Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“And you ran,” my father surmised, horror in the wobble of his voice.
“I ran. I never should have. I should have come back that night and fought for Aster.”
Logan turned those eyes on me.
A thousand shades of green.
“I was a fool,” he murmured my direction as he traced his thumb over the back of my hand. “But I will never make that mistake again.”
My chest pulsed with adoration.
I love you, I mouthed.
Logan heaved out a breath when he turned back to my father. “They have been hunting for it for years. Once they discovered my location a year ago, Haille set a plan of his own because he no longer trusted Jarek to do it. He rented a house nearby and came to me to manage his less than legitimate finances.”
“He wanted on the inside.” Papa blew air through his nose.
“Yes. And when he still didn’t discover the necklace’s whereabouts, he brought in Jarek. Jarek never disguised his hate for me, and Haille was correct to assume that hate went both ways. He figured eventually Jarek’s presence would draw the stone out. Haille had believed I would eventually confide in him that I had possession of the stone. He believed that would be the easiest course. It didn’t go that way, so they came for Aster.”
“And we all nearly died because of it,” I heaved, sitting forward. “Because of all of this, Papa. Because of the greed and the thirst for power. Because of the sins and the crimes. I was to be killed as a punishment to Jarek for messing up the first time, as a lesson, right here in your office, before they killed you. This…this is the life you chose. This is the life you forced onto your daughters. And it’s a life I will no longer live.”
His face paled. “I am sorry, mia vita, you don’t know to the depths.”
Tears blurred and tripped from my eyelids, faster than I could stop them. “You sat there by my bedside, knowing what he had done. That he’d beaten me. That he robbed my baby from my body. You condoned it, traded it for Logan’s life.”
“Aster,” he begged.
Agony spun, a swell of lightheadedness rushing through my brain, but I pressed on and pushed to my feet.
Logan squeezed my hand in a show of support before he released it. I spread both palms over my still-flat stomach.
Love abounded.
This rising hope.
This blazing joy.
“And now…now I have a chance at finding what you and Jarek stole, and I’m taking that chance. I’m taking it, and there is nothing you will do or say to stop me.”
Desperation curled from his throat. “I have wronged you, mia vita. I stood behind years of tradition, turned a blind eye as if it were just the way. I allowed abhorrent things to happen to my own daughter. Will you ever forgive me?”
“I will always love you, Papa, but I don’t know if I will ever forgive you for what you caused.”
“I could never forgive myself.”
I leaned forward and planted my hands on his desk. “Then you remember that, Papa, you remember that when it comes to Taylor. Because I promise you, with my last breath, that I will never allow you to do to her what you did to me.”
He gulped, turned away when he forced out, “On my shame, I swear to you, it ends here.”
Relief blew from me in a breath.
I almost slumped over, my entire being rocking forward with the rush of adrenaline and the surge of perseverance.
I would stand.
I would stand.
Then Logan was there, at my side, his arm sliding around my waist.
He leaned down, pulled the box from the case, and set the box on the desk. “I came here seven years ago with the one stone I had. I was going to offer it to you, promise my allegiance, and beg for the chance to give your daughter a good life. Now, I’m telling you. Take the stones, and I’m taking Aster, and we are never looking back.”
Confusion bound my father, and with a shaky hand, he reached out and slid the box the rest of the way across the desk. Carefully, he undid the latches.
He gasped at the twin stones set inside, his attention jerking up. “You’re just…giving it back? After all these years?”
Logan’s arm tightened around my waist. “The stones have always been yours, and Aster has always been mine. I no longer have any use for what does not bring us joy.”
Stunned, my father rocked back.
I swallowed around the rock lodged in my throat, and I shifted to take Logan’s hand in a show of solidarity, then I lifted my chin and said, “Goodbye, Papa.”
Because I was turning my back on this ugly world, and I would never see him again.
“Goodbye, mia vita.”
Together, Logan and I walked across the floor. The second we stepped out into the hall, Logan spun me around and gripped me by both sides of the face.