This moment is ours. We’ve never really been alone like this. There’s always been someone there. Darragh. Sophie. Scarlett. It stopped being awkward between us.
Until now. Because being alone brings back those awful times when it was just us in Las Vegas.
“I owe you another apology,” I say quietly. “Not the polite one. The real one. The one I didn’t even know I needed to make a year ago.”
Ana studies me, arms crossed loosely over her chest. “Cormac…”
“I said things that I never meant,” I confess. “Or…maybe I did mean them at the time, but only because I hated myself. I took it out on you. You tried to love me when I wasn’t capable of meeting you halfway.”
She exhales slowly. “We were having a good time. And things went too far. I know that terrible side of you wasn’t really you.”
That nearly makes me break down. Many people have said this, my mother, my brothers. But hearing it from the person who lived with the monster I’d turned into makes all the difference. Hers is the only truth I can live with.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to truly express how sorry I am for what happened. For what I did.”
“Anyone can apologize. It’s just a word. But it’s your actions when we needed you that matter. Cormac, you came through, again and again. You’ve shown both your brother and me your true self this past year. We see the man you are.”
I nod. “I’m happy for you and Darragh and how you love Sophie like your own.”
“With your matching DNA,” Ana smirks. “Sophie is as much yours as J.P. is Darragh’s.”
“It makes for a tight family bond.”
“Unbreakable,” she says.
We smile, and then Ana asks something I wasn’t expecting.
“How was Dunbar?”
I huff a quiet laugh. “Like being locked with a mirror you can’t look away from, and you’re forced to watch your face falling off.”
She lowers her voice. “Your dad…”
“He fucked up,” I say coldly. “And he paid for that.” I push away the image of Lachlan blowing his head off.
“I was lucky. I reconciled with my father.” Ana shiftsher hip. “Our son saved me. Do you realize that?”
“You gave him the heir he needed.”
“He’ll be a great pakhan, one day. I’ll make sure of it.”
“We’llmake sure of it.”
She steps closer, then surprises me by pulling me into a hug. Not tight. Not lingering.
Just…warm.
“Thank you,” I say into her shoulder.
“For what?” she asks.
“For my son.”
She pulls back with a soft and truly genuine smile. “Back at you. Now make sure you give that wife of yours a lot of love and a nice life.”
Ana steps into the waiting elevator. When she turns to face me, just before the doors close, I catch how much our son looks like her.
I stand in the hallway for a moment longer. I did all I could do. Darragh and Ana forgave me. My wife accepts me. It’s time to forgive myself.