“Thank you,” I breathe.
His gaze darkens, not with violence this time. With something worse. Something that makes my pulse leap.
“You don’t need to thank me for protecting what’s mine.” He turns away, jaw locked, fist clenched. A storm headed straight for someone else.
Vitali
She called my wife a whore.
There were a hundred logical reasons to ignore it. Charlotte is strong enough to endure petty insults, my focus should be on business… and yet the rage is still simmering under my skin.
Charlotte is barely out of sight when Yuri appears in the corridor that leads from the main house, curiosity already brewing in his eyes.
“You dismissed my housekeeper?” he states, rather than asks, but I know it’s a question.
“She insulted Charlotte.”
Yuri lifts a brow. “The staff aren’t used to sudden… arrangements.”
“That’s irrelevant, and I don’t care what they’re used to.”
He gives a short laugh. “Don’t overreact. Jean has been here for twenty years, she took over from her own mother.”
“And she’ll spend the next twenty far away from this family.”
He steps closer, voice dropping. “Vitali, we can’t fire everyone who struggles to respect—”
“No.” The word is a growl. “We can fire everyone who calls my wife a whore.”
Silence. Cold. Loaded.
“She is fulfilling an order that keeps this family’s legacy secure,” I continue, low and lethal. “If someone spoke that way about Sophia, would you tolerate it?”
His jaw tics. There. A crack in his neutrality.
“No,” he admits.
“Then you understand.”
His gaze narrows. “You’re this… invested already? I thought it was a simple contract.”
I hold his stare. Unflinching truth.
“She’s mine,” I say simply. “And I will destroy anyone who forgets that.”
Yuri studies me for a long moment, then nods once. A silent pact between family.
“I’ll assign someone else for the household,” he says. “Someone who knows how to keep their mouth shut.”
I incline my head. “Good.”
He turns to leave, but pauses.
“Be careful,” he says quietly. “This kind of possession? It doesn’t loosen easily. And I’ve never known your contracts to be…escapable.”
I watch him go, pulse still pounding.
I don’t want it to loosen.
