Chapter 154 Justice and New Beginnings
Chapter 154 Justice and New Beginnings
Briar's POV
Two and a half months had passed since that night on the rooftop when the notification popped up on my screen. Court verdict announced in Sterling case.
Dominic Sterling: life imprisonment without parole for drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder, and abuse of power. His Alpha position formally revoked. Daniel Davenport: ten years for aiding the smuggling operation. Willow: three years probation for cooperation. Julian: released after fifteen days detention.
I had tried to visit Willow once after leaving the hospital, but she refused to see me. After that, I stopped following the Davenport family news. Some connections were meant to be severed cleanly.
Justice had been served, even if it couldn't undo the damage.
---
Christmas Eve arrived with fresh snow blanketing the Shadowmoor estate. I helped Susan arrange platters while Lucian argued with Ash about turkey carving and Kai raided appetizers.
"Nobody should spend Christmas alone," Lucian had said when inviting Kai, whose parents were traveling through Europe.
The table overflowed with roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pies. The house smelled like cinnamon and pine as this makeshift family came together.
After dinner, I grabbed the pumpkin pie. When I returned, Lucian swept me off my feet, spinning me before pointing above my head with a triumphant grin.
"Christmas tradition," he said, gesturing to the mistletoe. "Anyone caught underneath has to kiss."
Heat flooded my cheeks. "That's cheating! You just hung that up!"
"I saw him do it!" Kai called out, laughing. "He was standing on a chair with a thumbtack in his mouth."
Ash appeared carrying an armful of mistletoe sprigs, eyes glinting with mischief. "If we're following Lucian's logic, the entire house is now a kissing zone." He started tacking sprigs to every doorframe.
"Ash, get back here!" Lucian chased his brother through the living room. "I'm going to throw you in a snowbank!"
They crashed through the house like overgrown puppies before Susan intervened with maternal authority. I leaned against the mantel watching the chaos, unexpected tears pricking my eyes. This was what family felt like—messy and loud and exactly right.
---
The new year brought resolution on multiple fronts. I sat in my office conference room in early January signing two separate investment contracts—one from Vincent's European pharmaceutical group and another from Harold's network of North American investors. When the final signatures were in place and the wire transfers confirmed, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders that I had been carrying for so long I had forgotten what it felt like to stand up straight.
Vance Botanical Pharmaceuticals was finally, completely, irrevocably solvent.
Two months later, Vincent's connections opened a door I had never imagined walking through. The Global Plant Medicine Alliance held its inaugural summit at the InterContinental New York, and I found myself standing backstage in a designer dress that Lucian had insisted on buying, waiting to address an audience of pharmaceutical executives and pack Alphas from six different countries.
Vincent's introduction was generous, positioning me as a core member of the alliance and a pioneer in ethical pharmaceutical development. When I walked onto that stage, the lights were blinding and my heart was hammering so hard I could feel my pulse in my fingertips, but my voice came out steady as I discussed our research methodology and commitment to sustainable practices.
The media availability afterward lasted thirty minutes, journalists firing questions about everything from our manufacturing process to my thoughts on international regulatory standards. I answered each one carefully, aware that every word would be analyzed and quoted, and by the time I finally escaped backstage my face hurt from smiling.
I was heading toward the green room when someone caught me from behind, arms wrapping around my waist in a familiar embrace. I turned to find Lucian holding an enormous bouquet of red roses, his eyes soft with pride despite the exhaustion evident in the shadows under them.
"You flew in?" I asked, taking the flowers with hands that trembled slightly from the adrenaline still coursing through my system. "When did you get here?"
"Landed this morning. Took the red-eye last night." He brushed a strand of hair back from my face, his touch gentle. "This moment was too important. I needed to be here to witness it."
His voice dropped lower, intimate despite the crew members moving equipment around us. "Today, you were the brightest light in that entire room."
I laughed and poked his chest. "That's so cheesy. I'm going to get goosebumps."
"Good." His eyebrow arched in challenge. "When we get back to the hotel, I'll check if you really got them."
---
Three days after returning home, I was curled up on the couch scrolling through news on my tablet when I saw the headline. Dominic Sterling's appeal had been denied—the life sentence would stand. But it was the comments section that made my blood run cold.
Multiple users had posted the same information, apparently leaked from court documents that had been sealed during the original trial. Julian Sterling himself had provided the evidence that convicted his father. And the reason went back eleven years, to a rainy night on Linhai Road.
Dominic had drugged his mistress Eleanor's drink before she got behind the wheel, deliberately creating the appearance of drunk driving. The accident that followed killed three people, including the woman who had tried to pull Eleanor from the wreckage—Dominic's ex-wife. Lucian's mother.
My hands started shaking so badly I nearly dropped the tablet. I remembered that night in Lucian's car, when we had first acknowledged our feelings for each other. He had said something about "that aunt" not blaming me, and I had been too caught up in my own emotions to question what he meant.
He had known all along. He had known that his mother died trying to save the woman who killed her, and he had never once made me feel responsible for any of it.
---
That evening, Lucian emerged from the shower to find me sitting on the edge of the bed with tears streaming down my face. He was across the room in three strides, kneeling in front of me with his hands on my knees, water from his hair dripping onto the carpet.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"I know," I managed to say through the tightness in my throat. "About the accident. About your mother."
His expression shifted, understanding replacing alarm. He stood and pulled me into his arms, and I buried my face against his chest, breathing in the clean scent of his soap and the warmth of his skin.
"I want to visit her grave," I said. "I need to pay my respects."
"Okay." His hand stroked my hair in soothing motions. "We'll go whenever you're ready." He paused, and I felt rather than heard the smile in his voice. "You should thank me, actually. I'm the one who pulled you out from under that car."
I pulled back to look at him, and his eyes were warm with affection and something deeper that made my heart skip.
"You were so small back then," he continued, his thumb brushing away the tears on my cheek. "I could hold you in both arms. And now look at you—a CEO making international headlines and commanding boardrooms full of people twice your age."
"How should I thank you?" I asked.
His expression turned serious, all traces of teasing gone as he leaned down to press his lips against my forehead in a kiss that felt like a vow. "Marry me."
I blinked up at him, momentarily speechless. "That seems like a bad deal for me. Think of something else."
He kissed me then, properly, his mouth capturing mine with an intensity that made my knees weak. When he finally pulled back, he was breathing hard and his eyes had gone dark. "Marry me," he repeated.
My gaze drifted past him to the corner of the room where that ridiculous bouquet of lollipops still sat in its vase, the cellophane wrappers faded and crinkled with age. "I can't believe you still have that garbage."
"It's not garbage." He sounded genuinely offended. "You made that to cheer me up."
"Have you eaten any of them?"
"One. The day you smashed that cake in my face." A smile tugged at his mouth. "Which you spent half the night baking, by the way, so I'm not sure why you were so quick to weaponize it."
I smacked his arm, laughing despite the emotional weight of the evening. "That cake took me four hours!"
He caught my hand and pulled me toward the bed, his expression shifting back to serious as he looked down at me. "You know, you spent weeks telling everyone you were pregnant with my baby. Maybe we should make that rumor come true."
Heat flooded my face, but before I could form a response, he asked again, his voice quiet and intense. "Marry me, Briar. Say yes."
I pressed my hand against his chest, feeling his heartbeat racing under my palm. It was faster than usual, betraying his nervousness despite his confident words, and I realized my own heart had synchronized with his rhythm, both of us caught in the same moment of terrified hope.
"Yes," I whispered, and then louder, "Yes, I'll marry you."
THE END.
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