Page 1 of Inked in Devotion

Chapter

One

Chloe

Stay or flee?

There was more than myself to consider now. My infant son, an unexpected twist in my already complicated life. On one side, I could be an heir to a multibillion-dollar empire, and I had two half brothers I could call family. It sounded like a fairy tale ending, right? Except I’d already shot one brother in self-defense.

The moment I stepped into King Tower, the gravity of my father’s legacy seeped into my gut like confidence-eating acid. All my life I sought to be free from my past, but it kept catching up with me. Sometimes I wondered if running from it was futile.

“Chloe?”

Theo’s voice broke into my thoughts and a jittery system poised toward flight. We were in my brother’s sprawling office. Floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides with a regal view of Manhattan. Rows of rich mahogany, shelves on another wall. Luxury and power pulsed from every corner of the room, tapering to focus on the man in front of me.

Did I really want to bring Sebastian into an opulent lifestyle?

My mother and I had lived our lives as the dirty secrets of powerful men. For the sake of my son, I could give up looking for answers to her disappearance, but I couldn’t ignore the bigger threat, and protecting Sebastian from it was my priority.

“I don’t want to come forward.”

“Let me get this straight.” Theo leaned back against the couch and crossed his ankle over a knee. To others, that would be a normal move to relax, but it had the opposite effect on me. Because I’d been conditioned to watch for signs of being taken advantage of by men like him, I braced for a condescending tone. “You want twenty million for you and your son. You don’t want to come forward and be identified as a King.”

“Chloe has every right to the money—” Dora spoke up from my left.

Theo’s eyes swept to the third person in the room, to the woman who’d always advocated for me ever since my mother sent me to live with her when I turned fifteen. “There are safeguards to the trust. She can’t give it away to charity⁠—”

“And I don’t want the shares,” I said. “All I want is funding to form an NGO. You can have paperwork drawn up stating I would sign my shares away to you in exchange for twenty million. I’ll have my lawyers look over it, of course.” Lawyers. I didn’t have lawyers. “Wouldn’t that be better for King Industries?”

It was another reason I had Dora with me for my meeting with Theo. With over thirty years of experience managing a network of women’s shelters, she could speak to business plan concerns should questions arise.

My brother scanned me contemplatively. Was he considering it? “I had my team comb over the trust documents, and it’s airtight. To receive any money from it, you’ll have to become a King.”

My face flushed. “Be a King.”

“I don’t understand what would make you turn down the life I’m offering you.”

“And I don’t understand why you want to help me. I’m your father’s bastard daughter. I’m sure I’ve caused enough torment in your parents’ marriage. Don’t you want me to disappear?”

“You’re not to blame for Dad’s mistakes.”

Dora snorted, and my brother sliced her with a glare that would have silenced his staff, maybe, but just like me and for even longer, Dora had dealt with men like Theo.

“Is there something you want to say?” Theo challenged.

Dora was about to chastise him, but this was my fight. “We don’t want strings attached,” I said. “We’ve seen many times what’s at the end of that string and it’s not palatable.”

“I’m a businessman, Chloe. I need your help to fix the mess our brother left us.”

“Can’t you leave me out of it?”

Theo laughed darkly. “I’m afraid I can’t since you’re part of the mess.”

“What is he saying?” Dora asked. “I thought Jeremiah had a skiing accident.”

“I’m sorry, Dora.” She was aware of my past, but I’d been careful to fill her in about recent events. Because the second I shot Jeremiah, I was dragged into a quagmire of cover-ups and scandals. Leaving Dora in the dark about it was for her safety. “Just tell me if I’m wasting time so I can be out of your hair.”

“Would it be so bad to be a King? Be family?”