Page 79 of Maddening Fixation

“So if you think you’re going to marry him, spend two years in his house, walk away with hundreds of billions, and somehow keep him...”

She laughed.

“You are gravely mistaken. Romeo Flynn is mine. And if you dare try to take what’s mine...”

Her smile widened. “I’ll make sure you regret it for the rest of your life.”

Father leaned back in Grandfather’s leather chair, his fingers steepled beneath his chin as he absorbed everything Yarina had said.

His expression gave nothing away, but I knew that look.

It was the face of a man weighing risks, calculating outcomes, and searching for the move that would leave him three steps ahead.

Silence settled over the room.

No one seemed eager to break it.

I lowered my gaze to the legal documents resting in my lap, but the words no longer made sense. The elegant print blurred together until all I could see was a single name.

Romeo Medved Flynn.

Of course, the man who had walked free today wasn’t the quiet young man I’d once admired from afar.

He had become something far more dangerous.

A man capable of annihilating his own family.

A man powerful enough to reshape the city’s criminal underworld in a single day.

Any sensible woman would stay as far away from him as possible.

And perhaps I should have done the same.

Especially when his heart already seemed to belong to my sister.

I wasn’t about to compete for a man who clearly wanted another woman.

Walking away should have been the easiest decision of my life.

The thought stole the air from my lungs.

Because I knew I was lying.

Lying to Father. Lying to Yarina.

Lying to myself.

Ten years had passed...

Yet some hopeless part of me still longed for Romeo Flynn to notice me.

To truly see me.

And, impossible as it seemed...

To one day love me.

The room suddenly felt smaller, the walls closing in beneath the weight of old memories.