, and I feel the quiet steel in her, the choice to stand firm no matter what Max tried to rip away.
Dad sinks into his chair at last, shoulders slumping, as if the years just caught him all at once. He rubs a hand over his face, then looks up, eyes sweeping the table. “We’ve lost millions. And family.” His voice roughens. “But we are still here. That has to be enough for tonight.”
No one argues.
I look around at my siblings, their partners, the parents who built this place, the woman who has become my anchor.
The table feels fractured, but it also feels united.
Max is gone, and the cracks he left are ours to mend.
As Elise’s fingers lace tighter through mine, I know survival isn’t enough.
I want us to thrive. Now, it seems possible we can.