From the Embers

by Aly Martinez

Being in love with Eason Maxwell was the easiest thing I’d ever done. I’d spent so many years trying to build the perfect life with the perfect husband, the perfect kids, and the perfect company. But mastering the perception of perfect isn’t the same as finding genuine happiness.

A sexy rock star asking me to be his date to the Grammys isn’t exactly a hardship.”

I’d been in relationships before. Hell, I’d been married. But it was different with Bree. After a day spent experiencing high after high, living the life I’d dreamed about for the majority of my existence on Earth, coming home to her was still my favorite part.

Was it too soon? By most people’s standards, probably. But not for me. I’d found her. The one. There were no nerves or fears. No second-guessing or cold feet. I knew down to the marrow of my bones that Bree had been born to be mine. Our bond might have been forged through tragedy, but our love flourished through patience, genuine respect, and understanding.

“Luna! Daddy took her!”

“Asher, baby,”

“That’s not possible. Luna’s daddy’s...

“Not her daddy! My daddy!”

But with our chances of finding her after the twenty-four-hour mark dwindling by the second, time was the one thing we did not have.

So Luna was gone. Someone had taken her. And we were at a stalemate with no way to get her back. I would have rather been back at the fire. I would have rather been back inside the fire. I would have rather been on fire than not knowing if we would ever see our little girl again. And based on the agony carved in his face, Eason would have said the same.

“A stranger wouldn’t know which one was my daughter,”

“It was Dad!”

“I looked right at him before he ran away. I remember what he looked like, and I know it was him.”

That kid, with a heart of gold who would forever own a piece of my own, looked me dead in the eye and then absolutely slayed me.

“I’m sorry, Eason. I’m sorry I didn’t stop him. I got scared because I thought he was a ghost.”

“Because less than twenty-four hours before your house exploded, the man who kidnapped your daughter sent him half a million dollars.”

She was, however, my soul mate, the mother of my child—DNA be damned—and the smartest woman I had ever met. Proof being: She got into the car.

Froze. Just like my heart, as the entire world once again caught fire around us. His name slipped through my lips on a violent whisper. “Rob?”

“No. You buried Steven. That dumb fuck deserved to die. Setting off the explosive in the basement too soon. Fucking amateur cost me my whole damn life.”

“No one should have survived the first one. And yet here we are.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to find someone willing to kill you two?

I plotted out every fucking detail, right down to how Jessica would spend her time lounging by the pool—or better yet, on her knees, treating me like a fucking king.”

“Well, technically, it was only Bree who was supposed to die. Jessica was the one who threw you into the deal. God, she hated you.”

I had the best family, the best woman, and now a career I’d always dreamed about. The heartache had been worth it.

You killed your own girlfriend. Everything you’ve ever touched has been one failure after another.”

“You always were so fucking egotistical. Jessica may have told you Luna was yours, but you never did a DNA test, did you? You call me the gullible one, but all it took was a woman to put her mouth on your cock whenever you wanted and you just believed any line of bullshit you were fed. We found your extra phone. The texts, the fucking pictures. We knew about the affair and how you thought Luna was biologically yours. Only I wasn’t so stupid to blindly believe something I was told.”

But with my daughter on my hip and Bree at my side as we headed home to our family, I knew I’d saved exactly the right one.

It still boggled my mind that he’d chosen to take her. Not Asher or Madison—the children he’d raised from birth. But then again, he’d thought Luna was his daughter with his darling Jessica.

“I have loved you since before I knew I loved you. I have loved you since before I was supposed to love you. And I will continue to love you every single day for the rest of eternity. I cannot tell you life will always be easy. Let’s be honest, I’m still going to call you Sug sometimes.”

“But I can tell you that I will always be here for you in any and every way you need. I’ll be your best friend. Your biggest fan. The man who drives you crazy in both good and bad ways. I don’t care how you need me or even if you need me at all—I’ll still be here, considering myself the luckiest man on the planet as long as we do this life together.”

“Bree, will you do me the biggest honor of my life and marry me?”

“She said yes! That means they are getting married,” Asher explained to the girls.

“And the nominees for Album of the Year are…”

“From the Embers, Eason Maxwell.”

“Does that mean you can finally be my real dad now?”

it still sounded like the sweetest melody when I heard, “From the Embers, Eason Maxwell!”

But Bree would forever be the star of our show. Eight hours later, Ava Grace Maxwell was born looking just like her sisters and completing the family we had forged from the embers—the way it was always supposed to be.