Malrik POV
Drethos knelt before me, his face carved with defiance, but beneath that fury lingered something far more disturbing delusion.
Did he truly still believe his daughter had any claim here? That this place was ever meant to be her home? We had already resolved this at the summon the very summon he himself had initiated, dragging me into a courtroom, lawyering up, and trying to chain me to a contract I never wanted. And yet, here he was, repeating the same tired refrain as if sheer stubbornness might make it true.
I already felt violated trapped into a marriage I never chose, cornered into an arrangement that reeked of manipulation. But I would not bow. To submit would mean weakness, and I was anything but weak.
I leaned forward, my tone steady, sharp enough to cut through steel
