Page 155 of The Price of Forever

Trace’s voice was whisper thin when he spoke. “Holy shit. Are you serious?”

They exchanged a few more words before Trace hung up and pocketed his phone. He looked dazed.

“I wasn’t trying to listen,” I said after a moment of silence, “but I could hear…”

Trace moved his bewildered gaze to me. “I don’t even know what to think. I’m scared to get my hopes up.”

I reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “I sincerely hope it means something amazing for you and your brothers. You guys have been nothing but generous with me. You all deserve the best.”

They deserved that and more. They deserved to have the truth exposed. They deserved to live a full life with their sister at their side.

I held on to the seeds of hope that had sprouted, desperate to see them turn into something real and tangible…a future for the Fairchilds.

CHAPTER FORTY

JORDAN

“Where did you say it was again?” I hissed at Seven as we poked our heads down yet another hallway in the labyrinth of the lower Manhattan federal courthouse.

“I have no fucking idea anymore.” He looked behind us, then down the sprawling corridor that gleamed to our right. He checked his watch. “But this thing starts in ten minutes.”

“This thing” was the last-minute hearing that would hopefully resolve what my brothers had been fearing for almost a year. I’d been able to get the time and date details out of Damian during some brief text messages earlier that week, even though he and Axel remained frosty. I didn’t blame them. They had every right to feel the way they did about how they perceived my relationship with Eli. I was just chomping at the bit to set the record straight, no matter what today’s outcome was.

I had a whole confessional planned. I needed my brothers back in my life.

“Wait. I think it’s this way.” Seven spun on his heel, returning down the hallway we’d just come from. “You said courtroom thirty-six, right?”

“I think.” Courtroom numbers blurred past us as we speed walked down the corridor. There were over forty courtrooms in this granite behemoth of a building. Entirely too many courtrooms for one city block.

“We need to go down a level,” he said suddenly, then pushed open the door to the stairwell. We raced down the stairs, though it wasn’t as fun as usual. When we burst through to the other floor, we nearly crashed into Jessa, Mercedes, and Cora.

I sucked in a sharp breath as their gazes swung our way. Mercedes and Jessa smiled—strained, sad, but still a smile. Cora stiffened at the sight of me. They all wore various takes on business-formal black—which Seven and I had chosen as well—which meant we all looked like we were attending a fancy funeral.

I just hoped that whatever happened beyond those doors today wouldn’t truly be the death of my brothers’ empire.

“Hey. We were just trying to, uh…” I swallowed hard as the door clanged shut behind us, echoing in the quiet hall. “Find the courtroom.”

“It’s right here,” Jessa said, “but they haven’t opened the doors yet.”

“The brothers are inside already,” Mercedes said softly, her gaze swinging toward the closed doors in front of us. “With the lawyer.”

I nodded, looking up at Seven for some sort of guidance. Not only was this the heaviest, most anxiety-ridden day for all of us, the tension brimming between Cora and me resembled a festering wound. She hadn’t responded to a single text or call since the news broke about Eli. The most I’d gotten out of Axel was that Cora was relieved I wasn’t hurt.

I couldn’t stand being in her radiant presence and feeling this weight between us. I drifted her way. “Cora, do you think we could step aside for a second?”

Her mossy green gaze flicked my way, her brows furrowing. “Jordan, I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. We’re about to go inside. I can’t think about anything except what’s going to happen inside those doors.”

“I know,” I said, “I just want you to know how—”

“Please, let’s just focus on the brothers.” She brought out the knife-edge business voice, which told me to shut the hell up. And I listened. I clamped my mouth shut, nodding.

The double doors of the courtroom jostled, then swung open a moment later, revealing multiple rows of dark wooden benches, like church pews facing an impressively high judge’s bench. At the front of the courtroom, I spotted the backs of Axel’s, Damian’s, and Trace’s heads, bent together as they conferred with their lawyers. Huge windows overlooked the city, the sunny November day filling the courtroom with a brightness and positivity that felt at odds with the heaviness in the air. Seven grasped my hand as we followed Cora, Jessa, and Mercedes into the courtroom and toward a row near my brothers and their lawyer. A few other people, some of whom I assumed were reporters, took their own seats. By the time the hearing was set to begin, the courtroom was a little under half full, a murmur of hushed conversation buzzing through the air.

“All rise.”

The whoosh of people standing filled the room as the door to the judge’s chambers opened. My heart pounded as an elderly, dour-looking judge stepped into the room and assumed his position at the front of the room. Judge Barton and his clerks underwent some official procedures then, initiating the day’s docket, as everyone returned to sitting. After a bit of formal recordkeeping, Judge Barton called out, “The United States versus Fairchild Enterprises.”

A shiver ran up my spine. I looked over at Seven, who watched the proceedings with drawn brows. I reached for his hand, and he squeezed it softly.

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