“Long enough.”
“And you said nothing, did nothing. You’re more like me than I thought.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
“No? You kept secrets. You watched and waited and planned. You chose your moment to strike.” Another pause. “That’s exactly what I would do.”
The comparison makes my stomach turn. “The difference is I’m using what I learned to destroy you.”
“Are you? Because from where I’m sitting, you’ve just painted a target on yourself, your friends, and that girl. The Syndicate doesn’t take kindly to rebellion, Dredyn. You know that better than anyone.”
“Let them come.”
“They will—wewill. You have forty-eight hours to end this relationship publicly. Issue a statement, cut all contact with Mara Black, and we’ll consider this a youthful indiscretion. Refuse, and there will be consequences. For all of you.”
“What kind of consequences?”
“The permanent kind. I’m trying to save your life, you ungrateful?—”
“You’re trying to save your empire, there’s a difference. And I’m going to burn it to the ground.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“The only mistake I made was waiting this long.”
I hang up before he can respond.
The kitchen door opens behind me and Talon appears, hair disheveled, wearing nothing but gray sweatpants. “Your father?”
“Yeah. He wants us to publicly end things with Mara—issue statements saying we’re just friends. Distance ourselves immediately.”
“Mine said the same thing last night at dinner.” Talon moves to the coffee maker, starting a pot on autopilot. “Told me I was throwing my life away for a girl who’d choose her father’s world over me when it came down to it. Said I had forty-eight hours to walk away or face consequences.”
“Same timeline.”
Jasper emerges from the hallway, phone in hand, face grim. He signs, “Anthony called six times. Left voicemails saying I need to ‘remember my legacy’ and ‘stop disgracing the family name.’ Also forty-eight hours.”
“They’re coordinating—all three fathers giving us the same ultimatum, same deadline. Which means they’re working together on this,” I say.
“Why? I mean, yeah, Mara’s the President’s daughter, but she’s also free from Chase now. Why does the Syndicate care so much about who she’s dating?” Talon asks, pouring coffee into mugs.
“Because it’s not about dating.” Mara’s voice comes from the doorway and we all turn. She’s wearing one of my T-shirts. “It’s about control. They had a plan for me—marry Chase, become First Lady eventually, be a puppet they could manipulate. But that plan required me to be isolated, dependent, and broken down enough to comply.”
She moves into the kitchen, taking the coffee mug from my hands. “The three of you are the opposite of that plan. You makeme stronger. You give me options. You make me impossible to control. That’s why they want you gone.”
“How long have you been listening?” I ask.
“Long enough to hear your father threaten permanent consequences. So what are we going to do about it?”
“We have forty-eight hours. That’s their deadline for us to publicly end things,” Talon says.
“Then we have forty-eight hours to make sure they can’t enforce that deadline,” Mara says.
Jasper signs,“What are you suggesting?”
“I’m suggesting we stop playing their game. They want us to hide? We go public. They want us separated? We make it impossible to separate us. They want to threaten us into compliance? We remove the people making the threats.”
“You’re talking about going after our fathers,” I say slowly.
