My gaze flicks to his side, the faint outline of his injury still visible beneath the sweater. He was shot because of this. Because he made sure it wouldn’t happen again.
“I am not fixing Zephyra so you can flood the market with it,” I say. “I made it to get Ella to Langport, not to destroy lives. This drug latches onto the addiction center in the brain. The long-term effects? I don’t even fully understand them yet. Making it widely available could ruin people.”
He exhales slowly. “Violet. You want out of here?”
“Desperately.”
“Then take the deal.”
I narrow my eyes. “What deal?”
He pauses, then looks at me with an intensity that makes my breath hitch. “Ella’s scholarship. To Langport.”
I freeze.
“What about it?”
“That was me.”
The room tilts. Nausea rolls through me as my hands clench at my sides. “What?”
“I got her out. I got her into Langport. The money came from me—through Scarlet Zephyr Group.” He smirks. “Poetic, really.”
Shock slams into me, followed by rage so sharp it steals my breath. The escape I fought for, the future I bled to secure for Ella—it was him. All along. My voice comes out barely above a whisper. “No.”
“Yes,” he says. “And if you refuse, I pull it.”
Cold seeps into my bones. I wrap my arms around myself, trying to hold together what’s splintering. “You wouldn’t.”
He studies me, letting the silence stretch until it suffocates. “Wouldn’t I?”
My hands shake. “You’re blackmailing me.”
“I’m giving you an opportunity.”
“Oh, is that what we’re calling extortion now?”
“Think of it as job security,” he says. “You fix Zephyra. You hand over the formula and the rights. You never make it again. You get paid as long as it sells.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then Ella loses everything.”
Fury and helplessness churn in my gut. I’ve spent my life fighting to survive, to keep Ella safe, and now I see the truth—I never had control.He’s been pulling the strings from the start.
And beneath the anger?
Relief.
Because this might finally be a way out.
I hate that it’s working.
I cross my arms. “You’re a bastard.”
His lips twitch. “So I’ve been told.”
“You think I’m just going to roll over?”
