My nerves rattled, and I did my best to swallow it down, nodding at him once before I shifted, removed the phone from the charger, and snuck out into the kitchen area.
My voice was held when I answered, “Merry Christmas, Papa.”
“Mia vita, Merry Christmas.”
His affection filled my spirit. My love for him real even though he’d caused so much pain and grief.
“It truly is, Papa. It’s the first one where I felt whole and right since before I can remember.”
Or maybe I never had.
A heavy sigh pilfered through the line. “Please tell me you haven’t allowed your whimsical fantasies to delude you, Aster Rose. It’s time you come home, where you belong, and leave this foolishness behind.”
My mind spun with how to handle this best.
“No. Not yet. I’m so close to finding them, Papa. I’ve earned his trust.” My voice dropped even lower with that. I felt like a fraud saying it, and not because I held any guilt over lying to my father. “I need more time, and you promised me thirty days.”
“We miss you here.”
My laughter was close to disbelieving. “I’m not sure how you can miss something that doesn’t truly exist.”
There, I was a shell.
Numb.
A caricature with a false smile.
“You know everything, every choice I’ve ever made, is because of my love for you.”
The sad thing was I thought he might believe it.
“No, Papa. Every choice you ever made was for you because you believed in a lie that was passed down from generation to generation that proclaimed that was the way it was supposed to be. It was wrong. Horrible. A crime. And I will no longer pretend like it’s not.”
“Aster.” His voice was aghast. Low and filled with a warning.
“It’s the truth, Papa. And you know it. It’s time you came to accept it.”
I ended the call before giving him a chance to respond, and the air squeezed from my lungs in spastic quakes.
I was shocked at what I’d said.
Shocked by the truth that I was going to stand behind it.
An overwhelming presence emerged over me from behind. Stark intensity. Mind-bending beauty. Logan wrapped his arms around my waist, and he pressed his nose into my hair until it was sweeping the sensitive spot at the nape of my neck. “Aster. Little Star. My light. My destination. I’m so fucking proud of you.”
I pressed my hands over his that were splayed over my stomach. “Together.”
“Together,” he rumbled back.
And I knew…knew everything would be all right.
THIRTY-EIGHT
ASTER
My phone buzzedon the island. I all but skipped over to where I’d left it. I got a full body buzz whenever I thought of Logan, which was basically every second of every day.
So, what if I was happy.