This can’t be real.

This can’t be.

But it is.

Brand Killien loves me.

He strokes my back, his hands running over my shoulder blade. He pulls my face up into his hands and looks into my eyes. “You will not sink, Nora,” he tells me firmly.  “You’ve been tossed by the waves, but you will not sink.  No matter what.”

My tattoo. Fluctuat nec Mergitur.  He looked up the meaning.  I smile through my tears and nod.

I won’t sink.  I won’t.

“Ma belle fille,” my mother says softly from the doorway.  I look up, but Brand doesn’t let go.  I stay clutched to his chest because there’s no place I’d rather be. I won’t sink because Brand is my anchor.  He holds me steady.

“Can you explain?” I ask simply.  My mother nods, setting down her coffee and easing herself into the chair by the edge of the bed.

“It’s very simple, really,” she says sadly.   “Your father…Maxwell, I mean, has been twisted for a very long time. He and William… they’re an unnatural, hateful pair.  I realized it soon after we were married. But I was from France, you see. And after your brother was born, Maxwell knew that he had me no matter what.  I knew what he and William were doing together… but I couldn’t stop it and I couldn’t leave, because Maxwell threatened to divorce me, have me extradited and then he’d keep Nate from me.  It was… torturous.”

A tear slips down her delicate cheek and even though I should be furious at her for keeping all of this from me, I can’t bring myself to that. She’s suffered, too.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

My mother drops her eyes. “Because as long as you were a minor, you were trapped with your father.  If he had me extradited, you’d have been alone with him.  I couldn’t allow that. And if I told you, I was afraid that you’d play that hand in an effort to get away from him. And he’d never have allowed that without a fight.  Not after grooming you for so long to be a Greene. I was too afraid of what he would do.”

“Who is my father?”  I ask simply.

She looks up, and she smiles a watery smile.

“Can you not guess?  Did you really never suspect?”

I close my eyes and race through my childhood memories and one face comes up in them more often than any other.    

Strong hands lifting me onto my horse, strong arms carrying me through the gardens, sharing his lunch, twinkling blue eyes that greeted me every day… and always the warmth. He was always happy to see me, always happy to be near me.

“Julian,” I breathe.

Brand cocks his head, questioning.

“Our gardener,” I remind him quickly.  “But he’s more than a gardener.  He took care of our house, our horses, me…”

I turn to my mother.  “But how… and… I just don’t understand.”

My mother smiles.

“Julian is from home,” she tells me.  “You already knew he was French too.  I loved him when I was young, but then I was wild and carefree and came to America for adventure.  That’s when I met and married Maxwell… he needed a normal family to cover up his twisted side.  I didn’t know that, though, at first.  We weren’t long into our marriage when I discovered what he was.  But I was trapped.  And Julian came to save me.  I couldn’t leave… I couldn’t leave Nate.  So Julian stayed with me. Always with me.  And then of course, you were born, and he had even more to stay for.”

Her voice drifts off and she stares out the window, lost in her memories.

“But you… you can leave now,” I point out.

She nods.  “I can.  I can do anything I’d like… because Maxwell will go to prison.  I’ve already called my attorney.  I’ll be divorcing him immediately. All will be well, Nora.  Finally.”

I feel Brand staring at me, and I look up, into the ocean blue eyes that I love.

All will be well.

Chapter Thirty-One

Nora

I cling to Brand, my arms wrapped around his strong waist as we fly down the highway that hugs the lake, on the back of his grandfather’s Triumph.

The wind whips my hair behind me and carries the scent of the lake, of the water and the sun, of Brand.  And there’s no place I’d rather be.

“You ready to stop for lunch?” Brand calls back to me.

“Sure,” I answer in his ear.

He pulls to the side, to the little lookout I’d brought him to so many weeks ago, back when he was still limping, back before he was really mine.

We crawl off the bike, take off our helmets, and he digs out sandwiches from a pouch on the back.

As we eat at the picnic table, I prop my legs on his lap and he stares at me thoughtfully, the corners of his eyes turning up.

“Tell me again what you said to Maxwell yesterday,” he tells me.  “When he called you from the jail and asked you to show leniency, to intervene on his behalf with the prosecutor?”

I inhale, exhale, then smile.  Because it had felt really damn good.

“I told him that prison is waiting for him.  And that I’ve heard prison life is hard for pansy-asses like him, so it’s a good thing he’s a Greene.  He can do what it takes.”

Brand smiles, a smile full of pride and humor and sadness.

“You’re badass,” he tells me with pride.  “Remind me never, ever to f**k with you.”

“Don’t you forget it,” I answer, putting all thoughts of Maxwell and William Greene out of my head.  I’m only focusing on the future now.

“What will you do with your parent’s house?  I mean, now that everything is over.”

He shrugs. “I think I’ll just sell the land.  I don’t want it.”

I can understand why.  In the weeks since he signed over everything to his mother, she hasn’t bothered to contact him.

“What about you?” Brand asks softly, reaching up with a large hand to tuck my windblown hair behind my ear.

“Your mother will get everything at Greene Corp.  She said she’s going to divide it between you and Nate… you’ll be rich, Nora. In your own right.  Not working for your father, not under anyone’s thumb.  You can do anything you want.”

I nod slowly, staring out at the lake.  “I know. It’s a crazy feeling.  For as long as I remember, I’ve been told what I want:  to grow up, be a good Greene and head up the legal team for the company.  But now, I can figure out what I want to do. I can use my degree, or use Maxwell’s money to get another degree so that I can do something I actually want to do. Or we can travel the world. The possibilities are endless.”