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Lose

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Warning: extra long chapter

Chapter 58: Lose (Stella's POV)

We were on our way out a few minutes after the others had left and I could see the hesitation slowly overtaking Rhys. He didn't want me to go with him, he never liked that I demanded it from the start, and despite that, he never told me I couldn't, he never tried to stop me, never tried to override my decisions. 

He let me do exactly what I wanted. If he asked me to stay home because he thought it was too dangerous for me, a part of me would have wanted to. But the part of me that wanted to make things right and put an end to all of this once and for all was much bigger. 

My father was beyond salvation and reformation, he genuinely enjoyed ruining not only my life, but even Rhys's, and I was done standing by and watching it happen. He stole a lot from both of us, things we could never get back, my mother, both of Rhys's parents, our childhood, everything. How could I stand by and let someone hurt the people I cared about? 

The person I cared most about was undoubtedly Rhys and I couldn't let him walk into this alone and risk it all for me either. 

"Stella," he finally said as we waited in the kitchen, just before we would leave. 

"Hmm?" I asked, bracing my arms on the counter and meeting his gaze. 

A rough exhale escaped him as he rubbed his face before looking at me. 

"Are you going to ask me to stay home?" I asked knowingly. 

"I don't know what to ask you," he replied, "I don't know if we're doing the right thing or going about this the right way. I don't know if it would be safer to keep you at my side or keep you home. I don't know what I'm doing." 

"Neither do I," I responded calmly, "but what I do know is that if we doubt this now, we won't be able to finish this, Rhys. We can't give up without trying." 

"But we're not—" 

"I can't give up without trying. I can't send you out to meet him all by yourself. He's my father and he's the man responsible for taking so much away from you. How could I not interfere? Your plan puts you at risk if anything... I can't stay back and not be there with you." 

"And I can't lose you, Stella. I can't take that risk." 

"You won't lose me," I reassured. 

I truly was pushing my luck here but I believed that my father wouldn't be able to hurt me. There was a huge difference between what he did the last time when he raised a hand at me and pointing a gun at me. I was putting my faith in a man that didn't deserve it, a man who had nothing to prove me right, but I truly believed he was incapable of hurting me, not because he didn't want to hurt his daughter but because he was a fucking coward. 

What I watched my father do to my mother completely ruined me but no matter how hard he tried to conceal it, it ruined him too. He never strayed from his goals and always kept me on a tight leash, under his control, and manipulated. Yet, it pushed him away from me. 

A part of him was always scared that I would finally step up and question him and when I would, he wouldn't be able to look me in the eye and answer me. That fear always forced him to stay distant from me. Tonight, I was counting on the fear that I instilled in him, I was counting on it to keep me alive, in fact, I was counting on the fact that my father was a man who could never look me in the eye because he was indeed too ashamed to even try. 

The drive to the address Rhys received on his phone was a tense one and both of us were far too deep in our thoughts and far too lost in our nerves to say anything. I grew more anxious as time progressed all because of the plan Rhys had come up with. None of us agreed to it, none of us approved of it, and none of us wanted to carry it out but of course, Rhys managed to talk his way into convincing us that it was a good idea. 

It was the worst idea; it put his life at risk. I hated it. I fucking hated it. 

I only snapped back down to reality when the car came to a slow halt a few paces behind Logan's car. I moved to unbuckle my seatbelt but Rhys's hand clasped onto mine, pinning it down. 

"Wait," he said quietly, keeping his eyes ahead as he scanned the area. 

I followed his gaze, shifting in my seat to get a better look. "I don't see any guards," I mumbled. My eyes grew wide as Logan came into view with a man, security, in his hold. 

Logan kept the man's hands contained and pinned behind his back as he shoved him forward and at the slightest signs of him struggling, Logan was quick to let him go and spin him around, knocking him out with a solid punch, square in the face. As if nothing had happened, Logan looked up and spotted our car, sending a small wave our way. 

My eyes cut to Rhys. "This is how lawyers work in New York City?" 

"No," he exhaled, "just us rich and twisted ones. Come on." 

I shook off my surprise and stepped out of the car, staying by Rhys's side as we made our way to Logan. While we were here at the back of the warehouse, Amara and Tristan were out front. 

"How did the other two handle it?" Rhys asked. 

I followed each one of Logan's movements as he reached into his waistband. 

What the hell is he doing? 

"They caused a distraction, that's for sure," Logan replied before tossing a gun to Rhys. He glanced at me. "Focus, you've seen enough guns by now." 

From the way my heart is pounding, clearly not. 

I kept my mouth shut and paid attention. 

"Maybe it would have been better if you stayed home with Zarah, no?" Logan prompted. 

"She's not having it," Rhys cut in, "let it go." He then turned to me and grabbed the waistband of my pants, slipping the gun into it. "Just in case," he said, "don't be afraid to use it. You wanted to pull the trigger, here it is." 

A loud crash from inside caught all of our attention and as Rhys took his hand in mine and Logan stepped beside me, sandwiching me between them, the three of us walked in as quietly as we could, just in time to hear my father. 

