Liora

bling brick of my neighborhood and merged onto the highway toward the gleami

ward a man I only knew from terrifying news headlin

tapping away on a thin, glowing tablet, his face illumi

. "You keep saying 'service.' You keep saying 'heir.' I need to know th

k cold. He looked charming. He gave me a small, reassuring smile that made him

He shifted in his seat, leaning toward me. "Think of it as a gift. You have something

th Side," I whispered. "I do

y history back three generations. No history of chronic illness. High intelligence scores in your school records. And you're beautiful, L

ling rising in my stomach. "You're

but I flinched away. He didn't seem offended. "Darian Volkov needs an heir to keep his empire. Yo

e nine months

ou take your money, we take the child, and we never see each other again. You go back

he mother," I

you have no rights, no claim, and no memory of that child. You aren't being hired to be a mother, Liora. You're being hired to be a v

so casual about it. He was talking about

o be... with me?" I asked,

a. He prefers the precision of a clinic. He won't be 'with' you in the way you're imagining. He is a man o

nly felt suffocating. I felt like I was being wra

ed, the words escaping

his tablet. "Just remember why you're doing this. Think of your mother's f

he sound of her voice before the heart failure took it away. I can do this,

in my pocket began t

s emergency line. I scrambled to answer it, m

o? He

out by the sound of alarms blaring in the background. "Liora, you need to ge

s happening?

ratory arrest. The transport team was moving her and the port

avier, my eyes wide with pure terror. "Xavier, help! They're

hoed through the phone line. The soun

"Liora, she's gone cold. We're starting CPR, but wit

ne wen

ing into a thousand jagged pieces. I lo

ispered. "She's fla

. He just held his own phone up, his thumb

errifyingly calm. "I have the power to put them in that room in thirty seconds. But

of my phone. I could almost

is arm. "Save her! I'll do it! I

l, predatory smile. H

e said. "Welcome to the