Chapter 7

Chapter 7

ODALYS

I came to Vance Tower to sign my engagement papers.

That was all. It was a simple meeting. Mr. Adeyemi had drawn up the agreement, and Cassian's lawyers had checked it. All I had to do was walk in, sign my name, shake his hand, and leave. I had planned it down to the minute. Twenty minutes in his office, then lunch, then home.

I didn't want to marry Cassian Vance. I didn't want to marry anyone. But I wanted to lose my father's company even less. So I put on my white dress, I did my hair, and I told myself it was just business. Just one more paper to sign.

The assistant looked scared when I stepped out of the lift.

"Miss Ashford. You're early."

"I'm on time. Is he free?"

"He, um…" The man looked at the door, then back at me. "He has someone with him."

"Who?"

He didn't answer. That was when I knew something was wrong.

I walked past him to the office door. It wasn't fully closed. And through the gap, I heard a voice I would know anywhere.

"Marry me instead of her."

I stopped with my hand on the door.

"You want the Ashford shares. The deal says one Vance brother marries each daughter. It doesn't matter which daughter goes to which brother…"

I stood there and listened to every word.

"I won't ask for love. I won't ask for money… You get the same deal. And she loses."

Something went hot and sharp inside my chest. My fingers tightened on the leather folder until it bent.

I had seen this before. Not with my eyes, but I had seen it all my life. A woman walking into a place she didn't belong and taking what wasn't hers. A woman smiling at a man who was promised to someone else.

Her mother did it to my mother.

And now here she was, in a cheap green dress, doing it to me.

Like mother, like daughter.

I pushed the door open.

---

Reign turned around. When she saw me, her face went pale.

Good.

I didn't look at Cassian. I didn't look at anything but her. I walked across that cold grey office, slow and calm, and my heels were the only sound in the room.

"Odalys," she said. "I—"

I grabbed her by the hair.

She screamed. I didn't care. I wound my fingers into the back of her hair and pulled, and I dragged her toward the door. She stumbled on her borrowed heels and grabbed at my wrist, but I didn't let go.

"Let go of me! Odalys, let go!"

I pulled her through the door, past the frozen assistant, and out into the open hall.

The top floor of Vance Tower was built around a huge open space in the middle. The atrium went all the way down, forty floors, to a fountain in the lobby that looked as small as a coin from up here. A glass railing ran around the edge. On the other side of the hall were rows of desks, with staff in suits and people on phones.

Every single one of them looked up.

That's what I wanted. I let go of Reign's hair and pushed her into the middle of the hall, right where they could all see.

"Everyone," I said. My voice was clear and loud. "Look at her. I want you to see her."

Reign was breathing hard. Her hair was falling out of its tie. She put a hand on the back of her head where I'd pulled.

"This is Reign," I said to the room. "My father's other daughter. Do you know where she came from? Her mother was his mistress. He paid her. He paid her rent, he paid her bills, he paid for everything, for twenty-four years, while my mother cried herself to death in our house."

Someone gasped. A woman at the nearest desk put her hand over her mouth.

"And today," I said, "she came here to steal my fiancé. She came to his office in her little green dress and begged him to marry her instead of me." I laughed. "She's doing exactly what her mother did. It's in her blood."

"Stop it," Reign said.

"Why? Are you ashamed?" I walked around her slowly, in a circle, like she was something on display. "You should be."

Then I saw it. At the back of her neck, sticking out from the collar of the dress, was a small white tag.

I reached out and ripped it off.

Reign spun around. "Don't—"

I held it up high so the whole floor could see. The price was written on it in black marker. It wasn't even much.

"She didn't even buy it," I said. "She was going to return it. She was going to wear it for one day to steal a billionaire, and then take it back to the market for a refund."

A few people laughed. Just a few. It was enough.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw phones come up. One, two, then five. People were filming.

I let them.