The words hit like a slap.
Evaluating.
They already have a fucking agent.
My blood roars in my ears, drowning out the distant hum of passing cars, the rustling of trees, the world itself.
“I wasn’t aware we were at that stage,” I say, voice deceptively calm.
Peggy’s smile sharpens. “Well, Bella, given your…situation, it’s only a matter of time, isn’t it?”
Mike chimes in, ever the smug bastard. “You’ve fought hard. We’ll give you that. But this?” He gestures at the house—the home I’ve bled for, sacrificed for,foughtfor. “You can’t afford this. You can’t afford to raise two kids and keep up with a property like this. It’s not realistic.”
I don’t even realize my hands have curled into fists until my nails dig into my palms.
“That’s not your decision to make.”
Peggy hums like she’s considering that. “It’s the court’s decision.”
I want to scream. Rip that condescending look right off her face. But I don’t.
I inhale slowly. Exhale even slower.
They think they’ve won. They think I have no options left.
That I’ll roll over. Surrender.
But they don’t know what I have in my purse.
They don’t know that desperation has a way of creating opportunities.
The contract.
Suddenly, it doesn’t feel so outrageous. If anything, it’s starting to look a hell of a lot like my only way out.
I could secure the house. Secure my siblings’ future.
They don’t know the deal sitting just within my reach, waiting for me to stop pretending I have a choice.
Because maybe Idon’t.
Maybe this isn’t about pride anymore.
Maybe it’s about survival.
24
Konstantin
My father is dying.
My father.
The man who built an empire. The legend who turned men into monsters and boys into soldiers.
The man who’s spent the last six months trapped in a body that betrayed him. The legend who taught me how to kill a man seventeen different ways before I turned 12. The shadow whose approval I’ve spent my life chasing.
I feel nothing. Or I tell myself I feel nothing. The strange hollowness in my chest calls me a liar.
