I was still struggling with the fact that he’d fathered me. Was still trying to come to grips with the fact he had been responsible for the death of my mother, Reed in the middle of it, each of us pawns in his twisted game.
Agony lanced through my chest. Spikes and barbs.
I had no idea how I was going to forgive myself for what I’d done.
Jace sighed, roughed a hand through his hair. “I want you to consider coming to work with me.”
My head mildly shook. “The last thing you need is my name associated with your business. You’ve worked too hard. Not going to fuck that up.”
His eyes flicked my direction before his attention was back on the road. “And now I want to work with you. You feel shame over your past, Ian? Only thing I feel when it comes to you is pride. You are exactly the kind of man I want working at my side.”
Faith glanced at me from over her shoulder, her smile soft. Her stance clear. She wanted me there, too.
“I . . . I think I’m going to have to figure shit out on my own. Who I am, and who I want to be. And I need to do it the right way. No skipping steps.”
Jace smiled, a soft nod. “Well, if you want to figure out those steps next to me, that door is always going to be open. And this isn’t your big brother doing you a favor. This is a businessman who knows when a partner will be an asset.”
He had taken a few turns deeper into the city, the minimum-security prison where I’d been held only about twenty minutes out of town. Way too cushy, if I were being honest. But I’d had a ton of time to reflect.
But coming to terms with all this bullshit was going to take more than six months behind bars.
“I appreciate that more than you know.”
“Just . . . tell me you’ll at least consider it.”
“Okay,” I agreed, not sure how to even picture it. What my life was going to be like now that the one thing I’d chased forever was gone.
Funny thing was, I didn’t even want it anymore.
It’d all come down to one case. One case that mattered.
One case that didn’t even end up needing a trial.
Hers.
My pulse spiked as her face flashed in my mind. The girl written on me in a way that should be impossible.
Jace made another turn, and I frowned. “Where are we going? Thought you were dropping me off at my place?”
Faith shifted in her seat, and Jace didn’t look at me when he took another turn into a parking lot. “You’re going, Ian. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
God, they knew about whatever this party was. Were in on it. Unease tumbled through my guts. “I’ve been away a long time. Think it would be best if you took me home first. Think I need to wrap my mind around being free.”
“You want to be here, Ian. Trust me,” Jace said as he pulled into a vacant parking spot and killed the engine.
Trust me.
God.
I roughed a hand through my hair, shaking when I slipped out of the car, nerves instantly wracking through my body.
Like I could feel the shift.
Something big bounding my way.
Twilight hung on the horizon, the hot day giving way to the trill of bugs that were all too eager to welcome the cooler night.
We parked in a lot beside a local bookstore.
One that had been there for forever. One I’d walked passed a million times, doing little more than glancing at it.
The parking lot was jam-packed.
Cars lined the street when they couldn’t find a spot.
It was the first time I’d noticed the way they were dressed. My brother in a suit, and Faith in a pretty dress and heels, her dark hair done up. But it was her expression that got to me, something that almost looked like sympathy all mixed up with a brilliant, shining hope.
Faith stretched her hand out for me. “You’re supposed to be here, Ian. They need you. And I know you need them, too.”
Jace lifted his chin at me.
No challenge in his stance but believing that I’d step up and be the man he’d always told me I’d be.
Agitation rushed through my veins, and my heart started pounding so damned hard I could feel my pulse in my ears.
Deafening.
Or maybe it was just my soul.
Crying out.
Feeling it.
That intensity I could feel rising up my legs.
Dragging me closer.
I swallowed hard, and my feet planted against the ground. Body frozen in a shroud of fear. “I’m not sure I can go in there.”
I didn’t have an answer as to why.
I just knew I couldn’t.
That it was too much, the buzz of energy that radiated back.
“You need to see this, Ian. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t,” Jace told me.
Fear clamored through my senses. This shame that I could never be the good guy.
That I was bad.
The devil.
But I didn’t want to be him anymore.
Beating back the demons howling from my soul, I gave them a tight nod and followed them around the old building.
Anticipation billowed, unease and excitement.
Could feel the greatness radiating from the brick walls.
Something good and right.
Jace swung open the door, guiding his wife inside, glancing back at me in some kind of silent invitation.
To step up.
To be the man he’d tried to teach me to be when I’d been just a kid.
I’d thought that meteor in my throat had already crashed to the ground and obliterated everything, nothing but dust and destruction in its wake. But there it was, bobbing so heavy I could barely see when I stepped into the old bookstore.
Tons of old books lined the shelves. Other displays boasted new titles and the latest bestsellers.
But I saw none of that. Only thing I could see was the crowd that had gathered for a signing at the back of the room, the long, excited line twisting all the way back through the aisles of shelves.
It was the woman sitting behind the table, her blonde hair tumbling down around one shoulder as she angled her head and signed a big book that stunned me.
Knocked the breath right out of me.
Kick-started my damned heart that until right that very moment had forgotten to beat.
My battered Cinderella.
My Angel Girl.
This girl who I’d had all wrong. She wasn’t close to being broken.
She was real and perfect and whole.
The bright, bright light in the middle of my darkness.
She smiled and handed the book back to the little girl who was waiting for it.
It was big and square and illustrated.
A children’s book.
My chest squeezed, and Jace and Faith started walking that direction. That was when I saw Faith’s parents up close to the table, Mack dressed up and chatting with them.
The sweetest kind of torture speared me when I saw Thomas wearing a suit where he stood next to them, holding a cup of punch while he looked around in awe.
Little Sophie Marie was on the ground coloring something.
It was Mallory who saw me first.
Her face split into the biggest smile. Big enough to shatter the earth.
She gasped and threw her arms in the air. “Ian-Zian the Great!” She dropped the animated conversation she was having with Bailey.
She snatched one of the books from the table by her mother and came bounding my direction.
Energy and light.
She skidded to a stop a foot away, holding out the book, so proud. “Ian, look it, you got your very own book! Ian-Zian the Great Saves the Ruby Prince and the Priceless Princesses. That’s because he’s our hero and we love him so, so, so much! I got to help Mom write all the words and then she found someone so special to color all the pages and now we’re going to sell them and it’s going to be a bestseller! I told you I was a writer and I was going to sell all the books!”
My chest tremored. Ripples of waves. Quivers of emotion that kept rolling in. Getting greater with each second that passed.
No ebbing. It was just a constant flow.
My lips parted, awe taking hold of me when I reached out and took the book, eyes moving over the cover.
It depicted a toppled castle tower. A dragon circling overhead. A prince that wore a ruby crown, and two tiny princesses cheering, a big diamond pendant on the older one, a sapphire ring on the small, small child, the beautiful handmaiden who looked a whole lot like Cinderella at their side.