Questions rushed from me without sound.
He’d turned on Haille.
Had stood for us.
“Why?”
He swallowed hard. “You were not to walk out of here, and the girl was to be slain in front of her father. I would not let that happen.”
Aster choked over the fear that still rambled through her being. Trembles rocked her head to toe, the girl in shock.
If it was possible, I gathered her closer.
“Thank you,” I told him, barely able to get the words to cooperate.
“I have done awful things in his name, and I could no longer be a prisoner to his bidding. I needed out as badly as you, and for a long time, I’ve been looking for a way. But when I learned of what they intended? I knew there was a purpose that I was still here. That it was my duty to stop this from happening. My conscience cannot bear more innocent blood.”
“We’re going to have questions,” Trent muttered.
Oz almost smiled. “And I have answers.”
FORTY-EIGHT
ASTER
I grippedLogan’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.