It was a picture of Tess standing next to him in a classy ivory dress that hugged her rounded figure and skimmed her knees. Her hair was twisted in a sophisticated knot at the back of her head. Her feet were encased in a pair of high-heeled, fuck-me shoes, one hand holding a bouquet which was a mixture of bloodred and bright pink roses, the other arm wrapped around his back. Rex was to her back left, Ellie standing to her front left. Joel was to Brock’s back right, Levi at Joey’s side with Dylan and Grady in front of them. Martha was standing at Rex and Tess’s sides. Family and friends were scrunched all around behind the front crew.

The best part about the picture, to Brock’s way of thinking, was the twinkling diamond you could only just see on Tess’s ring finger, which was curled around the ivory-ribbon-wrapped long stems of her bouquet. That huge-ass diamond sitting on top of a very wide, very brilliant gold band that, only minutes before, Brock had slid on her finger. A band that matched a wider, no less brilliant one that Brock now wore that, that day, she had slid on his.

And, of course, another best part were those fuck-me shoes. An invitation he’d accepted approximately five hours after the picture was taken.

And, lastly, the fact that her smile was wide, her beautiful white teeth showing, her eyes shining because she was laughing.

Donald Heller studied that photo for a long time.

Then, head still bent to the photo, he whispered, “She looks happy.”

“She is,” Brock confirmed and Heller’s head came up.

Brock didn’t come often but he came regularly. He did this because the man in front of him loved Tess. He also did it because the man in front of him sired an asshole but the last act his asshole son perpetrated on this earth was trying to keep Brock’s Tess from harm.

Damian Heller had picked apart the bones of Brock Lucas’s life and in doing so, Damian Heller had learned about Josiah Burkett. And Damian Heller had had the means to keep an eye on Burkett and an ear. He knew Burkett was planning revenge. He should have told Brock and, if not Brock, then the cops. But if he did, he couldn’t play out his knight-in-shining-armor act.

Even so, he went down so Tess wouldn’t. He was an asshole, his play was foolish, and he could have caused Tess the harm he wanted to shield her from, but Brock couldn’t deny his going down was worth something.