Page 128 of Reckless Love

“What’s this all about?” she asks as they read her rights to her, ferrying her toward the car. “Ava, you need to call my lawyer,” she says when she sees me. But when she takes in Stephen beside me, her eyes narrow, and then she notices the rest of our family, minus our father, who’s probably in his office, oblivious. “What is this?” she hisses.

“You’ve interfered in enough lives,” Nathaniel says from behind me. “You’re finally going to pay the price.”

“I’ll never serve a day in prison, and if I do, I won’t be the only one.” She shoots a glare at Stephen.

“You were right about marrying into the royal family, Mother,” Maren says. “Do you know how much pull they have on the island? Even more than a Tucker. Oh, wait. Wasn’t that why you wanted to join the Summerset family? The connections? Now we’re all just one big happy family, looking after each other.”

“Maybe you could control or manipulate us separately,” I say, “but when we all stand together, we’re unstoppable. You will go to jail, and all of us will be better off for not having you in our lives.”

“Better off,” she scoffs. “None of you has ever known what was good for you. Never.”

One of the police officers opens the rear of the cruiser, and they partially shove our mother into the back. The sadness I thought I might feel doesn’t rise to the surface, and instead, it’s just relief that sweeps over me.

“Alex has his list of uncorrupted cops, lawyers, and judges ready to act,” Brice says. “He’ll make sure both cases stay on the right track.”

Stephen wraps me in his arms and kisses the top of my head. “You did the right thing,” he murmurs.

Chapter Forty-Six

Stephen

I’m heading into Owen’s house for our monthly meeting about operations when my phone chimes with a text from Ava.

The new birth certificate just arrived. I want to frame it. Would that be weird? We can order a second copy.

A grin rises to the surface at the picture that comes next. Landon Foster. Jesus. It’s real. Even once I knew he was mine, I braced myself to never see this day, to never have this kind of resolution. Before I can reply, another text comes through.

And it’s finally hit me how big of a deal this is and that I’m not sure how to tell Landon and I don’t even know where to start. Where do we start? How are we supposed to make this make sense?

Her stream-of-consciousness texting is strangely comforting, since I also don’t know how we’re supposed to do this without causing Landon some damage to his identity. He’s young, but Raul is the only father he’s ever known. To me, he already feels like my son, but I’ve had the truth for months now. For Landon, this is going to shake his foundation.

We’ll figure it out together when I get home tonight. I text back. The last piece of our family puzzle.

Then I tuck my phone back into my pocket as Owen answers the door. He looks tired, but he also just returned from an overseas trip to recruit Bellerive citizens to return home to work for us. Ex-military, retired police, and a host of other law and security professionals who’ve been employed elsewhere in the world were his targets.

“Jet lag?” I ask as he leads us back to his office.

“Out late with Ren,” he says. “Rebecca moved out of their apartment, and he’s spinning.”

“I thought they had a house.”

“They did,” Owen says with a sigh. “Which turned into an apartment because… You know, I probably shouldn’t talk about this with you.”

“I talk to you about Ava.”

“She’s work that became personal. I don’t need to drag my personal into my work. I like those lines clean. Besides, it’s Ren’s drama, not mine.”

Except we both know those lines have never been clean—either with work or with Ren’s personal life. For a while, Ren was working for our Bellerive office when we first opened. Not in security but in marketing. Supposedly trying to get us clients. Didn’t last long, and I never asked why. I’ve heard lots of rumors about Ren, though. He’s well known across the island for his charm and the way he spends his inherited wealth.

“Any luck recruiting?” I ask as we enter Owen’s office.

“A fair bit,” Owen says with a nod. “At least my discussions were mostly positive. May need to do another trip or two to secure some of them.”

“When are you thinking about doing that?” I ask.

“Wait for things to cool down here first.”

Right, the drama that doesn’t affect him.