Chapter 5 : The Buyout

"No." The word came out hard and flat. "I will not be anyone's fiancée. Not yours. Not theirs."

Lucian just looked at me.

"Corporate lawyers will take everything from me," I said. "I don't have anything to take, but they will find a way. They always do."

Nobody moved toward the door.

I didn't sleep that night.

Morning came through the floor-to-ceiling windows whether I wanted it to or not. I was still in yesterday's clothes when Zane appeared in the guest room doorway holding a garment bag.

"No," I said, before he opened his mouth.

"It has a waistband that won't press on your stomach," he said. "I called a stylist at six in the morning."

He laid it on the bed and left without another word.

Two hundred and twelve dollars. That is what I have. Against three men with legal teams and billionaire accountants and God knows what else.

I put the dress on.

It fit perfectly. That made everything worse.

Gavin was waiting in the living room. He crossed to me, took my left hand, and slid a ring onto my finger without a single word.

The diamond was not subtle. Nothing about these men was subtle.

My hand trembled. His closed around it, steady and warm, until the shaking stopped.

"I didn't agree to this," I said quietly.

"I know," he said. He didn't let go of my hand.

The paparazzi were already outside the stadium. A solid wall of lenses and shouted questions and white flashbulbs that hit my eyes like physical pressure.

Lucian walked on my left. Gavin on my right. Zane one step behind. They moved as one unit and the crowd split around them automatically.

Nobody got a clear shot of my face. Every angle was blocked by a shoulder or a forearm or a turned back.

I couldn't tell if that was instinct or a plan. Both options terrified me.

Inside, the boardroom was cold and aggressively lit. Gerald Park was already on his feet. Three lawyers in dark suits flanked him. A fourth was on a laptop. A fifth was on the phone.

Gerald pointed the moment we walked in.

"Sit down," he said, "and listen carefully because I am going to explain exactly how finished all of you are."

Lucian pulled out a chair for me. Then he didn't sit.

"Your contracts contain a morality clause," Gerald said, volume climbing with every word. "What you three have done violates it in six separate ways. I am voiding all three deals before noon." He turned to me and his eyes went flat and cold. "And you. I don't know what you thought you were walking into, sweetheart, but I will personally make sure your name is attached to this story in every way that ends careers. Journalism. Communications. Stadium work. Any of it. All of it."

My stomach dropped through the floor.

Men like him do it every day. I had watched it happen to two women I knew in Ohio and they never recovered. I had nothing to fight back with. No platform. No lawyer. No savings. Just a ring I hadn't agreed to and a press credential three months from expiring.

"Are you finished?" Lucian asked.

Gerald's eyes snapped to him. "Excuse me?"

Lucian reached inside his jacket. He pulled out a folded document, set it on the boardroom table, and slid it across to Gerald with two fingers.

"Read the cover page," he said.

Gerald snatched it up.

His face changed immediately. The fury drained out in one visible wave, replaced by something I had never seen on a powerful man before.

Pure, undiluted shock.

He turned to the nearest lawyer. The lawyer had already gone pale. Gerald turned to the next one. Same expression.

"This was filed," Gerald said. His voice had lost all of its volume. "This was filed last night."

"Eleven forty seven," Lucian confirmed. "Majority acquisition. Effective immediately. All three of us."

The room went absolutely silent.

I stared at the document trembling in Gerald Park's hands.

Lucian, Gavin, and Zane had bought the Miami Fury overnight.

Gerald was not their boss anymore.

Gerald worked for them.

And from the look on Lucian's face when he turned back to me, I understood something that stopped my breath completely.

The team was never the move.

I was.