"I won't beg for my life, you damn sons of bitches." Garrett, who had several bullet wounds in his body, spat blood as he regained consciousness.
Then, as he looked at the men in front of him, he focused on one he could never forget: "My son…"
Dante drew his pistol and approached Garrett, whose life was hanging by a thin thread, and said: "When I started investigating him, that guy should have realized, so he started the attack on our family."
"That makes more sense…" Kayce thought, now more aware of what his brother had uncovered so far.
"Did you kill my real mother?" Jamie didn't know how to ask, nor how he should react.
"No, son…" Garrett clung to an explanation he couldn't express.
"Shut the damn mouth and answer my question," Jamie replied, taking the pistol from Dante's hand, who stepped aside as Jamie approached Garrett.
Jamie's furious eyes focused only on the wicked man lying in a small pool of blood.
"I'm sorry, I can't explain it to you now, since I don't have much time left. My only regret in life is not being able to take care of you and guide you, instead of that disgusting John Dutton."
"He's more of a father than you'll ever be in your life!" Jamie shouted before pulling the trigger and shooting Garrett in the head.
"Silence, eliminate the other one." Dante said, signaling one of his soldiers to eliminate the other prisoner with a knife.
Then, after everything had been dealt with, Dante approached Jamie and said: "You'll always be my brother."
"You'll be our brother," Kayce corrected Dante's words, who wasn't in the best condition to express himself properly.
Lee, being the oldest of all the brothers, approached and said: "Jamie, let's get out of here."
The three brothers approached the devastated Jamie and helped him to his feet, then all walked toward the truck parked not far away and sat down.
Dante had previously ordered the cleanup to begin, and before continuing with the elimination of the rest of his enemies, he decided that his brother was more important.
"Although things will be a little different from this day on, I want you to know that no matter what blood says, I'll treat you just like any of my other brothers." Dante didn't care about blood; he himself, in a way, felt he wasn't fully part of the family.
"None of this really matters."
Maybe Dante could have spared that information, but once Jamie took full control of the law firm and discovered information he hadn't known before, he might realize the whole truth.
Dante wasn't the kind of man who hides things, not when the trust his brothers had in him was at stake.
"I feel like having a beer…"
Kayce noticed that all of Dante's men had finished their work and said, "Yeah, we should do that."
"Let's go back now, they must be waiting for us."
…
Dutton Ranch.
Late at night, the brothers decided to light a campfire to chat for a while before going to sleep.
The crackling of the fire broke the silence of the night, sending sparks into the starry sky. Four men sat in a circle around the fire, the glow illuminating their faces, marked by what they had lived through that night. Jamie, with his gaze lost in the flames, was still digesting the revelation that had changed his life.
He wasn't a Dutton by blood, at least not one recognized by the family.
Kayce, with his usual calm, tossed a stone into the fire and smiled nostalgically. "Do you remember when dad used to make us run barefoot along the river? He said that's how we'd learn to be tough, but we'd just end up with our feet full of thorns."
Lee chuckled softly, as if none of what had happened was of much importance, and nodded. "Yeah, and in the end, mom always treated our feet while calling us idiots for listening to him. Although Dante never had to go through that, I think he would've fallen for dad's trap too."
Dante, who didn't remember any of that due to his young age back then, rested his elbows on his knees and smiled. "I don't doubt that was something incredible. Although, I doubt it would have gone worse for me than for Jamie. Or do you not remember the time you almost drowned in the lake?"
Jamie looked up and smiled bitterly. "You're never going to stop reminding me of that, huh?"
Kayce gave him a light shove on the shoulder. "Never."
Lee took a sip of his beer and looked at Jamie seriously, but with a glint of warmth in his eyes. "Look, brother, I know this news hit you hard. But if there's one thing we learned from dad, it's that blood doesn't make a family. What makes a family is everything we've lived through together."
Jamie took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his words. "I don't know what to do with all this."
Dante patted his back. "Do what you've always done: keep moving forward. Here, with your brothers."
For the first time in hours, Jamie allowed himself to genuinely smile. As the flames danced before them, the weight on his chest grew a little lighter. It didn't matter what blood said; they were his brothers, and that would never change.
Meanwhile, Dante, who actually felt a little emptier than his brother, smiled, knowing he wouldn't receive any comfort for selfishly claiming this family as his own.
The reality was, even though he felt like he was a brother to these men, an inner demon told him that his happiness could be a lie.
But to this family, that truth would be taken to the grave.
He regretted it so much...
Still, as his brothers had said, if they all felt good with each other, that was enough to call themselves brothers.