He leans back slightly.
“New York needs me,” he replies. “Lucian’s already moving things. I’ll finish what’s left here, then I go.”
I study him.
“You planning on climbing higher?”
A faint smile.
“Possibly.”
Of course.
When he decides to do something it happens and I always knew his ambitions were never to be on the bottom.
“Stay a few days,” I say. “We’re doing something. Private.”
He considers it for a second. Then nods.
“I’ll stay.”
Good. Silence settles.
“Thank you,” I say.
He waves it off.
“It’s business.”
It’s not. But I let it go.
“Next time you walk in here, it will be yours.” he tells me. “Go home. Your wife’s waiting.”
The word lands differently now as I study him, my brother who has always had my back, always let me be who I wanted to be and made sure I could marry the woman I loved.
I clasp his shoulder once and see the understanding there as I turn and head home to my family.
sixty-nine
Liana
The cursor blinks. Steady. Patient. Waiting.
My fingers hover over the keyboard for a moment longer than they need to, not because I don’t know what comes next, but because I do.
Because I know exactly what this moment is.
I exhale slowly.
Then type...The End.
The words settle onto the screen, small and simple and entirely inadequate for what they actually hold.
For a second, I just stare at them and something inside me… shifts.
Like something that’s been clenched for so long I forgot it was there has finally… let go.
This isn’t just the end of a book.
