So I couldn’t either.”

I turned, and I nodded to Douglas, who lifted the cover of the baby carrier and tilted it, gently, so that the room could see.

Inside, wrapped in a soft blue blanket, warm and whole and utterly unbothered by the chaos around him, lay a perfect, sleeping baby boy with a head of dark hair.

Brandon stared down at the child, and I watched the last of it land on him — that not only was I alive, but the child he had gone up that mountain to erase, the rightful heir to my family’s entire estate, was here, and breathing, and safe, and completely beyond his reach forever.

“Say hello to Liam,” I said, and my voice rang out clear enough for the whole room to hear it.

“He’s healthy.