CHAPTER 12
Ares
“I’ll Burn The Crown”
It had been a week and a half, and I couldn’t deny that I was stressed. I probably only had five hours of sleep out of the whole week. I had been up damn near every night, thinking about how my life had just changed and was now sitting in Marcel’s hands.
Shit was so irritating, I was ready to say fuck the Delacroix name altogether and let Laurent be the face of the family. But my hate for Laurent would never let me pass him the torch.
I would burn the crown before I gave it to him.
Therefore, I was in my second lawyer’s office, pacing back and forth while he jotted down key things I said. This was my Delacroix lawyer, not Bianca. I was not a dumb man. I always knew better than to keep all my secrets with one person, especially a woman I was sleeping with.
The walls were lined with leather-bound books nobody read and framed degrees that meant he knew how to keep rich people out of jail. His name was Adrian Serra, one of my grandfather’s most trusted attorneys. I did not like that, but I needed someonewho understood both American law and how the Delacroix’s moved.
“Mr. Delacroix, sit down. You are making my pen nervous,” he said in his accent, glasses sliding down his nose.
“I will sit when my life is not on a countdown,” I muttered, still walking the length of his office.
“Lyric already threatened to fuck my enemies,” I said, dragging a hand over my head. “I might fucking kill her before she even gets to sign an NDA.”
I scoffed and kept pacing.
“You cannot kill her, Mr. Delacroix,” Adrian replied calmly. “The first person the law will come for is you.”
“Well, put something in the contract that stops her,” I snapped, making him write faster. “Make that shit ironclad.”
He nodded once, waiting for me to continue.
“That bitch Bianca is a lawyer,” I added. “Make sure there are no loopholes for her to jump through. She has been quiet. I know she is plotting.”
“I will make sure she cannot rebut anything,” he answered. “She will sign. She enjoys your lifestyle too much to burn it down.”
He was not wrong. Bianca loved power. She would take a fat check and a gag order before letting herself look bitter in public.
I dragged in a breath and leaned my palms on the edge of his desk.
“Leona said fuck me,” I said.
He looked up over his glasses like he expected a meltdown.
Instead, I stopped pacing and smirked. “She just wants her contract. She can have that. Since it is fuck me, let her work. She gets the least walk-away money. She can sing her heart out while she counts her basic ass checks.”
Adrian’s mouth twitched like he wanted to laugh but knew better.
“And Naomi and Amara?” he asked carefully.
Their names made my chest feel tight.
I thought about Naomi’s text.
Call me if you need to talk.
She was my ace.
My best friend before anything.
We had history before the cars and the Forbes cover, and the Delacroix part of my name. She had lined me up when I was still Lil Ghost with crooked fades and big dreams.
