Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

48. Aster

FORTY-EIGHT

ASTER

I gripped Logan’s hand where we stood in the hallway outside my father’s office door.

Logan sent me a gentle smile, and my heart fluttered in my chest.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked.

“Yes.”

I was.

I was so ready.

Ready to stand for myself.

Ready to stand for Logan.

Ready to stand for our family.

Still, my insides shivered as I glanced around.

Memories of this place echoed down the corridor.

The hope we’d had and the sorrow that we’d found.

For so long, we’d secreted ourselves away, hidden, our love nothing but a prayer and a whispered chance.

And today, that prayer would become our reality.

Even though my father expected us, Logan reached out and knocked on the wood.

“Come in,” was a muffled reverberation from the other side.

Logan opened the door, and together, we walked through, our hands held tight.

A promise to the other.

We were never letting go.

My father sat behind his desk, his expression cautious and somehow contrite.

My heart panged at the sight. Bitterness and hurt and the love I’d always held for a man who’d caused so many wrongs.

“Papa,” I couldn’t help but whisper, the long-used affection a rock in my throat.

“Please, come in and sit.” He gestured to the two leather chairs that sat across from his desk.

Tentatively, Logan and I moved that way and settled into the chairs, though our hands never loosened their bond.

“Mr. Costa.” Logan’s voice was hard.

“Logan.” My father sighed a disbelieving sound. “Much has happened since the last time we met.”

It seemed impossible that had only been four days ago when it almost felt like a lifetime removed.

It’d been a blur of torment. A day of terror.

But Logan—Logan had found his way back to me.

Just like for the rest of my life, I would always find my way back to him.

I would fight.

I would love.

I would cherish, and I would work for our joy and our peace.

But our days would no longer be counted as sacrifice.

It was an oath he and I had both made.

“You could say that.” Logan’s voice was strained.

I understood the animosity he felt sitting across from my father.

My father’s expression dimmed. “Jarek and that man Haille intended to overthrow me.”

Logan cleared his throat, glancing at me with all that adoration before he returned his attention to my father.

I’d asked him to provide the details so I could prepare myself for the rest.

“Yes,” he said, completely blunt. “Oz, Haille’s first guard, turned. He chose to protect your daughter over his loyalty to Mr. Manchief. He gave us everything he knows, plus there are plenty of condemning documents that were found at Jarek’s home here in LA.”

My papa lifted his chin. “And?”

Logan angled his head, ferocity coming off him. “They wanted the stones, Mr. Costa. They have always wanted the stones.”

My father hissed. He still didn’t even know of their fate. Had no idea both of them were currently sitting in the box that rested at mine and Logan’s feet.

All thanks to my sister who had seduced a biker.

“That night seven years ago, it was a setup,” Logan continued. “Haille and Jarek had made an alliance. Haille knew of Jarek’s standing in the family, and apparently Haille had made the greedy asshole an offer he couldn’t resist. Jarek was charged with securing both stones, and once he presented them to Haille, he was promised all of Los Angeles. Haille’s men were also promised to Jarek, that they would come here and end the Costa reign. Jarek wanted power and he wanted Aster, and he didn’t want to wait for it. Besides, he believed Haille more powerful than you.”

It was a straight shot to my father because it was true.

Haille would have destroyed him and this entire family.

But it’d all been put on hold when Logan had disappeared.

“That night, one of Jarek’s men came to make it look like a regular heist, but you had sent me, and things didn’t go exactly as planned. I tried to stop the thief, but the man ended up shooting Antonio. The assailant managed to get away with one stone. My gut told me it was all a setup, so when Jarek went for the second stone, I grabbed it. He was going to shoot me, so I shot him first.”

“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.

My beautiful man.

My dark defender.

My North Star.

He smiled down at me, pride and love gushing from his soul, and with the pads of his thumbs, he brushed away the tears I didn’t even realize were still falling.

“Run away with me, Little Star?”

“Running away with you is all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

His forehead dropped to mine. “Never look back.”

I curled both my hands around his wrists, my eyes dropping closed when I promised, “Never look back.”