nor

rtment. The moment she opened the door, she pulled me int

d, her voice laced with co

impersonal spaces I'd been inhabiting for the past several hours. She pressed a mug o

El. Tell me

guards. I told her about the brutal phone call, the cancelle

ifted from shock to pu

into fists. "Kayla is a manipulative witch and Ewing is

ip firm and grounding. "You did the righ

over me, the first genuin

. "When you said on the phone that you were goi

solve hardening. "Deadly serious

he sweetness coat the lingering bitterne

s, I become a permanent shadow hanging over Ewing and Kayla. Every family event,

annah's face. "Okay, I admit, that'

he company for years, grooming Kayla to take over. But if I'm married to Alaric, I'm connected to

protection. I need time to build my own power base wi

grudging admiration. "You've really thought this through. But

to gather, the Charles family elders are pressuring him to marry and produce an heir t

family's pressure. I won't bother him with emotional demands, and our union could even be framed as a strategic al

ing the cold logic and fierce determination t

in her eyes. "Okay. You're crazy. But I'm in.

al circle overlapping with the city's elite. I

nsely private. But my dad mentioned something a while back. He has a regular table at a private

ted to beat a

t a membership," she added. "But my

roat tight with emotio

a squeeze. "We're sisters. Don't mention it. N

rrow, we're going to go 'casually' run in

r hours finally beginning to ease. Through the window, I could

ay was

t time, I was fi

t, Cole Kowalski, was placing a file on his boss's desk. T