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Luna is obviously going to be taking over the Knights for me, because she loves basketball and won as many college championships for Columbia’s women’s team as I did for their men’s hockey team.
But she is—miraculously—one of those always happy, always kind people. She hates dark humor, and doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.
Liv on the other hand is calculated and mean as a bull when you get on her bad side.
She’ll take over the Keys. She’s been working with the scouting team in secret for years at this point, and Jim made her husband—a retired baseball player—GM instead of her.
The list of fucked-up things he’s done to my sisters is endless, and I can rectify one of those very easily. Liv deserves to be her husband’s boss and have a seat at the Turris’s table.
Looking at Baron and Harrison, I nod to the hallway leading to the boys’ bedroom and can feel them following me when I start walking without another word.
Johnny stands in front of the closed door, somehow looking shaken and immovable at the same time.
I clap him on the shoulder when he steps away, then look back at the leader of the Turris.
“Give me a second to see the boys. You can wait in there.”
I point at the door opposite, then walk into the bedroom.
Avery is lying on Mason’s bed with both boys curled against her, her hands buried in their curly brown mops of hair, and I can see their little shoulders rise with deep breaths.
They’re asleep.
That’s gotta be good, right?
I walk to the foot of the bed and just stare at them for a minute, soaking in the feeling of peace that’s all Avery.
I try to tell her with only a look how grateful I am to her, for being here, for being the person we need. Her soft smile tells me she’s happy and content right where she is, despite everything.
Liv and Luna strike when I turn to them, hugging me from both sides.
Luna’s bright blonde hair tickles my jaw while Liv’s brown hair, same shade as mine and the boys’, only reaches my bicep.
Having different mothers, there’s not a lot we have in common, looks-wise, but Luna is almost six feet tall, only four inches shorter than me but taller than average, Liv shares my brown eyes and hair, and Avery and I have the same eyebrows—much to her dismay.
I don’t know why those shared features mean so much to me, but they always have.
I guess it’s proof that we’re family, that despite everything we aren’t alone.
I kiss Luna’s head and squeeze them both once before pulling away.
“Need to talk to you, Liv,” I mumble.
“Whatever you need.”
I sigh.
Fucking Jim probably didn’t leave them shit, but I’m going to make sure they each get what they’re owed.
And as I lead Liv out to the hallway, into the playroom where I sent the heads of a freaking secret society, and as I see Baron and Harrison’s explanations dawn on her, I realize I should probably hand over the deed for the Keys to her, and not only the reins—a preemptive apology of sorts.
As she signs away her life to take her seat as the Heir to the Chair of Sports, I repeat the promise I first made to myself a decade ago—everything I just got, I’m going to share with my siblings.
I’m going to make sure they know they’re not just an afterthought for me. I’ll make sure Mason and Maddox know I’ll never abandon them even though I know I’m not the best person to raise them.
I’m going to make Jim’s looming shadow disappear from our lives if it’s the last thing I do.
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