Evidence.
Proof that the Crows could take a dynasty girl, strip her name for parts, and turn the destruction into the most beautiful show on earth.
It made me want to vomit.
“And if I say no?” I asked
The question came small. It didn’t sound like me. It sounded like a girl who still believed she had a door she could slam.
Damius’ gaze shifted to me as if I’d asked something quaint. Vincent’s eyes lifted for the first time since I’d sat down.
Bored.
That was the part that hurt.
Boredom.
Neither of them answered. They did something worse than speaking. They looked away.
Damius turned his attention back to my father, as though my voice hadn’t reached the table. Vincent’s gaze
“She was signed into the Marcellus dynasty merger.” He tapped the gold tablet, the projected crest pulsing once. “Marcellus has surrendered their claim as debt payment. Your daughter’s consent is not a required clause under Codex invocation.”
Uncle Zeke’s chair scraped. “You can’t be serious.”
Nikolai’s eyes didn’t flicker. “We are never unserious.”
A tight sound left my father—half breath, half disbelief. “That’s not a marriage. That’s?—”
“Law,” Damius cut in. “Marriage is a contract everywhere. You’re objecting because you dislike the signature.”
“So I’m—what? Traded?” I tried again, because some part of me refused to accept that this was already done.
Damius tilted his head. “Collected.”
Vincent’s ring hand rested on the table. Black crest. Heavy metal. It looked like a decision you couldn’t undo.
Nikolai slid another document forward.
“The merger will be recorded in the Sovereign Registry,” he addressed my father as if I wasn’t there. “On the day of the wedding, all assets and holdings tied to Madeline Thorne’s name will redirect under Crow governance.”
“You’re taking everything.”
“Everything attached to the merger. Which is everything attached to her name.” Nikolai corrected.
My throat closed.
The Thorne footprint in Villain wasn’t just pride. It was infrastructure. Contracts. Ports. Water rights. Entire portfolios my father had entrusted to me because he believed my name would protect them.
My father controlled my merger. We leveraged the assets to get the a powerful dynasty. The Marcellus didn’t absorb, we negotiated percentages. While having no idea they were trading our dynasties value to the crows to settle a debt.
My name was about to become the knife.
My father’s face had gone gray. The lines at the corners of his mouth looked deeper, older. He stared at the documents the way men stare at a flood they can’t stop, already measuring what will survive.
Uncle Zeke’s voice came tight. “There will be concessions.”
“No.”
