Colter's POV
I stood motionless beside his bed, watching the labored rise and fall of his chest. Each breath seemed to cost him everything he had left.
Griffin was dying.
It had been years since my brothers packed up and left, abandoning me in that cavernous mansion that suddenly felt like a mausoleum. Years of rattling around in rooms that once buzzed with chaos and now echoed with nothing but my footsteps.
I was pushing forty now. Caleb and Jessica's kid had started kindergarten. Cornelia and David had gotten married, produced twins, and those little terrors were just learning to walk and destroy everything in their path.
The company was mine now, even though Griffin still drew breath. The moment his illness took hold, he'd stepped aside and handed me the reins. Not that he'd had much choice.
Years had passed. Everything had changed.
But some things remained exactly the same.
I turned to leave when his voice stopped me cold.
"Stay."
