A Sovereign Debt

Chapter 6

"I can't go," I said.

"Why? Because you love him?" Marcus asked. He sounded disgusted.

"Because I don't want my life back," I said. My voice was steady. "My life was a lie. My father was a thief. My mother is a coward. If I go with you, I'm just moving from one man’s shadow to another. I’m tired of being a pawn, Marcus."

"Then what are you?"

"I'm the person who is going to learn how Xavier Knight runs the world," I said.

I turned and walked away. I didn't look back at Marcus. I walked straight to Xavier. I stopped in front of him.

"Are we done here?" I asked.

Xavier looked past me at Marcus. He saw the rejection on Marcus’s face. He looked back at me. A small, genuine flicker of something appeared in his eyes. It wasn't love. It was pride.

"We are done," he said.

We left the gala. The car ride back was silent. The city lights blurred into long streaks of gold. When we reached the mansion, Xavier did not go to his study. He followed me into my room.

He shut the door. He didn't lock it.

"What did he offer you?" Xavier asked.

"London. A new name. A way out."

"And you stayed."

"I told you. I want to be a partner. I want to know about the Voss shares. I want to know why you need my signature to finalize the energy merger."

Xavier froze. He stepped into the moonlight streaming through the glass wall. "Marcus has a big mouth.”

"He said you would discard me once the merger is done. Is that true?"

Xavier walked toward me. He stopped so close I could feel the silk of his tie against my dress. He reached out and touched my jaw. His thumb traced my lower lip.

"The merger is business," he said. His voice was a low growl. "You are not a business."

"Then what am I?"

He didn't answer with words. He leaned down and kissed me. It wasn't a gentle kiss. It was a claim. It tasted of wine and obsession. It felt like the ground falling away from my feet. I should have pushed him away. I should have hated him.

But I kissed him back. I gripped his shoulders. I felt the power in his arms. I realized then that the most dangerous part of the glass mansion wasn't the surveillance or the locks. It was the way he made me feel like the only person who mattered in a cold, empty world.

He pulled back. He was breathing hard. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

"You're not in debt," he whispered. "You're a sovereign. And I think I’ve made a terrible mistake."

"What mistake?"

"I thought I could control you," he said. He turned and walked to the door. He paused with his hand on the handle.

"The energy documents are on my desk. Don't sign them until you’ve read the fine print. I want to see if you’re as smart as you think you are."

He left the room. This time, I didn't hear the beep of the electronic lock.

I stood in the center of the silver room. My heart was thumping against my ribs. I looked at the glass wall. I saw my reflection. I wasn't the girl who had signed the contract in the mahogany office. I was someone else.

I walked to the door and opened it. The hallway was empty. I walked down to the study.

The documents were there. I sat in his chair. It smelled like him. I pulled the lamp closer. I started to read.

I read for three hours. I found the clause. Marcus had been right about the shares, but he had been wrong about the goal. Xavier wasn't trying to take over the company. He was trying to dissolve it. He was trying to destroy the very thing my father had spent his life building.

But there was another clause. A secret one.

In the event of a total liquidation, all remaining assets of the Voss Energy Group will be transferred to a trust in the name of Lydia Voss.

He wasn't stealing my legacy. He was stripping it away from my father and giving it back to me. He was making me the richest woman in the city.

I leaned back in the chair. Why? Why go through the theater of a forced marriage? Why the surveillance?

I looked at the corner of the desk. There was a small, framed photo. It was old. It was a picture of a young boy and his father standing in front of a modest house. The man looked like Xavier. The boy was smiling.

I realized then that Xavier didn't want my family's money. He wanted to prove that a Voss could be better than the man who had raised me. He wanted to rebuild me in his own image.

I picked up the pen. It was the same fountain pen from the office.

I didn't sign the documents. Not yet.

I wrote a note on the back of the final page.

I found the trust. If you want the signature, you have to tell me the truth about the cliff.

I left the study and went back to my room. I slept for the first time without dreaming of falling.

When I woke up, the sun was bright. I went downstairs.

Xavier was in the kitchen. He was making coffee. He was wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans. He looked human.

He saw me and pointed to the counter. The documents were sitting there. He had read my note.

"My father didn't just jump," Xavier said. He didn't look at me.

He looked at the coffee. "Your father pushed him. Not with his hands. With a phone call. He told the bank that my father was embezzling. It was a lie. But by the time the truth came out, my father was already at the bottom of the rocks."

"I'm sorry," I said. I meant it.

"Don't be sorry," Xavier said. He turned around. "Be better.

Sign the papers, Lydia. Take the trust. Go to London. You have enough money now to never see me again."

I looked at the papers. I looked at the man who had spent ten years planning his revenge.

"Is that what you want?" I asked. "For me to leave?"

Xavier walked over to me. He put his hands on the counter, pinning me in. "It’s what I promised your mother. I told her I would give you a future. I didn't tell her I would be in it."

"You lied to her."

"I lie to everyone," he whispered.

I picked up the pen. I signed the documents. I pushed them toward him.

"I'm not going to London," I said.

"Then where are you going?"

"I'm staying here," I said. I reached out and touched his hand. "The contract said one year. We still have eleven months left. I want to see what else you're hiding in this house."

Xavier looked at our joined hands. He looked at me. For the first time, he didn't look like a predator. He looked like a man who had finally found what he was looking for.

"There are no more secrets, Lydia."

"I don't believe you," I said. I smiled. "But I have plenty of time to find them."