I know what the answer will be. Have always known, really. But Father's too smart, too practical to make this kind of decision without exploring every option first.
"There has to be another way," I say, forcing confidence into my voice. "Father, you're brilliant at this. You've gotten us outof worse situations before. Remember the dock workers' strike? The tariff crisis? You always find a solution."
Father finally looks up, and there's something in his eyes that makes my stomach clench. Not calculation anymore. Something that looks disturbingly like resignation.
"This is different, Elise."
"No, it's not." I stand, pacing to the window where frost still covers the glass in those impossible patterns. "You have assets. Connections. You could liquidate the Caribbean holdings, renegotiate the insurance contracts?—"
"It wouldn't be enough." His voice is quiet. Tired. "Even if I sold everything, it wouldn't cover half the debt."
"Then we'll find investors. Issue bonds. The Rothschild family owes you favors?—"
"The Rothschilds answer to courts like mine now," Lord Aratus interjects smoothly. "As do most of the banking houses your father might turn to. The integration has been... thorough."
I spin to face him. "You can't control everything. There are still independent investors, private wealth?—"
"Controlled by humans who fear losing what they have more than they care about what happens to you." His eyes never leave mine. "Your father knows this, Elise. He's known it for months. Why do you think he's been so distracted lately? So worried about finances he thought you wouldn't notice?"
The words hit like physical blows. Father's strange moods, the closed-door meetings, the way he's been avoiding my questions about our social calendar for next season. I thought it was normal business stress.
"Father?" I turn to him, needing him to deny it. "Tell me this isn't true. Tell me you haven't been planning this."
He won't meet my eyes. "I was hoping to find another solution. I tried everything, Elise. Every contact, every favor,every possible arrangement. But the debt is too large, and time has run out."
"Time hasn't run out until dawn," I insist. "We still have hours. You could?—"
"I could what?" Finally, he looks at me directly. "Bankrupt our family? Destroy the livelihood of thousands of employees? Let our competitors swallow our routes and leave our captains and their families destitute?"
"Yes!" The word explodes out of me. "Yes, if that's what it takes! Those are businesses, Father. Ships and cargo and numbers in ledgers. I'm your daughter!"
The silence that follows is deafening. Lord Aratus watches our family drama unfold with the detached interest of someone observing a play. Father stares at his hands again, unable or unwilling to make the choice I need him to make.
"You'll find a way," I say finally, my voice steady despite the fear clawing at my throat. "You always do. You're Edgar Montgomery. You built an empire from nothing. Six million dollars is just another problem to solve."
"Elise—"
"I'm going to my room." I move toward the door, desperate to escape the weight of Lord Aratus's gaze. "When I come down for breakfast, this will all be resolved. Because that's what you do, Father. You solve problems."
I pause at the threshold, not looking back. "And I am not an omega. Whatever tests or examinations you think prove otherwise, you're wrong. I would know what I am."
"Would you?" Lord Aratus's voice follows me into the hallway. "When you've spent your entire life being told that the emptiness inside you is normal? That your rage and hunger and desperate need for something you can't name are character flaws to be hidden rather than nature crying out for fulfillment?"
I don't answer. Can't answer, because his words resonate in ways that terrify me.
Instead, I flee to my room and lock the door behind me, pressing my back against the wood as if it could keep out the doubts he's planted in my mind.
Father will find a solution. He has to. Because the alternative—belonging to a creature who looks at me like he can see straight through to my soul—is unthinkable.
Even if part of me, some traitorous whisper in the depths of my heart, wonders what it would feel like to finally be seen.
I silence that voice and begin to plan. If Father fails, if the unthinkable happens, I'll be ready. I won't go quietly into whatever fate Lord Aratus has planned for me.
I am Elise Montgomery. I am not an omega. And I will not be claimed.
No matter how empty I feel, or how much his presence seemed to quiet the ache in my chest.
No matter how much I found myself wanting to step closer instead of away.
