“You having fun, sweetheart?” my mom asks, swinging her arm around me and pressing a kiss to my temple.
This past month has been rough as we have slowly come to terms with what happened with David. We had to tell my mom the truth of what happened and why, and she struggled to believe it at first. He was like a second son to my mom and she took the news hard, but the truth about what happened to my dad hit even harder. And regarding what happened to me and Logan that night at the auto shop, my mom immediately blamed Logan, but thankfully over time she came to realise that Logan wasn’t the bad guy of the story like she first thought.
“Yeah, it’s great.” It’s not a total lie, I just can’t stop wondering where Logan is.
An hour has passed and Logan’s still not here. I’ve had no word from him, no call or text and I’m starting to worry. I’ve found myself making a habit of checking my phone every few minutes, waiting for a sign that he’s on his way and that he hasn’t forgotten my birthday, but as more time ticks by, I lose a little bit more hope.
He wouldn’t let me down,would he?
Just then, a deep rumble grows closer, the sound of an engine, a sound of an engine I’d dreamed of hearing again. I glance around at the faces of my friends and family, all looking at me like they know something I don’t, and letting my curiosity get the better of me, I make my way through the house and open the front door, just as Logan climbs out of a sleek metallic green GTO parked on the driveway.
“Oh my…” I can’t even finish my sentence as my eyes take in the car in front of me. My dad’s GTO is really here, right in front of me. The dark green colour glimmers in the sunlight like tiny diamonds encrusted into the paintwork, reminding me of exactly why I chose that colour in the first place.
Logan.
I glance up at him to find him smiling proudly. “Happy birthday, baby.”
“How... How did you find it? I thought I’d never see it again.” Tears spring to my eyes as I remember the night I watched it disappear into the night just a month ago.
“I had a little help,” Logan says, nodding his head to something over my shoulder, and I spin around to find Graham standing behind me.
“After we took down Donovan and his gang, all his assets were seized. The car just happened to be sat inside a warehouse not far from here. I pulled a few strings at work to get it back to you, Logan’s money included.”
When David’s body was found in his car, the forensics team uncovered a file sat on the passenger seat, pages and pages of incriminating documents detailing every single deal and transaction made to and from Donovan in the past two years, both legalandillegal. His operations were larger than first thought, they stretched not only nationally, but internationally, spanning every continent.
With the investigation into Donovan being so large, the FBI were called in, and just three weeks ago, Donovan and his gang were caught during a raid on an illegal sex club, where they uncovered the distribution of class-A drugs and over two dozen underage girls who had been trafficked. As the investigation grew larger, connections with people of influence were brought to light, councillors, senators, people of influence, including Martin Rogers, a man currently in prison awaiting trail facing over a dozen charges of sexual assault, Quinn included.
It’s a comfort to know that finally, Donovan and his men are going to pay for not only what they did to not only my dad, but also to David. Over the past month, I’ve come to terms with what David did and I’ve finally found it within myself to forgive him. Deep down I always knew it wasn’t his fault, it all boiled down to Donovan and the control he had over him, but at the time, it was easier to just hate him.
“So, what do you think, baby? You wanna take it for a spin?” Logan suggests.
“Hell yes!” I beam.
He tosses me the keys and I slide in behind the wheel, Logan rounding the car and settling into the passenger seat beside me. Warmth spreads through my body at the sound of the engine rumbling to life as I turn the key. I don’t realise that I’m smiling until I catch my reflection in the rear-view mirror.
“So where we heading?” Logan asks.
“I have an idea.”
∞∞∞
I pull up outside the cemetery, it wasn’t a long drive over here from my house, but just the thought of coming back here had me wanting it to go on forever. The same feeling I felt when I was last here settles in my stomach, that uncomfortable, sickly feeling of dread.
Can I really do this?
I haven’t dared come back here before now for fear of breaking down in tears and falling to my knees at my dad’s graveside and never be able to stand back up again. But now, despite that unsettled feeling inside, coming here today, especially today, feels like the right thing to do.
Today was the day my dad had hoped to give me the car, my twenty-first birthday present that he never had chance to complete. Having it finally finished and back where it belongs, it seems only fitting to come here now.
I loved the car, even when it was a battered, rusting heap of metal that was crying out for a little TLC, but now it's perfection, something I will cherish forever, something that will always hold a special place in my heart along with my dad. It is a perfect representation of past and future. My dad had a dream of making this car into something truly spectacular, and Logan made that dream possible. I couldn’t have done it without him.
Now the car is a piece of the two most important men in my life.
Logan doesn’t say anything as I switch off the engine, he just takes my lead and follows me out of the car. I round the front and rest against the bumper, looking towards the gates to the cemetery, and he does the same.
“I haven’t been back since the funeral. I couldn’t...” I fidget with my hands, picking at the hangnail on my thumb without really thinking. I only stop when Logan covers my hands with his.
“You don’t have to do this, you know. We can turn around and go back home any time you want.”
