Sofia rested her head against the chair's headrest, eyes shut, gently rocking the seat side to side as if the motion could soothe her nerves. She twitched slightly, waiting. Her secretary had been gone a while, sent to fetch the only thing that mattered today: a signed check.
She'd made yet another request to Augustine, on behalf of her mother. The same humiliating cycle, again. It made her sick to her stomach. Every time she had to extend her hand like this, she felt less like a wife and more like a parasite clinging to the Core Family.
Her marriage to Augustine had never been about love. It was a transaction—a carefully executed money-milking scheme orchestrated by her parents. And for six long years, they'd been siphoning funds through her, feeding their own greed while turning her in
