Della Brady pondered the meaning of home as she stood on the steps of Cate’s beautiful bungalow in Rosemary Run, California, a bouquet of summer flowers in her hand.
The late afternoon sun bathed the quaint street in golden light, casting long shadows and adding to the surreal feeling that had been growing since she arrived. She hadn’t known what to expect when she discovered she had a brother—a brother who was now gone, leaving behind a family she had never met, and a town she had never heard of.
The idea of home felt distant. For years, her career as an F.B.I. agent had been her focus. After splitting with Eric Hampton, the love of her life, her days had become defined by the cases she solved, the criminals she put away, and the justice she pursued. Now, she was here, standing at the doorway of a woman who had been married to her brother, and who, only a short time ago, had been a complete stranger.
The flowers felt like a weak gesture, but she had brought them anyway. A peace offering, perhaps, for the awkwardness that would inevitably follow.
How do you introduce yourself to the widow of a man you never even knew existed? Mick Brady had lived a life completely separate from hers, and yet, she felt a strange sense of duty to understand him. To understand the man who was her brother. To find out why he had died.
The door to the bungalow opened slowly, and a woman stood in the threshold. Cate Brady.
Her expression was tired, a mixture of curiosity and wariness. She looked exactly how Della imagined she might—grieving, but composed, managing because she had no other choice. Her kids needed her. It didn’t matter that Cate was now married to a handsome police detective named Neil Fredericks. The loss of Mick had been a devastating blow to her family.
“Della?” Cate’s voice was soft, tentative, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of the woman standing on her doorstep.
“Yes,” Della said, trying to offer a reassuring smile. She held out the flowers, realizing how trivial they felt in the moment. “I hope these aren’t too much. I just—thought it would be nice.”
Cate’s lips twitched into a slight smile as she accepted the bouquet. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s not too much at all. Come in.”
Della stepped into the house, instantly feeling the shift from the warm, breezy outside to the cool, quiet inside. The smell of home-cooked food hung in the air, and the distant sound of kids playing filtered through the walls. For a moment, Della was overwhelmed by the sense of family here—the life Mick had built. A life that had somehow, unknowingly, been tied to hers.
They stood in awkward silence, neither quite sure how to bridge the gap between them. Della took a deep breath and glanced around at the family photos on the walls, the toys strewn across the floor. This was Mick’s world, a world she’d never been part of, but now felt responsible for understanding.
“Can I get you something? Coffee, maybe?” Cate asked, breaking the silence. Her voice was polite, but guarded.
“No, I’m okay,” Della replied.
She wasn’t here for coffee or small talk. She was here to figure out what had happened to her brother, to understand why Mick had died, and why his death didn’t feel like the simple accident the police had ruled it to be.
There was more. She could feel it.
Cate nodded, setting the bouquet on the kitchen counter, her hands lingering over the petals for a moment.
“I’m glad you came. I suppose you’re here to learn about Mick,” she said softly, her eyes meeting Della’s.
Della hesitated, then nodded. “I realize it’s a lot to take in,” she said gently. “I didn’t know about him at all, until you called. Now that I do, I need to understand what happened. There are things about Mick’s death that don’t add up, and I can’t just walk away from that. I’m an F.B.I. agent.”
“Oh?” Cate asked. “I didn’t realize that.”
Della confirmed with another nod.
Cate’s face tightened, and for a moment, Della saw the flicker of something darker—fear, maybe. Or grief that went deeper than she had expected. “Mick was a good man,” Cate said, her voice barely above a whisper. “There were things he never told me, though. I learned a lot after the accident, when I began digging on my own.”
A long silence hung between them. Della’s pulse quickened. She’d felt it from the beginning—there was more to Mick’s death than anyone had wanted to admit. Now, she was certain of it.
“There’s something you’re not saying,” Della pressed, her voice quiet but insistent. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Cate’s eyes flickered with uncertainty. She glanced toward the living room, where her children played. Aaron was zoned out, headphones in his ears, but Jilly smiled as she patiently worked a puzzle on the coffee table with Niko. She was such a good sister.
“I don’t know if I should,” Cate murmured. “Talking about Mick ... it’s complicated. And the people involved ...” Her voice trailed off, leaving the words unfinished, hanging in the air.
Della’s stomach tightened. She had been chasing secrets her whole career, but this felt different. This felt personal. She hadn’t just come here to learn about Mick’s life. She had come here to get justice for him. And if there were people who didn’t want her asking questions, that only made her more determined to find out the truth.
“You can trust me,” Della said softly, but firmly. “Whatever it is, I need to know.”
Cate took a shaky breath, her hands trembling as she wiped them on a blue and white striped dishtowel she had in her hands.
“I’m scared, Della,” she whispered. “Mick was into something. Something dangerous. I don’t think it’s over.”
Della felt her heart lurch. The situation she had feared was, apparently, true. By digging into his past, would she put herself—and Cate and the kids—in the crosshairs of whatever danger Mick had been running from?
A shadow passed over Cate’s face, and she glanced at the front window nervously. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she whispered. “They might be watching.”
Della’s skin prickled, a cold sense of foreboding creeping up her spine. “Who?” she asked, her voice barely audible.
Cate’s gaze darted toward the window again. “The same people who were after Mick.”
