Epilogue
Six Months Later
Lillianna
I check my phone for the third time in as many minutes. Ivy’s last text said they’re ten minutes out, which means they’ll be here any second now.
But it’s the dozen or so teenagers crouched behind the furniture who make my heart race. Madison’s swim team friends and classmates, all of them barely containing their excitement as they hide in the shadows of the great room.
“Remember,” I tell the group for what must be the tenth time. “Complete silence. Not a giggle. Madison has excellent hearing.”
Tracy nods solemnly, her blonde ponytail bobbing. “We’ve got this, Ms. Blackstone.”
I move through the darkened room to where my family waits.
Sebastian stands near the bar with Rosalia, his arm draped over her shoulders, her head tipped against his chest. Mother sits in a wingback chair positioned to see everything, a glass of bourbon in her hand.
She looks more relaxed than I’ve seen her in years.
Europe has been good for her. The perpetual tension she carried as the wife of Louis Blackstone has melted away, replaced by something softer. Happier.
Thorne paces by the window, checking his watch.
“They’ll be here,” I tell him.
“I know.” But he keeps pacing. This is Madison’s first birthday party with him, and he wants it to be perfect. We all do.
He’s been planning it for nearly a month and insisted it be in his home. After all, Madison loves to swim and he has an indoor pool. But it’s also to keep reminding her and Ivy that this is their home, and they can move back in whenever they’re ready.
And it is fully Thorne’s house now. I moved into my penthouse apartment on the water in Louisville last month. Rosalia tried to talk me into a condo, but I’m not ready to put down permanent roots.
My phone buzzes. It's Ivy.
Two minutes. She suspects NOTHING.
“Positions,” I announce in a stage whisper.
The teenagers duck lower behind the sectional and chairs. Sebastian and Rosalia move to stand near Mother. Thorne joins me by the entryway. We all hold our breath.
Through the windows, headlights turn into the drive. My pulse kicks up, excited for Madison.
The house is silent. Waiting.
A car door slams. Then another. Ivy’s voice carries through the evening air, saying something I can’t make out. Madison laughs in response.
“I don’t understand why we’re stopping here,” Madison says as they get closer. “I thought we were going back to the apartment.”
“Thorne asked us to pick something up,” Ivy tells her. “It’ll only take a second.”
Keys jingle in the lock.
The door swings open. Ivy steps inside first, her hand already reaching for the light switch—our prearranged signal. Madison follows, scrolling on her phone, completely oblivious.
Ivy flips the switch.
“SURPRISE!”
The room explodes with noise. Madison screams, her phone clattering to the marble floor as everyone jumps out from behind furniture. Her hands fly to her mouth, eyes going wide as she takes in all the decorations, the ice sculpture, her friends rushing toward her, all of us grinning.
“Oh my God!” she gasps. “Oh my God, oh my God!”
Tracy gets to her first, wrapping her in a hug. “Happy birthday! Surprise. Did you have any idea?”
“No!” Madison is laughing and crying at the same time. “You all knew?”
Her swim team friends swarm her, all talking at once about how hard it was to keep the secret. Madison looks overwhelmed in the best possible way, her face glowing with happiness.
Thorne steps forward and the teenagers part, Tracy still watching him with her lovestuck expression. He pulls Madison into a hug, and she melts into it.
“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” he says.
“You did all this for me?” Her voice is muffled against his shoulder.
“Of course we did.” He pulls back, and his smile is soft, vulnerable. The expression used to be foreign on his face until Ivy and Madison crashed into his life. “You’re family. This is what family does.”
Ivy appears at his side, and Madison launches herself at her next. “I can’t believe you kept this secret!”
“I had help.” Her gaze finds Thorne’s, and there’s an easy intimacy of two people who’ve learned how to be partners.
It’s in the way he has to touch her. The way she leans into him. Like they're each other's true north. They might be taking things slow, but they’re building something real. Something that lasts.
I'm so happy my brothers have found love. Sebastian and Rosila, so perfectly matched. Watching Thorne transform from an angry, closed-off man to someone who throws surprise parties for a teenage girl makes something inside me ache.
Sebastian has Rosalia. Thorne has Ivy. Mother has her freedom and her European life.
And I have... what? A penthouse apartment that still smells like fresh paint. A closet full of designer clothes I wore to events I can barely remember. A passport stamped with cities where I was running from something instead of running toward it.
