No one speaks for a long moment. I feel the weight of everyone’s eyes on me, waiting for my reaction.
“I don’t want it,” I say finally, the words coming out harsher than intended. “I don’t know the first thing about running a ranch.”
“Actually,” Ella says softly, “you do. Or at least, you have the instinct for it. Tomas showed me pictures of you working with horses at that stable in Toronto. He said you had a natural way with them.”
“He was watching me?” The idea sends a chill down my spine.
Ella nods. “He watched all of you from a distance. He was... complicated. Controlling, manipulative, and selfish in many ways. But he did love you, Kane. In his own broken way.”
“Love?” I laugh bitterly. “He gave me away. Had to pay a man off to take me as his son. That’s not love.”
“No,” she agrees. “It wasn’t. That’s why he’s trying to give something back now.”
I stand abruptly, needing space, air, distance from the suffocating weight of Tomas’s posthumous expectations. “I need a minute,” I mutter, heading for the massive glass doors that lead to a deck overlooking the lake.
Outside, the air is crisp with the scent of pine and clean mountain water. The sun has begun its descent behind the peaks, painting the sky in shades of orange and gold. It’s breathtaking—this place, this land that supposedly belongs to me now.
I hear the door slide open behind me and knowwithout turning that it’s Kori. She doesn’t speak as she comes to stand beside me at the railing, her presence a comfort I didn’t know I needed until I met her.
“It’s beautiful,” she says finally, gazing out at the landscape.
“It’s insane,” I reply. “All of it. Ella being real. The ranch. Him leaving it to me, of all people.”
“Why not you?” she asks, turning to study my profile.
“Because I’m the outsider, the black sheep. The one who didn’t grow up as a MacGallan. The one he threw away.” My hands grip the railing until my knuckles turn white. “And now he expects me to just... what? Move to Alberta? Become a rancher? Play happy families with siblings I barely know?”
“I don’t think he expects anything anymore,” Kori says gently. “He’s gone, Kane. This isn’t about his expectations. It’s about what you want.”
I turn to look at her—this woman who crashed into my life on a plane, weeks ago, and somehow became essential to my existence. “What if I don’t know what I want?”
She smiles, reaching up to brush a strand of hair from my forehead. “Then you take your time figuring it out. There’s no rush.”
The door slides open again, and Ella steps out, hesitating when she sees us. “Sorry to interrupt. Ican come back—”
“It’s fine,” I say, though my heart rate picks up at the sight of her—my sister. The words still feel foreign, impossible.
She approaches cautiously, stopping at a respectful distance. “I know this is overwhelming. Believe me, I tried to talk him out of the whole treasure hunt idea. I told him to call you all, to be direct for once in his life.”
“Why didn’t you contact us after he died?” I ask. “Why let us go through all this?”
“Malcolm thought it was safer this way,” she explains. “If Mikhail was watching any of you, a direct approach might have led him straight to us.” She glances at Nora, who is now visible through the windows, playing with a large golden retriever in the living room. “I couldn’t risk my daughter.”
The fierce protectiveness in her voice resonates with something deep inside me. Despite everything—the lies, the manipulations, the years of separation—she is my blood. My sister. And that little girl is my niece. I wonder if Declan felt like this when he found out about Kat and Connor.
“Tell me about her,” I say, nodding toward Nora. “About both of you.”
Ella’s face lights up, the resemblance to Tomas momentarily vanishing beneath genuine warmth. “Nora is eight. Smart, stubborn, too brave for herown good sometimes. She loves horses—we have a small house with a stable on the property. And art. She draws constantly.”
“And Nora’s father?” I ask the question that’s been nagging at me since she dodged it earlier.
Ella’s expression clouds. “That’s... complicated.”
“Mikhail?” Kori guesses, her voice gentle but direct.
Ella’s sharp intake of breath is answer enough. “It wasn’t... it wasn’t what you’re thinking,” she says quickly. “I was sheltered all my life. After his father got sick, I reached out to him. At first, it was only by email, then eventually we met. I thought I loved him, before I understood who he really was.” Her hands twist together nervously. “When I tried to leave, to break it off, things got ugly. I told Tomas what happened. He was furious. That’s when he moved me here, changed my name, and then I found out I was pregnant with Nora. Mikhail doesn’t know about her, and he can never find out.”
The protective instinct that flared earlier intensifies. I may not know this woman well, may not fully trust her yet, but the thought of someone threatening her and that little girl makes something primal stir inside me.
