Chapter 27
Kayden
One month later
The morning sun streamed through the homestead kitchen windows, turning everything golden.
I sat on a bar stool at the kitchen counter, with Sapphire beside me, nursing my second cup of coffee while Bella flipped pancakes at the stove.
Mitch was reading something on his phone, while Charlie stole bites of his bacon.
Declan had his arm around Bella’s waist, occasionally getting swatted away when he tried to sneak tastes before the food was ready.
Sunday morning breakfast had joined Sunday night dinner as sacred family time. We’d all survived too much to take these moments for granted.
Sapphire’s phone buzzed on the counter. She glanced at it, then went very still.
“What is it?” I asked.
She picked up the phone and read the message. “It’s from Detective Morris. Frank’s been transferred.”
The kitchen went silent. The sizzle of pancakes sounded as loud as gunfire.
“Transferred where?” Mitch set down his phone.
“From the hospital to a correctional facility.” Sapphire’s voice was carefully neutral. “They’ve got him in a specialized unit for inmates requiring ongoing medical care.”
“Still paralyzed?” Declan asked.
“Still paralyzed.” Sapphire looked up at me. “He could live for years in a wheelchair behind bars, unable to walk.”
Unable to die. Unable to end it on his own terms.
Frank’s worst nightmare. He’d always been a man who needed control, who needed to dominate and terrorize. Now, he was helpless, dependent, and trapped.
Perfect.
I thought I’d feel satisfaction. Or vindication. Or maybe some burst of rage for everything he’d done.
But there was nothing.
There was just an emptiness where Frank used to be.
“Good,” Mitch said flatly. “Let him rot.”
Charlie squeezed his hand. Across the table, Declan nodded in agreement.
I took a sip of my coffee and felt Sapphire’s eyes on me. “You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah.” And surprisingly, I was. “We don’t need to hear about him again. Ever. We know enough.”
I didn’t need to waste another ounce of energy on him.
He simply didn’t matter anymore.
She kissed my cheek. “Noted.”
Rose came into the kitchen carrying a basket of fresh eggs from the henhouse. She must have read the mood because she paused, looking around at all of us. “What?”
“Frank’s finally been transferred to prison,” Sapphire said.
“Good riddance.” Rose set down the eggs. “Now, who wants scrambled or fried?”
And just like that, we moved on. Conversation picked back up. Bella served pancakes. Declan stole syrup from Mitch’s hand and got a fork jabbed at his arm for his trouble. Life continued the way it always did.
After breakfast, while Sapphire talked to Declan about something she’d found in one of the office files, I sat out on the front verandah with my third cup of coffee, staring out at Koolaroo in the morning light.
The land stretched endlessly in front of me—red earth, scrubby bushes, and the distant smudge of green gum trees marking the creek line.
This place had witnessed so much darkness, so much death.
But it was still beautiful.
Still home.
“Mind if I join you?”
I turned to find Mom standing in the doorway, a steaming mug of tea in her hands.
Over the past few weeks, I’d been navigating this strange new reality of having a mother again.
She’d been staying in one of the guest rooms, keeping to herself mostly, but coming out for Sunday night dinners.
She was taking things slowly, giving us all space to adjust.
“Sure.” I gestured to the chair beside me.
She sat, and we were quiet for a moment, watching the sun touch everything as it climbed higher.
“Rose told me about Frank,” she said eventually.
“News travels fast around here.”
“Always has.” She smiled slightly.
I turned to look at her. Really look at her. The mother who’d made an impossible choice and had lived with the consequences every single day.
“I’m still angry at you,” I said honestly.
“I know.” Her eyes glistened, but she didn’t look away. “You have every right to be.”
“But I’m trying to understand.” I set my coffee mug on my thigh. “You did what you had to do to survive and protect your daughter—and my sister.” The reality still sounded so unreal. “I’m trying to make peace with that.”
“Trying is enough.” Mom nodded. “I don’t expect forgiveness to come easily. Or quickly. Or maybe at all.”
“The thing is ...” I looked back out at the land.
“Holding onto hatred hurts me more than it hurts anyone else. I learned that with Frank. I spent so many years consumed by anger, fear, and bitterness, that it nearly destroyed me. It nearly destroyed what I have with Sapphire.” I turned back to her.
“I don’t want to live like that anymore, trapped in the past.”
“So, what do you want?”
“To move forward.” I took a breath. “To get to know you again. To meet Sally. To build something new instead of staying stuck in what we lost.”
Mom’s tears spilled over. “I’d like that. Very much.”
