Cassian invites both legal teams back into the room, and just like that, after little back-and-forth between parties, the contract is executed.
Cassian wires my father whatever amount he promised him.
The deal is done.
My father lingers in the room after the lawyers have left, studying me. Maybe he’s trying to figure out what Cassian sees in me—or what Rad sees in me.
“I won’t protect you from him.”
He never has before. Why would he now, when I’m no longer his concern? “I know,” I reply quietly.
“You’re lucky your bitch sister put me in a difficult position. The press would have a field day if I disownedbothof my daughters.”
Saints, that’s even more of a shock than knowing Aspen had a hand in negotiating my mating contracts.
“Why would you disown Willow?”
My father rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Don’t play dumb, daughter. It’s unbecoming. Your sister confessed to helping you leave the manor on Yule. She admitted to being in contact with your newmate.” He sneers the word like the very concept is repugnant to him, like he himself isn’t a mated alpha.
Willow took responsibility for Hawthorn’s actions? The revelation shakes me, but this whole meeting has been horrifyingly illuminating. I’ve learned, without even a trace of doubt, where I stand with each member of my family. While Willow’s actions surprise me, my father’s disdain stings. I loathe the man, yet still I tried to be a good daughter to him.
It never would have been enough. I know that now.
There’s no world in which I could have behaved well enough to make my father—or Rad—happy.
I know I’ll see my father again, but when he stares down his nose at me, his blue eyes narrowed in contempt, and says his goodbyes, there’s something that feels resoundingly final about it.
I’m free.
After my father leaves, Marcus gives Cassian and I the room, and my mate immediately takes me in his arms.
“You’re feeling somuch, love.”
I couldn’t point to the single emotion that overwhelms the rest, because my mate is right, I’m feeling so many things right now. Ecstatic and deflated all at once. I should be over the moon, as happy as any omega newly mated to an alpha she loves should be, but my father’s snide words and warning that he wouldn’t protect me from Andrew Radcliffe steal my joy.
And Cassian paid for me.
It was never going to be easy forme, but Cassian made it easy for my father, and that must have taken an exorbitant amount of money.
“How much?” I ask, my voice shaking.
“As much as it took. The money doesn’t matter to me, Juniper. It was enough to minorly inconvenience us, but not enough to drastically change our circumstances. The number itself is inconsequential. Besides, Simon can make it back within a year or two through whatever stock market manipulation sorcery he does.”
“You don’t understand it either,” I realize, and for some reason, that’s what makes me smile.
“I know it’s legal,” Cassian hedges. “But that’s about the extent of my understanding. Seriously, Junes, don’t let the money bother you. I know you think I paid for you, that I all but bought you from your father, but all I did is buy us peace. You’ll never have to spend a night under that vile man’s roof ever again.”
I nod against him. “Thank you, Cass.”
“Thankyou, Juniper. For all that today felt like a disagreeable business deal, the outcome is still the same: I’m the happiest alpha in the world right now.”
And he is. With my jumble of emotions quieted, I can feel his through our bond again, and he is just as happy as he was when I first woke up at the Leclerc estate and Simon asked me if I could feel it. I felt it then and I feel it now. My mate can’t wait to spend the rest of his life with me.
“Come on, love. Let’s get out of here, all right?”
* * *
After a brief roundof congratulations from Cassian’s fathers, we part ways and I find myself in the front seat of the SUV, Marcus behind the wheel, Cassian in the backseat.
