Epilogue
ALEX
Late spring had finally settled into Chicago, and the city had shed its snowy backdrop for something lighter and brighter. The scent of rain wafted on the air instead of frost, and the river outside my boardroom reflected sunlight instead of steel-gray clouds.
As far as I was concerned, it was progress. In every sense of the word. I was starting to think Jane and I should make like birds and migrate every winter, not that either of us had time, but perhaps Westwood and Sons could benefit from a satellite office in the tropics.
I’ll look into it.
I was halfway out of a meeting and on my way to the next when Deborah strode into view and cleared her throat. “Alex, your wife is on line one. She says it’s urgent.”
I didn’t ask questions, not needing to know how urgent or why. I took the phone from her hand and walked straight into my office, closing the door behind me.
“Jane,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, thank God,” she breathed. “You need to get here. Now.”
I checked my watch automatically, more out of habit than anything else. “Where is ‘here’ exactly?”
“The house. That big, historical one I told you about. On Astor.”
My stomach dropped. “Are you safe?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, then hesitated. “I mean, physically, yeah, I’m probably safe. Emotionally? Well, that’s undetermined.”
I was already grabbing my keys. “What’s going on, Killer? Why does it sound like you’re being held at knifepoint?”
“I had an appointment to tour this place today and I…” She trailed off for a beat. “I just need you to get here.”
I exhaled, relief and affection tangling in my chest. “I’m on my way.”
“Thank you, and Alex?”
“Yeah.”
“I want it on record that this kitchen is incredible. I wouldn’t be asking you to drop everything and come if it wasn’t worth it.”
The line went dead, but I smiled to myself as I headed for the elevator, already texting my driver and Deborah to let her know to cancel my next meeting. A few months ago, a call like that would’ve sent me straight into damage-control mode, worst-case scenarios lining up in my head like dominoes.
Now, it just made me move faster. If Jane needed me, I was there. Always. No matter what I had to cancel or postpone to make it happen.
It had been a good couple of months since we’d been back in Chicago. Better than good, actually. Fucking amazing.
The buyout had gone through cleanly, easier and faster than anyone had expected, and Jane had stepped into the CEO role at Thayer like she’d been born for it. Which, I supposed, she had been, but still.
Watching her take control of that first meeting had been something else. She’d been calm, precise, and relentless in a way that made people lean forward instead of pushing back. I’d never been more turned on than I had been in that moment.
Quarter Two numbers were already turning around, with new contracts in place, smarter manufacturing timelines, and confidence in the company slowly being restored, both internally and on the street.
People listened when she spoke, not because of her last name, but because she knew exactly what she was doing and it showed.
We’d restructured the board, too. Isaac, Jane’s eldest brother who had been finishing his engineering degree at Baylor when everything had gone down with Thayer, had come on first. Sterling had formally joined us, which had surprised exactly no one, and Jameson had followed not long after, bringing his usual mix of charm and sharp instincts to the table.
Trent had taken a seat as well, turning it into the strangest version of a family affair I’d ever seen, but somehow, also the most functional.
Board meetings had turned into excuses for reunions, with Laney, Sadie, and Charlotte usually flying in with their husbands—and their kids—when they needed to be here in person.
Jane thrived on it. All of it, but especially having Isaac back in town and by her side, on her board, where they’d both always hoped he would be. She’d also enjoyed bonding with my sister and my cousins’ wives, and these days, I swore she was closer to them than I was.
I pulled up outside the mansion less than twenty minutes later.
It was massive with a stone facade and iron gates, the kind of place with history baked into its bones, but somehow, it was also warm.
It didn’t look like a historic landmark as much as a place where someone could actually live. Where we could actually live.
It wasn’t far from the St. Regis, but this wasn’t about square footage, or resale value, or whether the windows were original. It was about us, building something that wasn’t transactional or strategic.
Busy didn’t stop. It never would. My days were still packed with meetings, calls, and contracts that needed my name at the bottom. Jane worked just as hard, if not harder, her calendar a masterpiece of color-coded chaos, but somewhere between it all, we’d found balance.
I stood in front of the place for a second longer than necessary, my hands on my hips as I took it all in. Jane had been right about this house. It wasn’t just nice, it was right.
Grand without being cold. Old without feeling stuck in the past. Homey and ready for us to move in but majestic in a way that made it demand respect.
It was everything we’d talked about in fragments between meetings and late-night takeout.
I was already planning on calling Nate and finding out how fast I could close when I stepped inside.
“Jane?” I called, looking around the spacious foyer, but there was no sign of her.
Her voice floated down from somewhere above instead. “Alex? I’m upstairs.”
Something in her tone slowed me down before it sped me up.
