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“Victor bailed you out,” Dante says quietly. He’s heard pieces of this before, just not all of it laid out.

“Barely knew him at the time. Just a guy from the fight scene. He showed up at the jail at three in the morning, paid my bail, then drove me to a diner and gave me a choice.” I turn my coffee mug in a slow circle on the table. “Channel it into somethingwith structure or keep going the way I was going and end up dead or in prison. That simple. That stark.”

“And you chose the gym,” Brady says.

“Started training seriously the next week. Been five years now.” I shrug. “Gym gave me purpose when I didn’t have any. Family, when I sure as hell didn’t have that either.”

“Is that why you’re so loyal to Oath?” Dakota asks. “Why you’d do anything for Victor?”

“He didn’t just give me a job. He gave me a reason to be better than my worst instincts.”

Dante nods slowly. “We’ve all been saved by that place in some way. Found family when the real one didn’t want or deserve us.”

The table’s quiet for a second, everyone sitting with that.

“Since we’re doing confession hour,” I say, deflecting before it gets too heavy, “might as well tell you about the last time I did the poly thing.”

Dakota perks up, more curious than wary this time.

“Boyfriend and girlfriend, both knew about each other. About a year and a half ago. Eight months, give or take.”

“What happened?” Brady asks.

“Nothing dramatic. No cheating, no blowup.” I think about how to say it right. “We just wanted different things. Sam wanted the whole picture, marriage, kids eventually. Rae wanted to move to Colorado, live out of a van, chase whatever came next. And me?” I laugh, but there’s no real humor in it. “I didn’t know what I wanted. Still don’t always.”

“Did it hurt?” Dakota’s voice is soft.

“Still love them, honestly. We stayed friends. But love wasn’t enough to hold the shape of it together once we admitted we wanted such different lives.” I look up, meet Brady’s eyes, then Dante’s, then Eli’s. “Left me wondering what I actually want out of any of this.”

“Does this scare you?” Brady asks. “Doing it again?”

“No.” The answer comes out faster than I expect, but it’s true. “Not because you all are better than Sam and Rae, that’s not it. It’s just—we were performing something. Being the cool progressive triad, checking the boxes for what that’s supposed to look like.” I gesture at the table, at all of them. “This isn’t that. This is just messy and honest and real. Nobody’s performing; we just—fit, I guess.”

Dakota knocks her knee against mine under the table. “Glad you’re here.”

Warmth spreads behind my ribs, and because I don’t know what to do with that feeling except make a joke, I say, “Guess I just keep getting saved by people who see something worth saving. First Victor. Now you lot.”

“Wasn’t just Victor,” Brady says quietly. “You did that. Showing up every day. He gave you the option, butyouchose to do the work.”

I deflect again, some smartass comment about him getting soft on me, but the words land somewhere weird and stay.

Eli stands, starts clearing plates, and the movement shifts the whole room from talking to doing. “After cleanup,” he says, “once everyone’s ready. We’ll do it.”

Everyone pitches in with the dishes. The kitchen fills with running water and clinking plates, ordinary sounds for an ordinary Sunday, except beneath it all is the hum of what’s coming. I watch Brady at the sink; hands unsteady around a mug he’s already rinsed twice, then watch Eli move with a deliberate calm that doesn’t quite hide the nervous energy coming from him. Then my attention tracks Dakota and Dante as they trade a look that says they both feel the weight of what’s about to happen.

When the kitchen’s clean, Eli takes a breath.

“I’m ready,” he says. “Everyone else?”

We are.

We move toward the bedroom together, all of us about to witness something that doesn’t happen twice. Daddy about to surrender for the first time. The youngest of us about to claim that surrender and prove he can hold it without breaking it.

I follow last, grinning to myself, because this weekend just keeps getting more interesting, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here, watching every piece of this family find the parts of themselves they didn’t know they were missing.

23

ELI