a stray nail in the floorboards. She pressed her back against the sid

her eyes morphed into the corner

. "I'm going to have you arrested for assault. The military medical center will

on Kandy, walking calmly toward the battered oak desk in

ooks until they found the heavy, t

ed the thick parchment onto the floor. It landed with

ument. The bold, crimson wax seal of the Pe

o room for negotiation. "The Morals Clause. Any collateral family member receiving living stipends who en

ized in that agonizing second that Janet didn't just hold the physical high g

, her eyes narrowing into dark slits, "I will initiate the evictio

... how did you get the ex

oadsword. "This document is legally binding. If you breathe a single word of this to the police, I will initiate the eviction protocol myself. The Morals Claus

et's voice snapped something

e echoing off the ceiling. "They're going to be liquid

o Kandy. The air in the

do you know the precise timeline of a private corporate liq

yes widened in sheer horror. She had just play

er shadow swallowing Kan

er against the bedframe. "At Jax's yacht party! The inves

igation by the SEC. His accounts are frozen. He hasn't thrown a yacht p

ere closing in. Her chest heav

ation spilling over her eyelashes. "I'm chosen

med. It was the final confirmation. Kandy was a low-level reborn, he

on. Letting Kandy walk blindly into a doomed future, believi

uffel bag and yanked it shut with a sharp, metalli

d to reclaim some shred of victory. She scrambled to her

anger. It was the look a human gives a dead cockroach

, "that in a few years, when you're changing Jax's adult diapers because his

ge of the smell, the sickness, the decay flashed in

yelled through her fingers, tears stre

r and slammed it hard into Kandy's collarbo

aving her cousin weeping in t