"What the hell is going on? Where are the other guards, Ruben?!" he screamed at the one guard who stood before him. Armed. "Go check!" my father shouted at him. 

"Sir," he mumbled before running out the front, leaving my father alone. 

"I'll keep watch," Logan whispered, "you should go before any other guards show up." 

Rhys looked over his shoulder at me before his hand slipped out of mine. "Stay here," he demanded. 

"Rhys—" I cut myself off as he walked ahead before I could get another word in and I let out a frustrated huff, rushing to follow him. 

That was before Logan grabbed me. "Stella, wait. Just do as he says," he whispered, "don't go marching in there. We need to see where this goes." 

Reluctantly, I stood guard beside Logan, keeping a lookout. 

My father was surprised to see Rhys when he strolled in without any interference or any guard in sight. "Of course it's you," he scoffed at the sight of Rhys, "I should have known you took a little help from some of your friends." 

"Well, since you know it now, you must understand that the last guard you just sent out," Rhys paused to glance at the exit, "isn't coming back either. You wanted to see me alone, didn't you?" 

Out of suspicion, my father paused and took a scan of the place, his eyes traveling across every inch of space before meeting Rhys's again once he failed to spot us this far away from him. "Right then, let's get to it. We both know that only one of us is walking out of here alive tonight. You stay away from my daughter and I'll let you go." 

Rhys was quiet for a while before he shook his head lightly, maintaining a great distance as he stood across from my father. "What difference will it make, Damien? You can't hide who you are by keeping me away from Stella. She knows it too. She knows what you did." 

"She doesn't know anything, goddamn it!" he snapped before laughing humorlessly as he repeated, "she doesn't know anything. This is a business, Rhys, you know it better than anybody. You can't make it if you spare the people that can fuck you over." 

Rhys stayed quiet, keeping his hands behind his back. 

"That's where Isabella went wrong," he continued, "she always knew the kind of world I worked in but after Stella, she began trying to stop me. It got on my nerves, really. She even threatened to take me to the authorities. How could I let her live after that? And your parents? Is that why you're here?" 

Rhys didn't respond. 

"It was nothing personal," my father replied with a light sneer on his face, "don't take it to heart. We made a deal, we were working together. We were partners. Partners should be equal, don't you think? But your father was walking away with twice as much as I was," he laughed, "how could I let that happen? You know, I warned him. I told him to give it up. In fact, I offered him the same ultimatum I'm offering you tonight..." 

I grew completely rigid as my father began approaching Rhys while retrieving his gun from his waistband. 

Rhys... Rhys isn't armed. Fuck. 

My hand flew to the gun resting under my belt while I kept my gaze ahead. 

"Walk away," my father continued, "and I'll let you live. Keeping you around my daughter would allow you to fuck me over and kill me whenever you wanted. It would be like keeping an explosive on myself at all times. Too risky. It's nothing personal, son. Really." 

"What makes you think keeping me away from Stella would stop me from killing you?" Rhys questioned. 

"I'm not just going to keep you away from Stella," my father retorted, "I'm telling you to leave New York. Again. You did it once and it saved your life. If you didn't leave after I killed Sofie and Ivan, I would have gotten rid of you too. You think I care that you were just a kid?" He clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I don't keep weaknesses, Rhys. No loose ends either. You are the biggest loose end I know and I need you gone. I won this battle once and I'll win it again." 

I caught it as his finger shifted to the trigger while he brought the gun closer to Rhys. 

"I'm not going to lose this time, Damien," Rhys retorted, "I can't let Stella down." 

My eyes grew wide as my father lifted his arm and pointed the gun at Rhys but my body was moving before I could comprehend and I couldn't stand by and watch it any longer. I would have sprinted forward if it wasn't for Logan's tight grip on my arm. 

"Stella, stick to the plan," he scolded. 

"How can I watch him take a bullet, Logan?" I argued, "let go. This is going too far. You said I could interfere before this if the worst happens!" 

"If your father doesn't take the first shot, we won't be able to talk our way out of this. Rhys will be fine. This is his idea and he knows what he's doing. To catch Damien off guard, we have to let him think he's winning." 

And if the bullet hits him in the wrong place? What the hell happens then? 

A deafening gunshot echoed throughout the warehouse and it was enough to shake me up and make my knees buckle. "Dad!" I screamed, rushing forward. I had no choice but to rip Logan's hand off me. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I snapped. 

My feet carried me straight to Rhys as he lost his balance and fell to his knees, clutching his arm as trails of blood ran down the bare length of it, soaking through his t-shirt. I could make out that Rhys shoved my father's arm at the last second, ruining his aim and taking the bullet in his arm rather than the chest. 

"I thought she should see the kind of man her father is one last time," Rhys told him with a light scoff before wincing lightly, clutching his arm. 

"You son of a bitch," my father scoffed, adjusting his hold on the gun before charging up on his gun, getting ready to shoot again. 

"Put the gun down," Amara's voice cut through the silence like a sharp edge as she stepped forward while aiming her gun at my father. 

