Chapter 6

Chapter 6

REIGNS

"No, wait," I said. "Mama, you don't have to—"

"Take it." She put it in my hand and closed my fingers around it. "It's just metal, Reign. It was never him. He was never really in it."

"I'll get it back. I promise. I'll buy it back."

"I know you will." She touched my face. "Whatever you're doing, be careful. That family eats people."

I kissed her forehead and left before she could see my face.

The pawn shop gave me less than it was worth. Of course they did. The man looked at me, looked at the chain, and said a number that made me want to scream. I took it anyway.

On the bus home, I sat at the back and cried with my face turned to the window. I cried for the chain, for my mother, for the fat bird in the mango tree she couldn't see anymore. I cried until the woman next to me offered me a sweet.

Then I wiped my face, bought a dark green dress from the market with the tags still on, and borrowed heels from my neighbor.

I told myself it was armor.

---

Vance Tower was forty floors of black glass right on the water. Standing in front of it made me feel very small.

The security guard at the door looked at my market dress and my borrowed shoes and laughed.

"You have an appointment?"

"No. But I need to see Mr. Cassian Vance."

"Everybody needs to see Mr. Vance." He folded his arms. "Nobody sees Mr. Vance."

"Please. It's about the Ashford family."

"Madam, go home."

I didn't go home. I sat on a bench across the lobby and waited. I watched people in suits come and go. I watched the lifts go up and down. One hour passed. Then two. My feet hurt in the borrowed shoes.

Then a woman walked in with a stack of files and a badge that said Legal. She went straight to the front desk and said, "I have papers from Adeyemi and Partners for Mr. Vance's office."

Adeyemi. My father's lawyer.

I waited until she left. Then I stood up, fixed my dress, and walked to the front desk like I belonged there.

"Sorry," I said, a little out of breath. "I'm from Adeyemi's office. My colleague just dropped the papers, but she forgot the second set." I held up my handbag like there were papers in it. "Mr. Adeyemi said I have to give them to Mr. Vance's assistant myself. He'll kill me if I don't."

The receptionist looked tired. She looked at my face, then at the clock.

"Fortieth floor," she said, and gave me a visitor card.

My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in the lift. Forty floors. The numbers climbed so slowly. I watched myself in the mirrored wall. I looked like a girl pretending to be someone else.

Ding.

---

His assistant was a thin man in glasses. He stood up as soon as I stepped out.

"Can I help you?"

"I need to see Mr. Vance."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No."

"Then I'm sorry, but—" He was already picking up his phone to call security.

"My name is Reign Ashford."

He stopped.

"Tell him Richard Ashford's other daughter is here," I said. "Tell him I have an offer."

The assistant looked at me for a long time. Then he pressed a button on his phone and said something quietly. I couldn't hear the answer.

He put the phone down. His face said he didn't understand it either.

"He'll give you five minutes."

---

Cassian Vance's office was all glass and grey stone. It was cold, not just the air but everything. There were no pictures on the walls, no plants, nothing personal. Just one long black desk and a view of the whole sea behind it.

He was sitting at the desk reading papers. He didn't look up when I came in.

He was more handsome than his pictures, which was annoying. Sharp face. Dark hair. His sleeves were rolled up and his tie was loose, the only thing about him that wasn't perfect.

I stood in the middle of the room. He kept reading.

One minute passed. Then another.

I understood. He was waiting to see if I would talk first, or leave.

I did neither. I stood there.

Finally, he turned a page and said, without looking up, "You have four minutes left, Miss Ashford."

"Then I'll be quick." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Marry me instead of her."

The pen in his hand stopped.

"You want the Ashford shares," I said. "The deal says one Vance brother marries each daughter. It doesn't matter which daughter goes to which brother, not really. The shares still unlock. You still get your ships."

He said nothing.

"I won't ask for love," I went on. "I won't ask for money. I won't ask you to come home at night, or talk to me, or even look at me. I'll sign anything you want. You get the same deal." I took a breath. "And she loses."

Silence.

The sea moved behind him, grey and slow. A clock ticked somewhere. I could hear my own breathing.

He put his pen down, slowly. Then, for the first time, Cassian Vance looked up at me.

His eyes were dark and flat and very calm. It felt like being looked at by a winter sky. I wanted to step back. I didn't.

He looked at me for so long I started to count. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.

Then he asked one question.

"Why do you hate her so much?"

I opened my mouth to answer.

And behind me, the office door opened.

I turned around.

Odalys was standing in the doorway in a white dress, holding a leather folder against her chest. Her face was completely still.

She had heard everything.