Madison turns and spots me. “Lilly!”
“Happy birthday, sweetheart.” I hug her tight, and most of the ache evaporates.
“Did you do the decorations? They’re perfect.”
“Purple and silver, your favorite colors.”
She pulls back, eyes shining. “This is the best birthday I’ve ever had, and it just started!”
Sebastian steps forward with Rosalia. “Well, it’s not over yet. We have—”
“A pony?” she jokes.
Rosalia laughs. “You already have Atticus.” Sebastain has always taken in rescue horses, but Madison and Rosalia have made it their mission to save every horse in Kentucky.
Madison nods. “That’s true.”
Mother rises from her chair with perfect grace. “Happy birthday, Madison. Welcome to fifteen.”
Madison hugs her too, and I see Mother’s expression gentle. This girl, a product of his affair, the living reminder of his betrayal, is being welcomed into the family in a way that would have been impossible when Father was alive.
But even more so by Thorne and Ivy. They've become the family Madison needed: protective, present, and unconditionally hers.
The party kicks into gear. Music starts playing.
It’s a playlist I helped Madison create last week under the guise of “just curious what you’re listening to these days.
” Her friends pull her toward the food, talking over each other.
Waiters circulate with trays of appetizers and mocktails in fancy glasses.
I watch it all unfold, satisfaction warm in my chest. This is what we’ve built. Not the cold, formal gatherings Father used to preside over, but something real. Something full of love and laughter.
“You did good, Lilly,” Thorne says, appearing beside me with a glass bottle of sparkling water. He’s switched from one drink at work events.
“We all did.” I gesture to the room. “Look at her. She’s so happy.”
“She is.” His gaze tracks Madison as she laughs with Tracy. “I never thought I’d be the kind of man who throws birthday parties. But here we are.”
Ivy joins us, slipping her hand into Thorne’s like it’s the most natural thing in the world. And at this point, it is. “The girls want to do karaoke later.”
“As long as I’m on the other end of the house,” Thorne says.
“Oh no, they want you on stage,” Ivy teases.
He laughs. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s her birthday.”
“There are limits to my generosity.” But he’s smiling.
Ivy rises on her toes to kiss his cheek. He turns his head to catch her lips instead.
I look away, giving them privacy.
Later, after Madison has opened presents from her friends and squealed over new swimsuits and concert tickets and makeup palettes, we migrate to the dining room.
The teenagers head downstairs to the pool, where Thorne has hired two lifeguards, giving them handsome tips in advance, with explicit instructions to watch over the kids in and out of the water.
I step out onto the terrace for air and find Thorne and Ivy already there, standing at the railing.
His arms are wrapped around her from behind, her hands covering his where they rest against her stomach.
They're not talking, just watching the stars, and there's something so peaceful about them that I almost turn back.
But Thorne glances over his shoulder. "Come here, Lilly."
He puts an arm around my shoulder. “Thank you,” Thorne says quietly. "For helping tonight. For all of this."
"It's Madison's birthday. Of course I—"
"No, I mean, thank you for giving me a million chances. For not writing me off as the bastard I was for most of your life." He looks at Ivy. "For believing I could be better than Dad."
She turns in his arms, her palm cupping his jaw. "You are better. You were always better. You just needed time to see it."
"I needed you," he corrects, then looks at me. "Both of you. The whole family."
My throat tightens. Thorne is actually talking about feelings, actually admitting he needs people. Ivy didn't just change him. She unlocked the man he was always capable of being.
"We're glad you figured it out," I manage.
"Me too,” he replies.
Rosalia calls inside, and we move to the living room.
Thorne takes the loveseat, pulling Ivy down beside him, their thighs pressed together.
His thumb traces absent circles on her shoulder.
She leans into him when she laughs at something Sebastian says.
I’m not sure if they’ll buck tradition and never get married, but I’m certain they will be together for the rest of their lives.
Conversation flows easily. Mother asks Ivy about her new law firm, and pride shines in her eyes when she talks about her first major client. Sebastian tells a story about a grain supplier that went sideways. Rosalia talks about the new volunteers for her reading programs.
“Speaking of programs that help others,” Rosalia says, crinkling her nose in that way that signals she’s about to start some trouble. “Remember when you needed me to stay with that adorable French boy you tutor?”
“Yes, his nanny was running behind, and I had to leave for a doctor’s appointment.”
“Well, his dad picked him and he’s… interesting.”