“It won’t be perfect,” I warned. “There’ll be hard days. Days when the anger comes back, and grief feels too big.”
“I know.”
“But I’m willing to try.”
“Thank you.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Thank you, Kayden.”
“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god!” Cassidy came exploding onto the verandah, moving at the speed of a galloping stallion. She was screaming, waving her left hand in the air like a flag, her whole face radiant with joy.
“He proposed! Xavier proposed to me! Look at this ring!”
She shoved her hand two inches from my face. A massive diamond caught the sunlight, casting rainbow prisms onto the verandah.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “That’s from Declan’s mine, isn’t it?”
“Yes!” Cassidy was practically vibrating. “Xavier had it specially cut and set, and it’s perfect, and I’m getting married, and ...” She took off again, her footsteps thundering behind her. “I have to tell everyone!”
Mom and I caught each other’s eyes. She was laughing through her tears.
We followed Cassidy back into the house, and like some kind of magnet, the dining table drew us all together.
Xavier appeared in the doorway, looking equal parts proud and overwhelmed by Cassidy’s enthusiasm. Everyone crowded behind him, all of them grinning.
“I asked her to marry me.” Xavier shrugged like it was an everyday occurrence. “She said yes.”
Cassidy crashed into his chest. “Of course, I said yes!” She held up her hand again, admiring the way the diamond caught the light. “Look at this ring! Look at this man! Of course, I said yes!”
Everyone laughed. Mom pulled Cassidy into a hug, crying happy tears. Rose was crying, too, dabbing at her eyes with her apron. Bella grabbed the ring hand to examine the diamond more closely while Charlie squeezed Xavier in a bear hug.
I caught Declan’s eye across the crowd. He was grinning like he’d won the lottery, proud as hell that his mine had produced the stone that would sit on his sister’s finger for the rest of her life—something good coming from something Frank had tried to destroy.
Xavier cleared his throat. “There’s something else.” He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. “The DNA results came back yesterday.”
The room went quiet again.
“I’m officially Frank’s biological son,” Xavier said, grinning. “So, I’m sorry, but I’m your half-brother.” He looked at Mitch, Declan, and me. “By blood.”
“And by choice,” Mitch said, clapping Xavier on his back. “Blood doesn’t make family. I think we all know that.” He wriggled his brows at Cassidy.
“Welcome to the family, mate.” I shook his hand.
“Thanks, Kayden. Mitch. That means everything.” Xavier took a breath. “Which is why I’d like to ask you all something. Mitch, Kayden, and Declan. Would you be my best men at our wedding?”
My heart swelled as I looked at my brothers. The ones I’d grown up with, fought beside, and survived hell alongside. And now Xavier, who’d stood with us against Frank and loved our sister fiercely.
“Of course, bro,” I said, shaking his hand again. “I’d be honored.”
“Hell, yes.” Declan shook his hand, too.
“Count me in. Wouldn’t miss it,” Mitch added.
Cassidy launched herself at all four of us, trying to hug everyone at once, laughing and crying simultaneously. We became a tangle of arms, joy, and love, while the women watched and cried their own happy tears.
Four brothers. Bound by blood and choice and survival.
Frank’s sons and Frank’s victims, all of us refusing to let him define us.
All of us choosing something better.
The celebrations ran all day. Bella kept cooking more and more food. By late afternoon, I needed space. I needed to move, to breathe, to feel the land under my feet. And to find Sapphire, who’d slipped out a while ago, saying she needed to take a phone call.
I found her at the stables, brushing down Eclipse. The pure white mare I’d given her was nudging Sapphire with her pink nose, making her giggle. Eclipse’s brilliant white coat caught the late afternoon light through the windows.
I leaned against the stall door, watching them. Four months ago, this woman had been a city cop with no plans to ever set foot on a cattle station again. Now, she was brushing her own horse like she’d been doing it her whole life.
“She looks good,” I said.
Sapphire glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “She’s perfect.”
“I told you she would be.”
“You did.” She kept brushing.
I watched her for a while longer. The easy way her hands moved. The way Eclipse leaned into the brush. The way the late sun lit Sapphire’s hair gold.
She’d never looked more at home.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said.
“Mmm?” She didn’t look up. “What about?”
“The loft.”
Now, she did look up. “What about it?”
“It’s not big enough. You take up wayyy too much space.”
Giggling, she set the brush down and turned to face me. “I warned you, mister.” She strode toward me, dusting her hands on her jeans. “Are you going to kick me out?”
“Hell, no. I’m doing the opposite. I want to build you an office. A proper one. Not just your laptop on the kitchen table with case files spread across every surface.”