I lay there for a long moment, staring at the ceiling I knew every crack of, and let myself feel the rage.It burned clean and hot in my chest, the only warmth I had allowed myself since that morning when Raphael Antonov had dismissed me like I was nothing.Like I hadn’t given him my virginity the night before.Like I hadn’t let myself believe, for one stupid, vulnerable moment, that he might actually care.
Everyone who claims to care about me is using me.
I threw back the covers and got out of bed.The marble floor was cold under my bare feet, a shock that helped clear the fog of sleep and grief and fury.I had a wedding to survive.
In the bathroom, I swallowed my birth control pill without thinking.The same prescription I had been on since the contract began, back when Clara had warned me to protect not only my heart, but my womb.Now it was just another habit my body hadn’t unlearned.Protection against a man I never intended to let touch me again.
The closet held nothing appropriate for a funeral, which was too bad, because that’s what this was.I had refused to buy a wedding dress.Refused to even consider white.Instead, I pulled out a charcoal gray suit I had had tailored last year for a hotel industry conference.Sharp lines, structured shoulders, fabric that was protection against my skin.
Battle dress.That’s what this was.
I was buttoning the jacket when the soft knock came at my door.
“Come in.”
Marjorie appeared, a coffee tray balanced in her weathered hands.She had been with my family since before I was born, more grandmother to me than employee, and the grief in her eyes when she looked at me now made my throat tighten.
“I brought your usual.”She set the tray on the vanity table, her movements careful and precise.“Two sugars, splash of cream.”
“Thank you.”
She didn’t leave.Just stood there, watching me in the mirror as I finished with the buttons and reached for my earrings.Simple gold studs.Nothing that could be called bridal.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said quietly.
I met her eyes in the reflection.“Yes.I do.”
The will clause.The contract still binding me.The hotel that would be lost to charity if I didn’t marry within the year.My father had made sure of that, controlling me even from the grave, and Raphael had made sure I had no other options.
Marry him or lose everything.
“There might be another way,” Marjorie tried.“A lawyer, perhaps.Someone who could challenge the will’s validity.”
“I’ve talked to three lawyers.”I slid the earrings in, one by one, watching my hands stay steady in the mirror.“The will is airtight.And even if I could fight it, the contract with Raphael still has nine months remaining.He can claim my time.He can make my life miserable in ways I can’t even imagine.”
My father’s debt.Raphael’s revenge.Both of them using me as a pawn in games I had never agreed to play.
“I’m not going to fight a battle I can’t win.”I turned to face her, and I made sure my voice was steady.“I’m going to survive.And then I’m going to find a way to destroy him.”
Marjorie’s expression shifted, grief and pride and fear all tangled together.She crossed the room and took my hands in hers, her grip surprisingly strong for a woman her age.
“You’re braver than your father ever was,” she said.“Braver than he deserved.”
I couldn’t speak.Could only squeeze her hands once before pulling away, reaching for the coffee she had brought.I took a long sip, letting the heat burn down my throat and steady my nerves.The familiar taste of my morning ritual, as if this were any other day.As if my world wasn’t about to end.
“I should go,” I said.“Parsons is probably waiting.”
“He is.Downstairs.”
Of course he was.Raphael’s driver, Raphael’s man, here to escort me to my own execution.I set down the coffee cup and looked in the mirror one last time.
Gray suit, gold earrings, hair pulled back in a severe knot.No makeup except the barest hint of color on my lips.
I looked like I was going to a funeral.
Good.
The drive to the Paradise Peaks courthouse took twenty minutes.Twenty minutes of staring out the tinted windows at mountains I used to love, at spring wildflowers blooming along the roadside, at a world that had no business being this beautiful on a day like today.