It wasn’t that same panic I’d heard on the phone, but it wasn’t quite right either.
My heart tripped over itself and I raced toward the sweeping staircase just off the foyer, grabbing the banister and taking the stairs two at a time, my shoes echoing softly against the wood.
At the top of the stairs, the hallway stretched out, doors on either side, but most of them were empty rooms waiting to be claimed.
One was clearly a library. Bare shelves lined the walls with a huge fireplace in the center of one, and I nearly smiled at the memory of telling her on our honeymoon that we’d have one of these one day.
But my heart was still hammering just a little too hard to smile, unease snaking through my gut. “Jane?”
“I’m here.” She appeared out of a room at the far end, one hand resting on the doorframe as she smiled at me.
It wasn’t her usual smile, though, and seeing it made my ribs shrink around my heart. Her eyes were shining in a way that made me nervous, the curve of her lips too small to be comforting.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s happening? Are you okay? Where’s the realtor? I thought you were taking a tour.”
“Yeah, I did,” she replied. “I sent her home. I… just… come here.”
She stepped back, letting me pass into the room she’d just come out of. The first thing I registered was that it was already furnished, not empty like the rest of the house or echoing, but gently lived in.
A soft rug was spread on the hardwood floors, a crib against the far wall with its white wood polished to a soft sheen. There was a rocking chair by the window and pale curtains stirring slightly in the breeze.
I stopped dead, my brain trying to catalog the details enough to make logical sense of it. Maybe it came with the house. Maybe it’s temporary. Maybe—
My heart was already racing ahead of me, pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears as I turned slowly to look at her. “Jane, why are we in a nursery?”
She watched me with her arms folded loosely over her middle. “I didn’t want to show you downstairs. I wanted you to see it like this first.”
My throat worked, but no sound came out at first. “I thought you wanted to show me the kitchen.”
“Oh, I will.” Her eyes became even glassier as she stared at me. “This house has everything we talked about wanting for our future. Space. Light.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“So I, uh, I bought it,” she said, just about blurting it out. “I signed all the papers just before I called you this afternoon, but I’ve had access to it for a few days. This last tour I did with the realtor was basically just a final walkthrough.”
I let out a shaky breath, blinking slowly. My head spun and my brain kept stuttering over the details of this particular room. “Did they leave the baby stuff behind?”
“No, the house isn’t the only surprise.” She took a step toward me, then another, and she kept going until we were standing inches apart.
I could see the faint tremor in her fingers when she lifted her hands to my chest. “I went to the doctor last week, but I didn’t want to tell you until I was sure and I knew it was real. ”
My pulse thundered, the room suddenly feeling very small. “Until you were sure about what, Killer?”
Her mouth curved into a smile that broke my heart wide open. “I’m pregnant, Alex.”
The world stopped. It didn’t slow or shift. It just… stopped.
Every plan, every meeting, and every contract that was waiting for me to sign dissolved into nothing as the words landed and took root somewhere deep in my chest. I stared at her, stunned, like if I moved too fast, I would wake up from this dream.
“You’re…” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat, my eyes intent on her sparkling, glassy grays. “You’re serious?”
She laughed softly, the tears spilling over now. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”
I pulled her into my arms, holding on to her like she was the only solid thing left on earth. She fit against me perfectly, like she always had, but this was different, the moment somehow so much fuller.
“We’re…” I tried again, my forehead pressed to hers, and finally just croaked it out. “We’re having a baby.”
“Yes.”
A sound tore out of me that was half laugh and half something dangerously close to a sob. I cupped her face and kissed her, so completely in awe of this woman and the life we were building that I felt pressure at the backs of my eyes.
“I love you,” I said fiercely. “God, Jane. I love you so damn much.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I love you too, Alex.”
I pulled back enough to look into her eyes, one of my hands already instinctively sliding to her stomach and resting there like it belonged. Like deep down, I already knew what it was protecting.
Back when I’d first found out Sterling had agreed to get married—and produce an heir—I’d thought he was insane, but I’d known it would be my turn soon.
The dominoes had kept falling in California, one of my cousins charging down the aisle after the next, and every time I’d spoken to them, I’d assumed their happiness had simply been a result of having drunk the Kool-Aid.
Never in my life would I have imagined that it could be real, that it could feel like this, or that I would one day have it too, but in this moment, all that changed.
This incredible woman, Dr. Jane Thayer-Westwood, was not only my wife and the love of my life, but she was carrying my child and I suddenly knew that this was what winning actually felt like.
Everything I had, everything I was, and everything I ever would be, belonged to them. This was the ending I hadn’t quite been prepared for—our very own happily ever after, and the beginning of the rest of our lives.