"Funny," I say, voice steady despite the rage boiling inside me. "The pattern matches your hand perfectly. What are the odds?"
A murmur ripples through the onlookers. Brad's friends shift uncomfortably, not quite meeting his eyes. For the first time, uncertainty flickers across his face.
"You're lying," he insists, but his voice lacks conviction.
"Am I?" I step closer, letting my anger show. "You grabbed me, Brad. You threw my laptop out the window. You called me worthless. And now you're trying to do it again, make me feel small, make me doubt myself, but it won't work. Not anymore."
"You should listen to yourself." He tries to rally, looking around at the gathered crowd for support. "This is the unstable behavior I've been talking about. Delusions. Paranoia. And now she's dragged Elias McKenna into her mess, convincing him of her lies."
I laugh, the sound sharp with disbelief. "Elias McKenna isn't 'convinced' of anything. He saw the bruises. He saw you trespassing on his property. He heard the threats you made on his porch."
"More lies," Ronald Cooper interjects. "My son would never?—"
"Your son did exactly that," Elias's deep voice cuts through the diner as he steps to my side. "And if either of you come near her again, what happened here today will seem like a picnic."
The threat is delivered with such calm certainty that even the elder Cooper takes a step back. For a moment, I glimpse what enemies must see when facing Elias McKenna, implacable determination backed by absolute capability.
"Are you threatening us?" Ronald demands, bravado returning.
"Just stating facts." Elias's hand finds mine, a public declaration that sends whispers through the gathered crowd. "Riley is filing for a restraining order against your son. With extensive evidence. I suggest you consider your next moves very carefully."
Brad's eyes narrow, focusing on our joined hands. "So it's true. You've been screwing her. I wonder what her father would think of that arrangement?"
The calculated cruelty of the attack makes me flinch. But before Elias can respond, another voice cuts through the tension.
"Bill Hart would approve."
All heads turn to Maggie, the diner's elderly owner, who's watched the proceedings with growing disgust from behind her counter. She steps forward now, wiping her hands on her apron.
"I've known Bill Hart since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.
Known Elias McKenna just as long. Known all of you.
" Her sharp gaze sweeps the diner. "Bill trusted Elias with his life in that godforsaken war.
Trusted him with his daughter after. And if Bill were here today, he'd be standing right where Elias is standing. "
The simple declaration, delivered with the authority of Grizzly Ridge's oldest resident, carries more weight than any legal argument. Tears prick at my eyes as Maggie continues.
"As for you, Bradley Cooper," she turns her formidable glare on Brad, "I've watched you grow from a spoiled brat into a bully who thinks his daddy's money makes him untouchable. Well, not in my diner. You're banned. Permanently."
Brad's face flushes an ugly red. "You can't?—"
"I just did." Maggie crosses her arms. "And the same goes for anyone who supports this nonsense against Riley and Elias.
The McKennas have protected this town for generations.
Where were the Coopers when the wildfire nearly took out half the county in '98?
When that bus of schoolchildren went off the road in the blizzard of '05? "
Her words ripple through the crowd, reminding everyone of the McKenna family's deep roots in Grizzly Ridge. The tide of public opinion, already wavering, shifts perceptibly.
Ronald Cooper recognizes it too. "Come on, Brad," he mutters, tugging his son's arm. "This isn't the time or place."
"This isn't over," Brad snarls, allowing himself to be pulled toward the door. "Not by a long shot."
As they leave, the tension in the diner dissipates like air from a punctured balloon. Sawyer begins issuing calm directives, dispersing the crowd and restoring order. The McKenna brothers converge around Elias and me, a protective circle of tall, imposing men with identical determined expressions.
"You okay?" Finn asks, eyeing me with concern.
I nod, overwhelmed by the show of support. "Thank you. All of you."
"Family protects family," Luke says simply, as if that explains everything.
And perhaps it does. Because standing here, surrounded by McKennas, my hand still firmly in Elias's grasp, I feel something I haven't felt since Dad died, a sense of belonging. Of being part of something larger than myself.
Elias squeezes my hand, drawing my attention back to him. The worry in his eyes is plain to see, but so is something else, pride, fierce and unabashed.
"That was one hell of a stand you took," he says quietly, just for me.
"Learned from the best," I reply, thinking of Dad, of Elias himself. "Besides, I meant what I said yesterday. I'm done letting Brad dictate my life."
His thumb traces circles on my palm, the simple touch grounding me amid the chaos. "Still, it took courage. More than most people have."
"Does it change anything?" I ask, needing to know where we stand after this public confrontation, this open acknowledgment of whatever is growing between us.
Elias studies me for a long moment, his expression softening. "Yes. Everything and nothing."
"That's cryptic, even for you."
A rare smile touches his lips. "Everything, because there's no hiding now. The town knows. My family knows. We can stop pretending."
Hope rises in my chest. "And nothing?"
"Nothing, because I was already yours." His voice drops to a rumble only I can hear. "Have been since you came back to Grizzly Ridge. Will be long after this mess with Cooper is settled."
The simple declaration, delivered amid the wreckage of Maggie's Diner, with his family watching and half the town gossiping outside, means more than any flowery profession ever could.
"Take me home, Elias," I say softly. "I think we've given the town enough to talk about for one day."
His eyes darken at my words, understanding what I'm really asking. What I'm offering. Without another word, he guides me through the diner and out into the bright spring sunshine, his hand never leaving mine.
Behind us, I hear Sawyer instructing his deputies, Maggie berating customers into helping clean up, Finn and Luke arguing over who landed the better punch. The normal chaos of small-town life, continuing despite everything.
But ahead of us lies the mountain, Elias's cabin, and the promise of something I've wanted for longer than I care to admit.
For the first time since coming back to Grizzly Ridge, I feel like I'm exactly where I belong.