Page 130 of The Forever Rule

Theo rubbed his hands together. “Oh, I know exactly what you’re talking about. And yes, we’ll make them.”

“You’re going to create a monster,” Isabella said, but there wasn’t too much humor in her tone. She kept looking over at Blakely, and then off into the distance. Something was going on with her, and we would figure it out. Once we could all just settle.

As I stared around at my family, everybody speaking to one another, as if we hadn’t all been forced together in an odd sense of genetics and circumstance, I realized that maybe all of us in one room wasn’t that bad.

Ford and Cale were in the corner laughing about something, as Sophia came up to both of them, and leaned into her boyfriend’s hold. The two of them seemed happy, and I liked the way that he treated my sister. Just like I liked the fact I could freely saysisterand not feel like I was out of my element. At least too far.

I was never going to understand my father. And I knew that every single person in this room could walk away from what that man had built at any moment. But in the end, it had forced us to get to know one another. I knew that no matter how many forced dinners we had, it would be on our terms. As much as we could make it happen.

I wanted to get to know my family. And I did not want to be my father. I would follow the rules of the will, but those were the only ones.

And in the end, we were about to make rules of our own.

I knew that not everybody was happy with the situation, and there was going to be resentment bubbling up soon, and we’d deal with it. I wasn’t resentful of the people in this room. Not with what they represented.

My mother might change her mind at some point, and stop being so icy cold. But I did not care what my father thought anymore. Not when I had almost lost the woman that I loved, not once, but twice. And I never wanted to feel that again.

“You’re off in your head,” she whispered, and I kissed her temple.

“Just thinking.” I cleared my throat and held up my glass. “How about a toast?”

“Should we take a picture for the attorney?” James asked.

I rolled my eyes. “You know what, let’s do it, just so we can get ahead on the game.”

“I’ll send one from my phone too, just to annoy him.” Kyler grinned as he said it, and I had a feeling that the brother I knew the least was probably going to keep us on our toes.

We all held up our glass as they each took a photo, and then I cleared my throat.

“Okay, an actual toast. To the Cages we are, not the Cages he made. And to figuring out how the fuck to make this work, without His Lordship ruling over us.”

“Hear hear,” Dorian said.

“So eloquently put,” Isabella added.

We each held up our glasses, before taking a sip, and I looked down at Blakely and raised a brow.

“I’ll figure out a better toast next time.”

“I like that you’re already thinking of next time.”

“As long as you’re there, I can do it.”

My brothers made oohing and aahing sounds, with Dorian gagging in the back, but I just leaned down and pressed my lips to hers.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Cage.”

“Please call him Aston, there’s way too many Cages in this room. You might get confused,” Dorian said with a laugh.

“I’m pretty sure I can’t confuse him for anyone. Just saying.”

“That was far too sappy,” Isabella said with a laugh that didn’t reach her eyes.

And as I held up my glass again, we all took a sip, and then I kissed Blakely on the temple again and settled back as my family figured out their new routines and did the one thing that we had never been allowed to do.

Tell our secrets.

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