28 years earlier

-

The crime lord, her boss, had found her baby. She didn't know how. Did someone snitch? Though she was known to be a ruthless leader, had one of her underlings taken the risk of exposing her just to see her fall?

Yes, that's probably exactly what happened.

She'd somehow kept her pregnancy, and her baby, a secret for almost a year. If the crime lord had known, he never would have allowed any of it. She didn't know if she'd ever have gotten away with it truly. Perhaps it would have been better if she'd sent the baby away at birth, but she had fallen in love with her at first sight. She did not know if her heart could have taken it.

And as a woman, she knew what was expected of her- to lay down her own life for the sake of her child. She would have done it too- if it hadn't been for the underlying threat in his tone. Choosing not to follow his order would not only result in her death, but the baby's too. Once you're part of Crimson Dawn, you can't leave, echoed Dryden's voice in her head. It was one of his favorite things to say, and it wasn't until today that the woman finally began to understand just how serious that promise had been.

She was still in the evening gown she'd been wearing the night before, when the crime lord confronted her. She'd panicked, then packed every one of the baby's things. They'd left at dawn that morning.

She didn't sit in the cockpit with her pilot, as she normally would have. She didn't know if it would upset the small bundle in her arms. Only a couple months old, her daughter peered up at her with identical blue-green eyes. The baby smiled at her, in her way, and the woman felt her heart crack just a little bit further.

She wasn't sure if she was a good mother. Stars, she tried to be. She guessed she would never find out.

This is what's best for her. I'm doing what's best for her, she told herself, over and over like a mantra. It was the only thing that made her feel firmly planted in her seat, catching her final glimpses of the daughter that she would never come to know.

Though, perhaps that wasn't true. Maybe she'd find her someday. That is, if Crimson Dawn didn't fall to pieces and drag her down with it in the near future. And in those days after the fall of the Empire, a well known organized crime syndicate in the eyes of the New Republic's enforcers was about as safeguarded as a child put in the care of a demented kitchen droid.

And, of course, she couldn't pretend as if her boldly printed wanted posters weren't plastered haphazardly among so many others in every populated planet in the galaxy.

As the public figurehead of one of the five syndicates, she supposed she should just be glad she hadn't been caught just yet.

Yes, now that she thought about it, perhaps this really was what was best for her. That's what she continued to tell herself, anyway.

"We've begun our descent into Coruscant's atmosphere," the pilot announced, and the woman's eyes drifted back to the baby's. These really were their final moments together. She shouldn't spend a single one of them looking upon anyone or anything but her perfect, innocent face. Mindlessly, she brushed a thumb over her soft cheek. The baby cooed.

Too soon they'd landed. It was hot on Coruscant this time of year, and the woman quickly began to feel uncomfortable in her cloak. She wished she could remove it, but couldn't risk showing her face in such a populated area. She couldn't even imagine how uncomfortable the sweet little baby must be in her piles of blankets and burlap.

She let her bodyguard knock on the door, though she planned for her and the baby to go inside alone. If things went well, she'd be the only one to leave.

It was when she went inside, and showed her face to the smuggler, the baby's father, that she finally broke down. Tears tumbled down her face as the baby's chubby fingers reached for her nose, that little smile on her perfect face. She watched him realize just what she held in her arms, and before he could make any assumptions, she immediately came clean.

"She's yours. Her name is Lyra. She's a couple of months old," she hiccupped.

After she left, the woman, heartbroken, thought only of her daughter. She wondered where she was and who she'd become every waking day since.

-

hello friends, i am FINALLY back

school and the pandemic on top of it all has just been wild, so i apologize for the super long wait for this last book.

i am proud to finally be able to say THE LAST BOOK IN THE COVET TRILOGY IS HERE! lyra and ben's story is soon coming to an end.

i hope y'all get the double meaning to the title ;) i was pretty proud of myself for coming up with it.

this character (who i'm hoping you've been able to guess the identity of!) is one of my very favorite star wars characters, and i'm so happy to be able to include her in this story. it may have been the obvious choice, but that doesn't make it feel any less right!

additionally, i am going to put a disclaimer here yet again that i will not be recognizing or including the last star wars movie as canon in this series. obviously we need to disregard a lot of what happens in those movies as canon for this series to work, and while i do ship reylo (sorry not sorry to antis), reylo can't be a thing for these books to work.

additionally, i just thought that whole movie in general was a dumpster fire, but because we love star wars here and some probably don't agree with me i will not be getting into that.

anyway! i will do my best to update this story as much as possible. i also do have a few other things in the works right now and school, so it will be difficult at times, but i will do my best!

don't forget to vote, comment, and share this story with all of your ben solo loving friends! you guys are amazing.

thank you for coming on this final journey with me.

love,

kait <3