I frantically turned my attention to Rhys as I kneeled beside him. "Are you okay? Fuck, Rhys, please tell me you're going to be okay. Damn it. I told you this was a bad idea, I told you we—" 

"Stella," he said sharply, "I'm okay." 

"Amara Milano," my father scoffed in realization, "we finally meet." 

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry, I ignored your calls. I couldn't work with you anyway," she paused to glance at Rhys, "can't stab a friend in the back, can I?" 

Tristan walked up behind him before he could even think about using his gun on Amara. "Don't even think about it," he warned, pressing a gun into my father's back, "she's not yours to kill. Give me your gun." My father resisted but the shrill click of Tristan's gun as he loaded it had him giving it up. 

"Stella, go," Rhys said before inhaling shakily in pain, "I'll be fine. He deserves what he's getting and we wanted it to happen this way. Pull the fucking trigger." 

"But you're—" 

"He'll be fine," Logan said, kneeling at Rhys's side across from me, "I've got him." 

I stood up on weak knees and turned around to face my father, ripping the gun out of my waistband and testing my grip on it shakily. 

"Mia cara, please," he pleaded, "you've got this all wrong. I'm not the one manipulating you here." 

"Really?" I asked, "you're not the one manipulating me? After doing it for the past twenty-three years, you're not doing it this time?" 

He had nothing to say to me and nothing but guilt in his eyes when I gave him no choice but to look at me. Nothing. 

"How much longer are you going to deny it, Dad? Why can't you just admit it in front of me?!" I snapped, screaming at him. Years' worth of anger, resentment, and rage exploded within me. "You made me think I was crazy! You convinced me that none of what I saw... none of what you did to Mom was real. You can say it to Rhys and yet you can't look me in the eye when it comes to confessing to your daughter, huh? You're a fucking coward." I loaded up the gun and got ready to shoot. 

"Stella—" 

"You're a liar!" I shouted, "you've done nothing but lie to me about everything! You wanted me to crumble, you wanted to ruin everything for me! Why couldn't you just let me go?! After everything that happened, why didn't you just walk away from me?! I would have been better off without you. I watched you kill my mother! I was just five years old, goddamn it! Do you have any idea what it was like living with you after that?! 

"I was in constant fear for my life! I was afraid my own father would kill me because he knew that I saw him murder my mother! Do you know what that did to me?!" I scoffed and shook my head lightly. "You have no remorse, nothing. Not for what you did to Mom and not for what you did to Rhys and his parents either. He was a kid! So was I! Did it make you feel powerful to ruin our lives like that?!" 

"I'm your father, Stella! I would never intentionally hurt you." 

"That's all you've ever done! It was beyond intentional, Dad. You're just evil. If I let you go tonight, you'll come back to ruin my life again." 

"No, of course not. You want me to walk away, just say the words and I will," he bargained, his hands shaking at his sides. 

Good. I wanted him to tremble with fear in his last moments. 

"It's too fucking late. You can't redeem yourself. I fucking hate you." I tightened my grip and placed my finger on the trigger. He continued to beg and plead and cry before me and I... couldn't pull the trigger. 

Can I really do this? 

I felt Rhys standing behind me before he said a word but when his hand clasped mine over the gun and his finger covered mine on the trigger, I pulled it without a second thought. 

I wasn't just doing this for me, I was doing it for Rhys too. I was doing it for us. 

Flinching, I sealed my eyes shut as the bullet shot out, echoing in the silent warehouse. I drowned out my father's sharp gasp and shout of pain as he fell to the floor and I turned around, dropping my head against Rhys's chest as he held the gun and fired another shot, resting his hand on my waist. 

It wasn't until he gave me a comforting, reassuring squeeze that I looked up at him. "It's over, Stella. It's done," he whispered quietly. 

My knees would have buckled if it weren't for his arm around me. I watched Rhys as he tossed his gun to Logan who tucked it back into his waistband. 

"Tristan and I will take care of everything here," Amara said after hesitating in the silence for a minute. 

"I'll take you guys home," Logan said softly, "I don't think either one of you should drive." 

My eyes shifted to Tristan as he came into view. "You don't have to worry anymore," he said to us, "he can't hurt you now. Both of you." 

"Come on," Logan said, steering us out. Glancing at me, he asked warily, "Care to learn how to treat a bullet wound tonight?" 

Rhys gave him a hard shove as we continued walking. "You do that tonight." His gaze met mine. "Are you okay?" 

I nodded numbly and let out a shaky breath, surprised that I kept my composure as much as I did. "I couldn't have done that without you," I said, "I mean it. You've done everything for me." 

"Of course, I have, Stella," he whispered as we stopped at the car, "I love you." 

"I love you too," I said before pulling him down and drowning everything out with a kiss. 

Everything could finally be okay now. Nobody would hurt us. It was all done. 

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Chapter 58

This chapter was ridiculously long but I didn't want to leave it at a cliffhanger and add another extra chapter lol

quite dramatic ending for a romance book huh

anyways...

next ch: epilogue