Chapter 7: The Choice of a Devil

The rain came down hard as Jade stepped out of the Ashford Group headquarters. The freezing drops hit her face, cutting through the numbness that had taken over her body. She didn't look back at the glass monolith. In her mind, Lucian was up there, hiding behind his desk and his billions, perfectly fine with trading her life away.

A sleek black sedan pulled up to the curb. The tinted window rolled down smoothly, revealing Sebastian’s sharp, handsome face. He smiled, his lighter eyes gleaming with victory.

"Get in, sweetheart," he said, his voice a low, welcoming purr. "Before the storm ruins that expensive suit."

Jade didn't hesitate. She pulled the door open and slid into the plush leather interior. The car smelled of rich wood and expensive cologne, a scent so similar to Lucian’s that it made her stomach turn. She kept her hands clamped firmly over her purse, her fingers digging into the leather to stop their violent shaking.

Sebastian pulled into traffic, his movements effortless. He flicked a glance down at her hands, his eyes lingering on her abdomen before returning to the road.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," he murmured. "Did my brother say something particularly charming before you left?"

"He agreed to the arrangement," Jade said. Her voice was dead, stripped of all its usual professional polish. "He told me selling me to the Stirlings was the smartest business move."

Sebastian let out a short, mocking laugh. "Of course he did. Lucian loves to play the ruthless titan, but when our father cracks the whip, he runs right back to his doghouse. He’s a coward, Jade. He’d rather watch you marry a monster like Theodore than lose a single percentage of his precious merger."

The words twisted the knife already buried in Jade's heart. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to swallow the lump in her throat. He's right, she told herself. Lucian chose the company. He always chooses the company.

"Where are we going?" she asked, staring out at the blurred neon lights of Manhattan.

"To my place," Sebastian replied smoothly. "A sanctuary where neither Arthur nor Lucian can touch you. I promised you the truth, Jade. And I always deliver on my promises."

Sebastian’s penthouse was a stark, hyper-modern fortress of dark stone and floor-to-ceiling glass. It felt completely devoid of humanity, a beautiful cage designed by a predator.

He tossed his keys onto a marble console and walked over to a heavy safe built into the wall. Jade stood near the entrance, her posture rigid, her hands still flat against her stomach. Every instinct screamed at her to run, but she had nowhere left to go. Her mother's life depended on a checkbook she no longer controlled.

"Relax," Sebastian said, turning around with a thick, leather-bound folder in his hand. He walked over to the velvet sofa and dropped it onto the glass coffee table with a heavy thud. "This is what you came for. The real history of the Ashford Group."

Jade stepped forward, her legs feeling like lead. She sank onto the edge of the sofa and pulled the folder toward her. When she opened it, the first thing she saw was a grainy police photograph of her father’s mangled vehicle from twenty years ago.

Her breath hitched.

"Look at the internal mechanics report," Sebastian instructed, leaning over the back of the couch, his face dangerously close to hers. He pointed a long, clean finger at a highlighted paragraph. "The brake lines weren't severed by a slick road or a sharp turn. They were drained manually two hours before he left the office. Your father found out that Arthur was laundering funds through the Stirling shipping lines. He was going to the federal prosecutor."

Jade’s eyes scanned the documents, the cold, hard data blurring before her eyes. It was all there—internal memos, silenced bank transfers, and a signed NDA from the mechanic who had inspected the car afterward. Her father hadn't died saving Arthur Ashford. He had been executed by him.

"And Lucian?" Jade whispered, her voice cracking as a single, hot tear spilled over her cheek. "You said he knew."

Sebastian reached into the folder and pulled out a digital printout of a secure server log. It showed a single user accessing the encrypted file from the CEO's private terminal six months ago.

The username was Lucian’s private access code.

"He found it half a year ago," Sebastian whispered in her ear, his breath warm and predatory. "And what did he do? Did he tell his dedicated secretary? Did he help you get justice? No. He locked it away in his system and used it as leverage to secure his own position against the old man. He used your father’s blood to buy his throne, Jade."

A terrible, suffocating weight crashed down on her chest. The room tilted. The man she had slept with, the man she had allowed herself to love in the dark, had been looking her in the eye every day while hiding the truth about her father’s murder.

"He's a monster," Jade choked out, her pride shattering into dust.

"He’s an Ashford," Sebastian corrected softly. He stepped around the couch and dropped to his knees in front of her, taking her cold hands in his. His grip was firm, his lighter eyes burning with intense ambition. "But I’m different, Jade. I want to burn their empire down. Marry me."

Jade froze, staring at him. "What?"

"Marry me," Sebastian repeated, his voice dropping into a seductive, urgent rasp. "My father and Victoria want to lock you away with Theodore to keep you quiet. If you marry me, the Ashford name protects you automatically. The Stirlings can't touch a daughter-in-law of the family without starting a public war."

He leaned in closer, his hand sliding up to rest gently against her lower abdomen. Jade flinched, but he didn't let go. His eyes locked onto hers with a terrifying, absolute clarity.

"I know you're carrying his child, Jade. I don't care. That baby is the ultimate leverage. Together, we take the file, we take the heir, and we strip Arthur and Lucian of everything they own. I will give you your father's justice, and I will keep your mother safe in a private clinic that my father can't access."

Jade looked at Sebastian's handsome, calculating face. She knew he didn't love her; he wanted her because she was the perfect weapon against his twin. He was a devil.

But Lucian was the devil who had already destroyed her.

She thought of the cold look on Lucian's face when he told her to accept the Stirling marriage. She thought of the child growing inside her, a innocent life that would be crushed by Arthur Ashford's corporate machine. She had to survive. She had to protect her baby.

Jade pulled her hands from Sebastian's grip and wiped her tears, her face hardening into a cold, unbreakable mask.

"The Stirling gala is in three days," Jade said, her voice dropping into a flat, lethal register. "If we do this, we do it publicly. I want Lucian to watch his world fall apart."

Sebastian’s lips curled into a wide, jagged smile. He stood up and held out his hand to her.

"Welcome to the winning side, sweetheart," he purred. "Let's give my brother a wedding he'll never forget."