Ready

Chapter Six:

Jade's POV

“If you take half now,” I said, my voice shaking with a tremor I could not suppress, “I will be left with almost nothing.”

My briefcase slipped from my hand. It landed on the thick foyer rug with a soft, final thud. My father did not react to the noise. He did not even blink. He simply stood there with his drink in his hand, looking out at the manicured lawn of an estate that felt more like a prison every second.

“You already gave half of the company shares to your wife,” I continued. I forced myself to take a shallow breath, trying to keep the panic from clawing its way up my throat. “If I give another half to Sheila, I will have barely ten percent left. That is not a holding, Father. That is a decorative seat at a table where I no longer have a voice.”

He turned away from the window and stared at me as if I had said something profoundly stupid. He sighed, a sound of pure, unadulterated irritation.

“Stop whining and do as you are told, Jade. You are making a scene over a few percentage points.”

My chest tightened until it was painful to draw air. “I am not whining. I am asking you to think for one moment. That division is the only thing I built myself. I spent three years of my life turning those numbers around while Sheila was out spending your money in Paris.”

“You would not have anything if it was not for me,” he snapped. The words sank into me like a slow-acting poison. He stepped toward me, his shadow falling over my face. “Everything you have, from the clothes on your back to the title on your business card, is a gift from me. Do not forget your place.”

I swallowed hard. The taste of copper was sharp in my mouth. “I know that, Father, but I earned my results. I am the one who secured the Sterling merger in the first place.”

“Then do as you are told and sign the transfer.” His voice cut through mine with a sharp edge of disgust. “You should be grateful. After the embarrassment you caused this family last night, I am doing you a massive favor by keeping things quiet. Most fathers would have disowned you for letting such a high-profile marriage slip through your fingers.”

My entire body went cold. I felt as if the blood had stopped flowing to my extremities. “I brought embarrassment?” I whispered.

“Do not play dumb,” he replied. He set his glass down on the mahogany table with a sharp clack. “A broken engagement is humiliating enough for a family of our standing. People do not need to see you walking into the Vane Building after Elio dumped you. It is bad press. It makes us look weak. It makes me look weak.”

My hands trembled so violently that I had to hide them in the folds of my navy dress. “Father, Elio cheated on me with Sheila. He was the one who broke the contract. He was the one who humiliated me.”

“And?”

The single word shattered the last remaining piece of my heart.

“And?” I repeated. My voice was barely audible now.

“Yes,” he said impatiently. “And? What exactly do you expect me to do about it? Sheila is your sister now. Elio has chosen her. The best thing for the stability of the merger and the reputation of this family is to move forward as if this was the plan all along.”

Move forward. He said it so casually, as if my life were nothing but a minor accounting error that needed to be erased for the balance sheet to look clean.

“Please,” I whispered before I could stop myself. I hated the sound of my own begging, but I was desperate. “Do not take my shares. They are all I have left of my mother.”

My father’s face tightened with a deep, dark annoyance. “I am not negotiating with you, Jade. You have no leverage.”

“Father, please, just listen to me for one second.”

“Enough.” His voice echoed through the high ceilings of the foyer, sharp and final. “You will transfer half of your shares to Sheila. That is final. If you do not sign those papers by the end of the hour, I will personally ensure you are escorted from this property and blacklisted from every firm in the city.”

I opened my mouth to speak again, to scream or cry or fight, but another voice entered the room.

“Well. This is interesting.”

My stomach dropped into a cold pit. Sheila walked in like she already owned the foundation of the house. She was wearing an expensive cream coat that probably cost more than my first car. Her designer heels clicked softly against the marble floor, a rhythmic sound that felt like nails being driven into my coffin.

Her eyes moved between us, a look of pure, unbridled amusement dancing on her face. “Am I interrupting a family meeting?” she asked sweetly.

My father’s tone softened immediately. The transition was so fast it was sickening. “No,” he said. “We were just finalizing the discussion regarding your new position at the company.”

Sheila walked closer and sat on the edge of the table beside him. She folded into his presence with a practiced ease, looking like the daughter he had always wanted. Her eyes turned to me, gleaming with triumph.

“Oh,” she said. “Is this about the shares? The ones that are being transferred to my name?”

Heat rushed to my face. I felt the stinging burn of tears, but I refused to let them fall in front of her. “You already knew.”

“Of course I knew, Jade. These things were bound to happen.” She laughed lightly, a sound like glass breaking. “Don’t look so shocked. You were always a placeholder. Did you really think you were a match for Elio?”

“You knew about the shares,” I said, my voice gaining a hard edge. “And you knew about the engagement before we even got to the rooftop.”

