eat wasn't peaceful. It was the heavy,

ng thick, almost solid around her. Her lungs burned. Her heart hammered a

nating the dust motes dancing in the air. It was an ordinary morning, but the wor

gure with one hand in the pocket of his suit trousers,

He was applying the same ruthless efficiency he u

he emotion he had shown only minutes before. "You can continue screaming about injustices and

fists, her nails bit

man who threatens

w, his expression on

ish. Stan

f gesture towa

in suits cut with military precision, stepped out of the vehicles. Each carried a fine leather briefca

ne. They weren't just lawyers;

y half. The group's leader, a gray-haired man with a shark-like gaze

"I am Sterling, head of legal counsel for Volkov Industries.

ce came out more brittle than she intended. "You can't jus

recognized it: a preliminary court order. "We have DNA evidence obtained from a sample collected yesterday at the country club. It'

lai, whose expression

t my permission?" she whispered, her voice

m me," he replied coldly. "Now, listen to yo

lti-page document. The paper was thick and e

safety standards for a child of Mila's standing, and your erratic employment history. We will argue that the environment the girl lives in is precarious and unsafe. Mr. Volkov, on the other hand, can offer her the best education in the world, twenty-four-

had haunted her since she'd fled New York. She knew money could buy

he gasped. "I'm a good m

ourtroom, Sienna," Nikolai said, tak

u the legal title of 'Resident Mother, ' and, for the sake of appearances, you will be presented as his fiancée for a period of no less than two years. You will move immediately

d. "Fiancée? Why would

ntern who vanished. I want the world to see a united family under my control. Mila will be presented as my l

sport, no independent bank accounts that I don't control, and you will not leave the property without my secur

hot tears of rage spilling down

nna," he said, his words landing like a s

the hallway came the yawn of a little girl and

re so many men in s

wearing her bear pajamas, the legs a little short because she'd grown so q

the rude g

. The sound was a dry, final cra

tion of a second, the ice in his eyes seemed to f

and lifted her into her arms

ragile in the face of such

e Mila away in a black car, and she could

would keep her daughter, but

Mila asked, her small, warm h

head against her daughter's. The smell of

ld do a

er it

ed up at

no trace of the man who had once made her feel like the center of the universe. All tha

id, extending the

wered Mil

ute. Mommy has to sign some work

girl asked with a burst

, yet it held an undertone Sienna couldn't quite place. "A p

he suspicion she'd inherited from her father

he pen with both of them. She glanced at the clauses: Total Security Cont

ry fiber of my being. You can take my freedom, you can force me to live in your ma

t of expensive cologne and sheer po

is we 'had'. I want my heiress, and I want the world to beli

e on the last page. Every stroke of the pe

cks will arrive in thirty minutes. You are permitted to bring two suitcases of personal clothin

d out. "I can't pack up our e

ai said, glancing at his platinum watch.

g Sienna in the middle of her dismantled home, surrounded by lawye

t in doing so, she had walked

ertainty, that the door had just