THE MAID'S FORCED VOW

Chapter Seven.

The door was unlocked, which felt wrong before I even stepped through it.

Inside, a single light hung over a metal chair in the center of an otherwise empty room. Micah sat there, hands bound, a bruise darkening along his jaw. He looked up when the door opened, and relief broke across his face.

"Elena."

I moved toward him without thinking. A voice stopped me before I'd taken three steps.

"That's close enough."

A man stepped out from the shadows along the far wall. Older than Damon, sharp suited, with the same cold eyes I had spent three years avoiding in company hallways.

"Marcus Cross," Damon said quietly beside me.

"Father," Marcus corrected, not looking away from me. "Though I suppose you've been keeping that detail from your new bride."

My stomach turned. "You're his father."

"And you're the daughter of a woman who cost me a great deal, many years ago." Marcus circled closer, unhurried, like a man who had never once worried about consequences. "I've been patient. I let you grow up. I let you take a quiet job in my son's tower and disappear into the background, exactly where I wanted you. Then Damon started asking questions he shouldn't have."

"This isn't about her," Damon said. "It never was. It's about me."

"It's about debts," Marcus said. "Your mother made choices, Ms. Voss. Ones your family is still paying for."

"What choices," I demanded. "Tell me what she did."

Marcus smiled, and it was worse than any threat. "Sign the papers I'll send tomorrow, hand over full control of the Ashworth account to me, Damon, and I'll tell her everything. Refuse, and your brother stays exactly where he is."

Damon stepped forward. "You already have what you wanted. Let them go."

"Not yet," Marcus said. "Not until I'm certain you understand who's really in charge here."

He nodded once toward the shadows, and two men I hadn't noticed moved toward Micah's chair.