Fiance Next Door

Leander chuckles. “What? You think she’s so innocent and helpless? Some kind of couple you are. You don’t know a thing about each other.”

“You’re right,” Mason tells him. “Even after all this time, I don’t know everything about her yet. But I know this. I love her. You remember how that feels, don’t you? You loved a woman once.”

He frowns. “Don’t you dare bring Sharon into this.”

“All I’m saying is that this isn’t you,” Mason says. “I know you’re not a bad person.”

“Do you? Haven’t you always hated me?”

“No. I hated that people thought you were perfect, because that was unfair, not just to them but also to you. But not you. Never you.”

Leander says nothing.

“Put the gun down, Leander,” Mason tells him. “I know you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Still, he keeps the gun pointed at Mason.

“Anyway, it’s over now,” Mason says. “Even if you shoot me, nothing good will happen. Your friends? They’re all going to rot in prison just like Owens. All of you are going down.”

And all because they tried to mess with Mason. Wow.

Fear starts to show on Leander’s face. He lowers his gun.

That’s it, Leander.

Suddenly, though, he holds it to his temple.

“No!” I scream.

Mason makes a calming motion with his hands. “Don’t do this, Leander.”

“Why not? I’m going to jail, too, aren’t I? And I’ve already lost everything anyway.”

He cocks the gun.

“No!”

I run towards Leander.

“Aster!” Mason shouts after me.

Then the door opens. A wounded man, one of Leander’s friends by the looks of it, sees Mason and points the gun at him. My jaw drops.

Before I can scream, a gun fires. At the same time, Leander whizzes past me, seemingly a blur. The bullet hits him as he dives in front of Mason. He falls to the floor.

Mason grabs his gun and fires at the shooter, who falls as well. Then Mason kneels by Leander’s side.

“Leander.” I hear the concern in his voice as he inspects the wound on his brother’s shoulder. “Leander, hang in there, okay?”

As I watch them, my shaking knees finally give way and I sink to the floor. My hands clasp over my heart, which is threatening to burst out of my chest. I still want to scream, but my voice comes out in a whisper.

“Leander…”

Chapter Thirty ~ Moving On

Mason

“Leander is alright,” I tell Aster when I come home to the apartment after his surgery. “The doctors were able to remove the bullet from his shoulder and he’s going to make a full recovery.”

“That’s good.” Aster stands up from the edge of the bed. “He’s still going to jail, though, right?”

I nod. “I’m afraid so.”

Aster frowns.

“But I’ll do everything I can to make things easier for him. I’ll make sure he’s separated from his ‘friends’ and that the judge knows that he’s not a bad guy. Also, I’m going to do my best to keep the media away from this. I don’t want the world to see him like this. I want them to remember him as an amazing football player.”

The corners of Aster’s mouth turn up. “Well, in that moment when he caught that bullet for you, he was streaking like he used to on the field.”

I know. I thought that bullet was going to hit me straight between the eyes, but then Leander was there. I owe him my life. Again. That’s why I’m going to do everything I can to help him.

Well, even if he hadn’t saved my life, I still would, because he’s my brother.

“Like I said, he’s not a bad person.”

Aster nods. “And neither are you.”

She steps forward and takes my hands in hers. Her gaze holds mine.

My eyebrows crease. “I thought you couldn’t stand me. I thought you didn’t want to be with me anymore.”

“Yeah. That’s what I tried to make Leander think. But that’s not how I think at all. I know you were only made to do what you did.”

I look at her hands and grip them tightly. “If I hadn’t done it, they wouldn’t have let me go. And I couldn’t be out there anymore.”

“I know.” Aster touches my cheek. “You did what you could to survive. And you’re not just surviving right now. You’re helping so many people. You’re doing what you can to atone for what you didn’t even want to do.”

I nod. “I helped rebuild that village, you know. And the others. I went there and I made sure they had everything they needed.”

Aster smiles. “See. You’re saving more lives than what you were forced to take. So there’s no reason for you to punish yourself anymore.”

Her words lighten the burden in my chest. If there’s one good thing that came out of this whole fiasco, it’s that there are no more secrets between Aster and me. And she’s just told me the very words I’ve been longing to hear.