Chapter 10 Cesar
Cesar
Charles Sterling arrives in a black helicopter.
I watch it descend from the kitchen window, Diamond pressed against my side. She hasn't let go of me all day—not clingy, just close. Like she needs to keep confirming I'm real.
"I called him, FYI," she says quietly. "Told him about us. I didn't want you blindsided."
I look down at her. "How'd he take it?"
"He hung up on me."
Great.
"You don't have to do this alone," she says. "I can be there."
"No. This is between me and your father."
"He's going to be horrible. You know that, right? He's going to threaten you and try to intimidate you."
"Diamond." I turn,with a slightly over-confident grin. "I've handled worse than your father."
"You don't know him when he's angry."
"And he doesn't know me at all." I kiss her forehead. "Stay inside. This won't take long."
Charles Sterling is already in the living room when I get there. He's standing in the center of the room, feet planted, arms crossed. Waiting.
I haven’t met him in person until now. He's smaller than I expected, maybe five-ten, slim build, but there's nothing soft about his expression.
His eyes are cold. Calculating. The eyes of a man who's destroyed competitors, crushed enemies, built an empire on the bones of people who underestimated him.
"Mr. Vega." He doesn't offer his hand.
"Mr. Sterling."
"Sit down."
"I'll stand."
His jaw tightens. He's not used to people refusing him. Good. He'd better get used to it.
"My daughter called me this morning," he says. "Told me she's been fucking the help."
I don't react. Don't give him the satisfaction.
"That's one way to put it."
"How would you put it?"
"I'd say your daughter and I are in a relationship. But you can call it whatever makes you feel better."
Something flashes in his eyes. Anger. Good. Anger I can work with.
"You were hired to protect her," he says. "Not to seduce her."
"I didn't seduce her."
"No? A scared young woman, isolated, dependent on you for safety, and you expect me to believe she came to you willingly?"
"I expect you to ask her yourself. She'll tell you the same thing."
"She's infatuated. She doesn't know what she wants."
"She's twenty-three years old. She knows exactly what she wants." I take a step closer. "The question is whether you're going to respect her enough to accept it."
Sterling's face goes red. "Don't you dare lecture me about respecting my daughter. I've given her everything."
"Except your time. Except your attention.
Except any indication that she matters to you beyond being an asset to manage.
" The words come out harder than I intended, but I don't take them back.
"You shipped her off here with a stranger because you couldn't be bothered to deal with the problem yourself.
And now you're angry that she found something real? "
"Something real?" He laughs, harsh and bitter. "You're a convicted killer. You spent eight years in prison. You have nothing. No money, no status, no future worth mentioning. What could you possibly offer her?"
"Everything you couldn't."
The words land like a slap. Sterling goes still.
"I see her," I continue. "Not the Instagram persona, not the billionaire's daughter, not the scandal.
Her. The woman who reads romance novels when she thinks no one's looking.
Who cries alone at night because her mother abandoned her and her father checked out.
Who's spent her whole life performing for people who don't give a shit about her. "
"You don't know anything about my relationship with my daughter."
"I know she was surprised when I asked how she was feeling.
Said no one ever asks her that." I hold his gaze.
"I know she flinches when her phone rings because she expects bad news.
I know she thought she deserved those death threats because she's been told her whole life that she's too much, too loud, too spoiled to be worth protecting. "
He’s mercifully silent.
"So yeah," I say. "I'm an ex-con with nothing. But I'd die for her. I'd kill for her—already have. And I see her in a way you never bothered to. So you tell me, Mr. Sterling. What exactly do you have to offer that I don't?"
Silence.
Sterling stares at me for a long moment. Then he walks to the bar, pours himself a scotch, and drinks half of it in one swallow.
"You think you're the first man to say pretty words about my daughter?" His voice is quieter now. More controlled. "She's been surrounded by men who wanted her money, her connections, her body. They all said they loved her. They all said she was special."
"I'm not them."
"How do I know that?"
"Because I tried to stay away from her." I don't look away. "I knew it was wrong. I knew it would cost me everything I've been building. I told myself every day to keep my distance, to be professional, to remember that she was a job and nothing more."
"And yet here we are."
"And yet here we are." I take a breath. "I didn't want to want her. But I do. And I'm done apologizing for it."
Sterling finishes his scotch. Sets the glass down with a sharp click.
"My lawyers have made the situation with that Mercer kid go away," he says. "Self-defense. No charges. You're in the clear."
"I know."
"I could undo that. One phone call, and suddenly there are witnesses who saw something different. Evidence that was overlooked. Questions that need answering."
"You could try."
"I could destroy your business. Make sure no one in this industry ever works with you again. You'd be back to nothing. Probably worse than nothing."
"Probably."
He frowns. "You don't seem concerned."
"Because none of that changes anything." I step closer. "You can take the business. You can take my freedom. You can take everything I've built. I'll still choose her. Every single time."
"Even if she loses everything too? Her inheritance, her trust fund, her place in this family?"
"Ask her yourself. See what she says."
"I already know what she'll say." For the first time, something that isn't anger crosses his face. Something tired. Almost sad. "She told me this morning. Said if I made her choose, she'd choose you. That she'd walk away from all of it without looking back."
