Page 432 of Black Reign

Silence.

I shrug.

“Marriage would have been an inefficient strategy.”

Xavier's mouth twitches.

Senior exhales.

“I walked into that.”

“Yes.”

He looks at his son.

“The two of you are impossible.”

“Genetic,” Xavier says.

“I am not related to her.”

“Marriage.”

“Do not start.”

I smile.

For the first time, sitting inside the heart of the company I once believed destroyed my father, I don't feel the need to run.

That is strange.

Maybe healing always is.

Three days later, Xavier finds me staring through the glass wall of his Monaco office.

Mediterranean blue below.

Yachts in the harbor.

Sunlight over everything.

I have been thinking.

Dangerous.

He recognizes the signs.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Sabine.”

I continue looking outside.

“I am not working for your father.”

“We established that.”