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He looks at her and shakes his head. “I do not recall that conversation. As it stands, you are an unmarried woman with the Takahashi name. You will marry the man of my choosing, and you will fulfill your promise to this family.”

He leaves no chance for her to rebut.

But she doesn’t need to.

Because I’m here.

“Well, it’s going to be very hard for her to marry anyone.”

The old man narrows his eyes and takes an exasperated breath as if he just can’t stand me. Too bad for him, I’m not going anywhere.

“And why is that?” he asks, as if that would placate me and whatever I might say that he thinks he can make go away.

I grin again and speak as loud and as proud as I can.

“Because she’s already married. To me.”

Chapter 17 - Natalie

“Okay, what the fuck was that?” I ask as I spin around to face Atom once one of the many escorts who accompanied us to the guest room we’ll be staying in for the foreseeable future shuts the door behind them. “You and I are not married.”

The nerve of this man, who just shrugs as he walks to the window and looks out. “Nice view.”

Of course it’s a nice view. This place is one of the top neighborhoods in Los Angeles and sits on a hillside overlooking the downtown skyline. My grandfather pays for the best and owns the rest.

But I don’t want to talk about my family or the house. Not even the freaking view.

I want to discuss that bomb he dropped just moments ago. Right before my grandfather said, “Perhaps we could discuss this more over dinner,” and he was wheeled out to the gardens. And we were sent here.

To a room.

Like naughty children.

“If you think saying something like that will save me from being married to someone my grandfather chose, you’re mistaken. He’s checking right now on the accuracy of it. Once he finds out it was just words, he’ll shoot you for lying to his face, and I’ll be forced to watch. And then I’ll be sent down the aisle.”

“Would that upset you?” He turns, leaning back to rest on the windowsill as he crosses his arms over his broad chest.

I look at him as if he’s deranged, which he is, but especially right now.

“Me getting shot,” he adds, as if to clarify which part he thinks I’ll be more upset about in the future.

“No, of course not. I don’t give a fuck about you.” I flip my hair over my shoulder, then remember it’s all chopped off, so the most I can do is flick the short strands up to the sky before they come to rest on my shoulders.

“Hmmm.”

“‘Hmmm’? What does that mean?”

“It means I think you’re the one lying between the two of us.”

“Oh no, I’m not the one who lied to the head of the Takahashi family to get his captive out of marrying some stranger. That’s on you.”

I skip any part of me being upset if he were shot.

I saw it happen once before, the day Ruby and I were taken. I saw him fighting off our attackers and then doing a shimmy. But it wasn’t a shimmy. It was his body jerking from bullet after bullet hitting him. I thought he was dead in that moment. That he was lost for good.

But like so many things in my life, I didn’t know the truth till after I was set free.

When I saw Atom at the hospital, even if it was only once and in passing, it was a relief to know he’d lived.