He looks up sharply. “What?”
“Your daughter is wasted being treated like an afterthought. She has intelligence, resourcefulness, skills you never bothered to develop because you were too busy managing your legitimate children’s careers.”
“She’s illegitimate.”
“I don’t care about your family politics. I care that you wasted potential that could have been useful to you and now belongs to me instead.” I lean forward slightly. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You will support this marriage publicly. You will tell Elena—if she asks—that you approve, that it’s a good strategic alliance, that you’re grateful I’m protecting her.”
“You want me to lie to her.”
“I want you to make this easier for everyone. Including yourself.” I slide a folder across the table. “Inside is the preliminary contract. Your businesses that will remain operational, the oversight structure, the financial arrangements. Review it, sign it, and we proceed.”
He opens the folder with shaking hands. Scans the pages without really reading them.
“She’ll hate me for this,” he says quietly.
“She already does. This just confirms what she’s always known—that you’ll sacrifice her to save yourself.”
The cruelty of the statement makes him flinch, but he doesn’t deny it.
“Don’t make issues,” I tell him, voice hardening. “Don’t try to interfere; don’t encourage her to resist; don’t give her false hope that rescue is coming. Accept this, support it, and I’ll be as nice to the Lawrence group as circumstances allow. Fight me, and I bury you completely.”
He stares at the contract. At the signature line waiting for his agreement.
“When?” he asks.
“Soon. You’ll receive formal invitation to the ceremony. Small, private, discreet.”
“After? Will I… see her?”
“That’s up to Elena. If she wants contact with her family, I won’t prevent it. I won’t force it either.”
He nods slowly. Picks up the pen I’ve left on the table. Signs without reading the rest of the document.
It’s crazy what power does. What fear accomplishes. This man is agreeing to marry his daughter off to his enemy, signing her life away because it means his businesses survive a few more years under new management.
He’s not even fighting. Not even pretending to care about her welfare over his own survival.
Elena was right to hate him.
I take the signed contract and stand. “We’re done here.”
“Can I—” He stands too, awkward and uncertain. “Can I speak with her? Before the wedding?”
“No.”
“Please. I should at least—”
“You should leave. Before I change my mind about keeping your businesses operational.” I signal the guard at the door. “Escort Mr. Lawrence out.”
He’s removed before he can argue further. I’m left alone with the signed contract and the cold satisfaction of knowing another piece has fallen into place.
Elena’s father sold her. Confirmed what she’s always suspected about her worth to her family.
When she learns that—and she will—it will break something in her.
I should feel satisfaction about that. About being right, about proving her family never deserved her loyalty.
Instead, I just feel anger at Walter Lawrence for being exactly the weak, selfish man I knew he was.
