His Contract Bride, His Only Obsession

"I will not be sold to cover your failures."Rosaline dropped her meek posture. She straightened her spine and looked her father directly in the eye.Graham Whitaker froze behind his desk. He had expected his illegitimate daughter to grovel for a roof over her head. "Excuse me?" Graham demanded. His voice was dangerously low."You heard me." Rosaline let the manufactured tremble vanish from her tone. "You brought me here to use me as a human shield against the press. Now you want to trade me like a corporate asset. I refuse."Graham stood up. He leaned his heavy frame over the desk."You do not have a choice," Graham said. "You are nothing but a stain on my name. You owe me for breathing the air in my house.""I owe you nothing." Rosaline matched his cold stare. "My mother scrubbed floors until her hands bled while you slept in silk sheets. I survived the slums without a single cent of your money."She gripped the strap of her cheap canvas bag. The leather chair Graham sat in likely

"You did not learn predictive logistics in a public library."Victor handed Rosaline a crystal glass of bourbon.The VIP lounge suspended above the main ballroom offered unbroken privacy from the Meridian Dynamics gala. Soundproof glass muted the string quartet playing for the wealthy crowd below."A library card grants access to the same public filings your analysts read," Rosaline replied. She accepted the heavy glass.Victor took a step closer. "Public filings do not teach you how to circumvent the Macau dock authorities," Victor said. "My senior analysts spent three months trying to crack that regulatory wall. You bypassed it with a single clause on page four."He leaned against the polished mahogany bar. His dark eyes mapped her features."They do not teach you how to bribe a union boss either," Victor added. "Your severance bump strategy was aggressive and illegal. I appreciate both qualities.""Poverty is an excellent teacher," Rosaline said. "You learn how leverage works when