nd a perpetually worried expression, found me in the library. I was trying to

this," she said softly, placing

at it, su

a whisper. "The new treatment. It's been paid for. In full.

stunned. This wasn't control. This was... help. It was a calculated act of kindness, designed to confu

sked, my v

n't know. He just told me to take care of it." She left

n my arms. The hatred I felt for him was a steady fire in my chest. He could pay for my mother's care a hundred times over, it would never buy my fo

's biggest social events, held in a grand ballroom dripping with chandeliers and old mon

stood in the foyer of the penthouse. "You wil

d with an easy confidence, a predator in his natural habitat. People deferred to him, their

as bound in worn leather, its pages filled with faded ink. As soon as it was presented, I saw a change in Harrison. A flicker of intense

was a calm, relentless force, his hand raising with u

llion d

a military bearing and eyes that seemed to see right through the ro

d, his voice a low growl. "I di

ss the silent room. He wasn't just bidding on the diary. He was bidding for something else. His

n. "Ms. Hayes. Your father was a great man. If you ever

arm tightened, his knuckles white. The air crackled with tension. He wa

" Harrison said, his eye

thout hesitation. "And a standing offer of

scene, and escape. But I thought of my mother, alone in that hospital room he paid for. I thought of the power he wielded,

. I gave him a small, almost imperceptible

Harrison's face. He looked at Admiral R

didn't need to. He had already won the prize he truly wanted. He put his hand on the

hy did he want me to choose him so publicly? What was this game he was playing? His actions were a constant storm of cruelty and