Page 221 of A Vicious Love

“I didn’t mean it as a compliment.”

“I’m taking it.”

She studied me again, less shy now. “Ballet takes that much time too. More sometimes.”

I turned slightly toward her. “Tell me.”

She seemed surprised by the request. Then suspicious in the way she became when words mattered too much.

“It’s just training.”

“Then tell me just training.”

Her fingers moved along the top edge of the blanket. “Class, rehearsal, conditioning, physio, stretching. A lot of repetition. A lot of tiny corrections that make you want to scream because nobody in the audience will ever know your shoulder was two degrees wrong for three weeks.”

“I’d know.”

Her eyes came to mine.

I had said it because it was true, not because it was kind. I had watched enough clips in the past month to understand her shoulders, her ankles, the placement of her wrists, the frightening discipline beneath all that softness. I had watched her dance long after midnight in my office like a man looking for evidence at a crime scene, irritated every time the evidence proved she was extraordinary.

“You would?” she asked.

“Yes.”

A silence followed.

She looked away first. “It’s all I have.”

The words were soft, almost lost beneath the rain.

My body went still.

“That sounded dramatic.” She drew the blanket higher, regret crossing her face. Her lashes lowered. “My sisters have actual lives. Useful ones. Liora married into money with medical corridors attached, so she hosts dinners that move decisions. Amabel married shipping influence, and everyone pretends her salons are social when her guest lists change votes. Sabine married sweetly and still has education trusts, estate councils, a husband people want at tables, babies everyone counts before they’re born.”

Her mouth curved without humor.

“They’re useful. Placed.”

Placed.

The word entered the room with all the ugly elegance of dynasty language. A daughter sent somewhere profitable. A wife turned corridor.

“And you?” I asked.

“I can’t carry anything important.”

My jaw tightened.

“If you ever marry me,” she said, careful now, “anything attached to my name becomes vulnerable to Crow claim. Business seats, voting trusts, shares, land-linked foundations, corridor authority. If it comes through me, Crow can touch it. Father says it would be reckless to build influence in my name while the merger sits unresolved.”

“So they left you empty.”

“They let me keep ballet.”

“That was yours already.”

“It was allowed because it didn’t threaten anyone.”