“About the shares? Certainly. Elio and I discussed it weeks ago.” She shrugged casually. “And honestly, who wouldn't choose me? I am a much better fit for the Sterling brand than a girl who spends her weekends looking at spreadsheets.”

My throat tightened. “That is not true. Elio and I had a life planned.”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “You have always been too naive for your own good. You thought being perfect would keep him? Perfection is boring, Jade. Elio wanted fire. He wanted someone who actually knew how to live.”

My father remained silent throughout her tirade, his lack of defense a louder betrayal than anything she could say.

“Sheila is your sister now,” he repeated like a warning to me.

Sheila smiled. “Since you will not be working at the company anymore,” she said with a look of pure glee, “I will be taking over your position as the lead analyst. I am moving into your office on Monday.”

My head snapped up. “What?”

She tilted her head, a look of mock sympathy on her face. “Someone has to run that department, and Father agreed that I have the right spirit for it. I would rather not have your bad luck rubbing off on the furniture anyway.”

I looked at my father. He did not deny it. He did not even look uncomfortable as he watched his eldest daughter be stripped of her dignity and her career in the same breath. That told me everything I ever needed to know about my value in this house.

Slowly, I reached out and picked up the gold pen on the table. My hands were shaking, but my mind had gone strangely, terrifyingly quiet. I signed the documents. I signed away my mother’s legacy and my life’s work.

I dropped the papers back on the table and Sheila’s smile widened as she reached for them.

I turned and walked out. I did not grab my briefcase. I did not look back at the portraits on the wall. I walked out of that house like a ghost leaving a grave.

The moment I stepped outside, the cold air slapped my face. It was sharp and honest. I kept walking down the long, winding driveway. I was halfway to the gate when I saw a familiar sleek black car pulling up to the curb.

Elio.

He stepped out of the vehicle with a casual grace that made my stomach turn. He looked like he had not spent a single minute regretting the fact that he had destroyed my life. His eyes found mine, and he paused.

“Jade,” he said. His voice was neutral, as if we were mere acquaintances.

“What are you doing here, Elio?” I asked sharply.

He shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “I tried to warn you this morning. I called, but you were not picking up your phone.”

My anger flared into a white-hot heat. “Warn me? Did you want to warn me before or after you slept with my sister in the bed we were supposed to share?”

He winced slightly, but there was no real remorse in his eyes. “I told you things were complicated, Jade. The merger required a different kind of alliance.”

“Get out of my way,” I said coldly.

His brows furrowed. “I am not here for you. I came to drop Sheila off. I am waiting to pick her up so we can go to lunch with the board. It is freezing outside, and I did not want her catching a cold while she waited for the valet.”

For a moment, the world went silent. Yesterday, he had been my fiancé. Today, he was playing the role of the doting husband to the woman who had stolen my world. I let out a laugh that sounded more like a sob, though there were no tears left.

“Congratulations, Elio. You two deserve each other.”

I walked past him and did not look back. I kept walking until the estate was a distant memory behind me. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at the grey pavement. My life had collapsed in less than forty-eight hours. Everything I had worked for was being handed away to people who hated me.

Then, I remembered the stranger. I remembered the heavy, expensive weight of the card in my pocket. My fingers trembled as I searched for it.

The card.

I pulled it out and stared at it in the harsh daylight. I finally looked at the name printed in clean, embossed letters across the black surface.

Killian Montclair.

My breath stopped in my lungs. I blinked and looked again, certain I was hallucinating. But the name remained. Killian Montclair.

My father’s voice echoed in my head. I want a meeting with Killian Montclair. I want that contract signed.

The man in the hotel was not just a stranger. He was the apex predator of the business world. He was the man my father had been chasing for years. He was the man who could break the Sterling merger with a single phone call.

This was not kindness. This was a move. He had known exactly who I was when he found me at the bottom of those stairs.

I gripped the card so tightly the edges bit into my skin. For a moment, I wanted to throw it into the gutter. I did not want to be anyone’s pawn ever again. But then I pictured Sheila in my office. I pictured Elio’s indifference. I pictured my father’s cold, whiskey-soaked eyes.

Something inside me hardened into stone. If they wanted to play games with my life, then it was time I invited a monster to the table.

Slowly, I dialed the number. The phone rang three times before the line connected.

“Hello?”

His voice was exactly as I remembered. It was calm, controlled, and possessed the gravity of a storm on the horizon.

“This is Jade,” I said.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. Then his voice came again, quieter and more intimate. “I am aware.”

“I have thought about your offer,” I said. I looked back toward my father’s house one last time. “And I am ready to sign.”