Page 129 of Point of Contention

She pushed back to look up at me, eyes wide with amazement. “Are you serious? She’s yourmom, Cabot.I’msorry.”

I shrugged. “I’ve had a few years to accept the loss. This news is fresh for you.”

She swiped at her eyes, smiling up at me through the tears. “You crazy man.” She shook her head. “Losing a mom is so much more than finding out your favorite author is gone.” After a few seconds, her smile fell. “Wait.” She licked her lips as she thought about something. “She just had a new release.”

I nodded. “Posthumously.”

“Oh.” She inhaled a shaky breath. “Oh wow.”

“There are three more as well,” I admitted. “Two will finish out theStars on Fireseries, and the other one…” I clamped my mouth shut. I hadn’t planned on telling a single soul about my mother’s final manuscript. Only a handful of people at Reed Romance knew that Elizabeth Reed was Simona Steele. She’d been an enigma even when she was alive, an author that preferred anonymity rather than stepping into her much-deserved spotlight. Mother relished in the way the public adored her work as Simona, but she never wanted to stand up and publicly claim it as her own. She was happy to write words people loved, then put that income back into her beloved publishing house.

This manuscript had been such a complete change from her usual work that I’d advised her to create a new alias, go an entirely new direction with this one.

We had yet to settle on a new pen name—or even a title for the book.

I’d had no idea it would be the last one she wrote.

It was also her best work. Prolific.

And… it feltsacred.

I’d only shared it with one person.

Rylan’s eyes flicked back and forth between mine as she waited for me to finish explaining.

Then they widened. Her mouth dropped open.

I watched as the gears all clicked into place and she realized.

“This One,” she whispered reverently, remembering the working title of the very first manuscript I’d ever given her to read. I hadn’t understood it then, why I’d given some wet-behind-the-ears intern something that was so priceless, but it all made sense to me now. Full-circle. Rylan said the working title as though the manuscript was sacred to her as well. Her eyes glistened with renewed tears as the weight of it all sank in.

I chuckled and shook my head, cupping her cheek and trailing my thumb back and forth over her skin as I said, “Outside of myself, you’re the only person who’s read that manuscript.”

She stretched and wrapped her arms around my neck, then pushed up onto her tiptoes to brush her lips against mine. After searching my gaze for a long time, she finally whispered, “Thank you.”

Hours later, the moon high in the sky, I slipped carefully out from beneath Rylan as she slept soundlessly on the couch. I turned off the television, then padded quietly to my home office to return a missed call from Travis.

“Hey,” he answered quickly. “It’s all set. Monday morning.”

I nodded as a wave of relief washed over me, but it couldn’t fully dislodge the knot of anxiety in my chest. Scheduling the meeting was only the first step. After that…

Well, I had no fucking clue what would happen after that.

But I had to expose Roderick and his father for the underhanded snakes they were, then somehow convince my father that forcing me into marriage with an unwilling wife was not the way to go about securing an heir for the Reed family of businesses.

As Travis and I formulated a plan, my shoulders began to relax. The vise around my lungs slowly loosened.

By the time we ended the call, I felt better. Not great—yet—but definitely on my way.

“Thanks for having my back,” I said.

“Always, you fucking prick.” He ended the call and I chuckled softly to myself.

“I love that sound.”

I looked up and Rylan stood in the doorway, dressed only in one of my dress shirts, her dark hair messy from sleep. “Wow,” I breathed as I closed the laptop to focus on her.

She settled into a seat on the other side of the desk and my fingers flexed as the need to touch her came over me.