ping wo

Pea

eyes open, squinting against the morning light flooding thro

d quietly, answering the question Oliv

ugh her felt obscene. He was

prisingly gentle as she

," Olivia

crubbing at places that would never feel clean again. She watched the water circle the drain

oom transformed. Fresh flowers on the nightstand. Breakfast laid

pillow, a

ed as Marissa returned

ft it for you bef

Inside, nestled on black velvet, lay a diamond collar necklace-ostentatious, glea

rched. "He can

mes," Marissa said, her professional mask firmly

e collar until she felt the sti

o. "Given last night's... incident, Mr. Blackwood has implemented additional security measu

ivestock?" The words ca

d to a new iPhone beside the coffee. "All communications will be screened. Your laptop access will be lim

ful cage she'd been trying to i

e came out stronger than she fel

ed the screen. Turned it toward Ol

no debts-they're threatening to break my knees. You s

d handle your legal troubles, James. Your gamb

r wife now! Su

he bargain. You're still alive and fre

ive? She always was stubborn, just like her mother. But I

'm not capable of ha

course not.

do you nee

would get them o

r suggest your daughter isn't satisfying me

stopped. Olivi

recording

lackwood." Marissa's voice was gentle. "H

ced everything to save-had been begging for money, offering to

through numb lips. "How long has

was just the beginning." Marissa hesitated. "Your father has expens

o chance. He'd known her father would keep coming ba

nodded to the diamonds still clutche

diamonds around her throat. The tag-Property of

gesturing to the breakfast spr

k. For the next humiliation?

te. Because what e

ument to his ego that could be seen from every borough. He stood at the windows now

ation from the security app

d g

ordings. Known the moment Olivia realized her father's compli

Just the systematic removal of all other options

ed something in Sebastian he'd spent years learning to control. The rage that lived beneath his carefully construc

stroy that hope.

he

mo

e view of the city. He looked calm. Collected. Nothing like the man who'd forc

he wasn'

s the p

recognition and disgust warring on her face. The way she'd walked right up to him and said, "You're Sebas

culation. Just

tried to deploy the smile that usu

routine? Because from where I'm standing, you just

ly turned and left him stand

khand his mother across the dinner table while Ethan cowered in the corner. He'd s

on had made him

erything. Found her father's vulnera

triumph warred within him. His plan was unfolding perfectly. James Pearson was exactly

ames flowed back to his own accounts through the shell companies that owned the very establishments w

n't for

s for r

d last night, the revenge had twisted into somet

errupted hi