Chapter 144

Epilogue

McKenzie

After the James disaster, the house just breathed a collective sigh of relief. Elara was mortified, but she was also incredibly smart. She figured out that being "normal" didn't mean smoking behind the gym; it meant having the freedom to kick out a loser in front of the most powerful people in the city. She learned her lesson, and now she’s obsessed with cybersecurity and asset management, just to spite Cyrus. The teenage drama was never ending, but at least it's safe drama now.

It’s been a few months, and life has finally settled into that low-hum stability we're always chasing. Samuel was walking again, slow but steady, and still talking about going fishing. Grayson and Zara are back to their normal, chaotic schedule; only now they actually leave the house without calling us ten times.

We all needed a proper reset, and Darius, in his usual grand way, decided the best way to prove we were fine was to gather everyone we love in one place for a massive family dinner. No business, no drama, just excessive amounts of food.

We’re all in the main living room at Michael and Christine’s house, the original fortress. It’s loud, it’s messy, and it’s beautiful.

Michael and Christine, the OG Ciranos, are presiding over the chaos with quiet smiles. Michael has that grandfather glow now; Christine is still the elegant center of the family, watching us all with love.

Marlene is here, too, sitting on the sofa, totally relaxed, talking to Zara about the latest rehab gossip. Marlene, the one who almost died, the one Cynthia saved, is laughing so loud she snorts a little.

Zara and Grayson are arguing good-naturedly over whose kid is smarter, completely oblivious to the fact that all their kids, Talia, Zeke, and Michael, are currently talking about building some fort. Zeke was using his phone to pull up engineering specs for the pillows.

Liza and her husband were trying to keep their daughter, Anna, from sneaking out. Natalie and her husband were trying to keep Damien from launching a remote-controlled drone into the chandelier. It’s glorious pandemonium.

I watched Darius across the room. He was talking to Cyrus, and I could hear the familiar, low tone of a business discussion, but there’s a softness to it now. Cyrus was holding his own, arguing about some tech stock, but he kept checking to make sure Elara was okay.

Elara was sitting with Caleb and the other kids, but she was on her phone. Not with some boy, though. She was looking up college engineering programs, another direct, rebellious choice that would make her father proud.

I leaned back against the wall, taking a big breath of air that smelled like roasted chicken and expensive perfume and too many kids.

Darius caught my eye. He excused himself from Cyrus and walked straight over to me, pulling me into the archway, just out of the main noise.

"Chaos," he murmured, his eyes scanning the crowd with a mix of satisfaction and dread.

"The best kind," I agreed, hooking my arms around his waist. "It's what we fought for, Darius. Cyrus is still analyzing stock, Elara just threatened to start a petition to replace her math teacher, and everyone is alive and eating Christine’s incredible pasta." I said,

He rested his head against mine. "You did good, Kenzie. With Elara, with the past. You made them understand the why," he said.

"We did it," I corrected him. "You showed her what loyalty looks like with Titus, and I showed her what life without hope looks like. "She chose hope," I said.

I look out at the room again, watching Zara hug Marlene, watching Michael smile at his sons, watching our kids play together without a single trace of fear in their eyes. The scars are still there on my ankles, in Darius’s paranoia, and in Elara’s fear of being controlled, but they’re just history now, not open wounds.

"We owe Cynthia everything," I whispered to him, the truth of my life with him always circling back to the woman who cut the lock.

"We do," he agreed softly. "And we pay that debt every day by keeping all this safe," he said.

He pulled me in for a quick, hard kiss. "Come on. Grab a plate. I think Zeke just told his dad he wants to invest in a start-up, and I need to be there for that explosion," he said.

I laughed, grabbing his hand. We walked back into the noise, the chaos, and the warmth. We're family. We survived war, we survived trauma, we survived a terrible boyfriend, and we survived a teenage rebellion. We're messy, we're loud, and we are absolutely, completely family. And as long as we have that, we're fine. We're always fine.