The Beast of Napa

Epilogue

Five Years Later

Rose stepped into her office, the cool Autumn air coming in through the window. She took off her coat and hung it on the rack, looking at the files on her desk and the handsome man sitting in the chair next to them.

"Did you just come back from California, Jonathan?" she asked him, leaning in to peck his lips.

He nodded. "The trip was a success. Nathaniel says hello and sorry that he missed you."

"I am too. But doctor's orders and all that."

Jonathan ran his calloused hand across her stomach, rubbing it fondly. "Everything healthy?"

She nodded with a smile. "Of course. Would I allow anything else?"

He shook his head. "Of course not. I married a woman capable of anything."

"And here I just thought you married me because you were tired of the business competition."

"Well, I have to admit marriage has been the best strategy to silence an enemy yet."

He stood and pecked her lips. She smiled, wrapping herself in his arms.

"How was Nathaniel, anyways?" Rose asked. "The last we talked, he was stressing himself out over the youngest."

Jonathan nodded. "Recovered, thankfully. Catriona was a cool source of healing for them both, Nathaniel said."

Rose nodded with a smile. "She's a good mother."

"You will be too."

"I'm a better businesswoman."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you excelled at both. But as a man with six siblings, I will be more than happy to show you how it's done."

She laughed. "What would I do without you?"

"Be whisked away by far more successful businessmen, I'm sure."

"Oh, success doesn't interest me. I just need to be adored, that's all."

"Consider it done."

Rose gave her husband another peck before going to her desk and looking through the mail. She found a letter from a familiar hand, laughing to herself as she opened it.

"What is it?" her husband asked.

"A letter from Patrick," Rose said with an edge even though she was smiling. "He must be dramatically bored behind those bars."

"Or plotting something," her husband added. "I would be if my wife had ratted me out."

"Oh, yes. What was her name anyways? Sue? Sabrina? Well, whatever it was, she was a useless addition to his wives, wasn't she?"

She opened the letter, glancing at the paper before laughing to herself and reading it aloud.

"Patrick says, 'I've had more time to read poetry and discuss with my roommates the philosophy of democracy. These fools would be lost without me, I think.' Same old Patrick. He'll always have those rose-colored glasses that refuse to see the darkness in himself."

"Some people are like that."

"The miserable people, yes."

Rose looked out the window of her office, leaning against the frame and taking in the autumn sunshine. It was nearly harvesting season again, and even though the laws of alcohol had become even harder to go up against, and more had been destroyed in the process, none of that mattered as the sun settled on everything hoped for the future.

It was just a drink.

It may have brought out the devil in some, but it could never take away the good in them completely.

With a smile, Rose looked up at the sky, the sunlight shining on everything in front of her.