"She means it."
"I know she does. That's the problem." He pours another scotch, but doesn't drink it. Just stares at the glass. "Her mother was like that too. All or nothing. When she decided to leave, there was no negotiating, no compromise. She just... left."
I don't say anything. This isn't about me anymore.
"I kept waiting for Diamond to grow out of it," he continues. "The intensity, the impulsiveness. I thought if I just gave her space, she'd settle down. Find some nice hedge fund manager, have a society wedding, do what was expected." He shakes his head. "Instead she found you."
"Sorry to disappoint."
"Are you?" He looks at me. Really looks. "If I offered you ten million dollars right now to walk away, would you take it?"
"No."
"Twenty million?"
"No."
"What's your number, Mr. Vega? Everyone has one."
"Not for her." I hold his gaze. "There's no number. There's no deal. You could offer me everything you have and I'd still choose her. That's what you don't understand. She's not a negotiation to me. She's not an asset or a problem or a situation to be managed. She's it. She's everything."
Sterling opens his mouth, but before he can speak, there's movement in the doorway.
Diamond.
She's standing there in my t-shirt, hair still mussed from bed, looking between me and her father with something fragile in her expression. She wasn't supposed to come out. She was supposed to let me handle this.
But she's here. And she's looking at her father like she's twelve years old again, waiting to see if he'll choose her this time.
"Daddy," she says quietly. "Please."
One word. That's all it takes.
I watch something crack open in Charles Sterling's face. The anger drains out of him like water, leaving behind something older. Softer. The look of a father who's just realized he's about to lose his daughter—not to me, but to his own stubbornness.
"Diamond..." His voice is rough. "Sweetheart, I just want what’s best for you."
"I know what you want. You want me safe. You want me happy." She crosses the room, stops in front of him. "I am, Daddy. I'm both of those things. For the first time in years."
"He's not," Sterling stops. Swallows. "He's not what I would have chosen for you."
"I know. But I chose him. He saved my life." She takes her father's hand and holds it like she's the one with all the power. "I love him. And I need you to be okay with that. Because I don't want to lose you too."
Too. Like her mother.
Sterling flinches. The word lands exactly where she meant it to.
"I'm not going anywhere," he says, and his voice is thick. "I would never! Diamond, I would never abandon you."
"Then don't make me choose. Please." Her eyes are wet now. "I'll choose him. I will. But I don't want to. I want both. I want you to walk me down the aisle someday, and I want you to be grumpy about it but there anyway. I want my kids to know their grandfather."
She breaks off. Sterling pulls her into his arms.
I watch them—the billionaire and his daughter, holding each other in the middle of this glass house while the ocean crashes outside. She's crying into his shoulder. His eyes are closed, his jaw tight, and I realize I've never seen him look human until this moment.
"Okay," he says finally. Quietly. "Okay."
Diamond pulls back. "Okay?"
"I don't like it." He looks at me over her head, and there's still steel there, still warning. "I don't trust him. I think you're making a mistake."
"Daddy."
"But I trust you. I trust that you know your own heart. And I'm not going to be the reason you walk away from this family." He wipes a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "I already lost your mother. I won't lose you too."
She hugs him again. Tighter this time.
When they finally separate, Sterling turns to me. His expression has hardened again, but it's different now. Less hostile.
"I meant what I said." His voice is steady. "If you hurt her, there's nowhere you can hide. I'll spend every dollar I have making your life hell."
"I know."
"But." He pauses. Takes a breath. "She loves you. You saved her life. Protected her. She looks happy. And I haven't seen her look like this since she was a little girl." He glances at Diamond, and something softens in his face. "She used to look at me like that. Before everything went wrong."
"Mr. Sterling."
"Charles." He says it like it costs him something. "If you're going to be with my daughter, you might as well call me Charles."
It's not a blessing. It's not "welcome to the family." But it's something.
"Charles," I say. "I'll take care of her."
"You'd better." He looks at Diamond one more time, then back at me. "The house is hers. I'll have the papers drawn up this week. And the contracts I promised; you'll get all of it. Not because you've earned it, but because she asked me to."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me." He heads for the door, then pauses. "I'll be back in a month. I expect dinner. And I expect you to look me in the eye and tell me you're still treating her right."
"I will."
"Every month," he adds. "Until I'm convinced you're not going to break her heart." A ghost of a smile crosses his face. "I'm a patient man, Mr. Vega. Don't test me."
He leaves. The helicopter lifts off ten minutes later, disappearing into the gray sky.
Diamond slides her arms around my waist from behind. "That went better than I expected."
"You weren't supposed to come out."
"I know." She presses her cheek against my back. "But I heard him trying to buy you off, and I couldn't just stand there."
"I wasn't going to take it."
"I know that too." She turns me around, looks up at me. "That's why I love you."
I pull her close. Press my lips to her hair.
"Monthly dinners with your father," I say. "That's going to be fun."
"He'll come around eventually. He's stubborn, but he loves me." She smiles. "And he'll love you too, once he gets to know you."
"I doubt that."
"Give it time." She rises on her tiptoes, kisses me softly. "Now stop worrying about my father and take me to bed. It's still Valentine's Day, and I have plans for you."