Page 63 of Vow to Claim You

“You could visit, you know,” Eero chimes in, looking at Naomi. “Ayanna could use some company. Stay a while. Stay as long as you like.”

I catch the way his gaze holds on Naomi a beat too long, because my brother doesn’t linger on anything without a reason.

“Naomi has obligations here.” Leandro doesn’t lift his eyes from his plate. His tone shuts the subject like a door. “She won’t be going anywhere.”

The light in the girl dims. Ayanna’s jaw tightens, but she says nothing.

Leandro sets down his fork and turns to me, the smile sliding back into place. “Vold. You and I have matters to discuss. The men should excuse themselves, I think.” His gaze sweeps the women dismissively. “Business.”

I rise. Eero with me. But before I follow Leandro inside, I turn to my wife.

“Maylin stays with you.”

Her brows pull together. “I’m home, Aric. I’m safe here. I don’t need a guard trailing me through my own house.”

She says home like the word still belongs to her. Like these walls can protect her. They can’t. The world changed the day she married me. Whether she accepts it or not. Whether she hates it or not.

The only place she’s truly safe is where I can reach her.

She can argue. She can glare. She can threaten to stab me with a dinner fork. Maylin is still staying. Some things aren’t negotiable. Her safety is one of them.

“Maylin stays.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ayanna

Aric leaves with Eero and my father under the polite label of errands—which, in their world, covers anything from negotiations to threats to violence. That leaves me with my mother and sister, though Naomi vanishes upstairs as soon as mother and I move to the drawing room.

Traitor.

Maylin follows me exactly as Aric ordered her. Half a step behind me, silent, and watchful, and most likely armed.

“Maylin.” I turn toward her. “Would you mind waiting outside while I speak with my mother?”

“I can’t leave your side, Mrs. Vold. Boss’s orders.”

Of course.

Well then. I straighten, just enough to remind her that technically, hierarchy has shifted. “Don’t forget I’m Mrs. Vold now. Which means I outrank you, too. My husband made it clear I’m entitled to give orders.”

Maylin’s brows lift. Across the room, my mother’s mouth parts.

“So you should comply. Otherwise I might have to mention to my husband that you ignored me.”

Maylin hesitates. “But it’s your order against his, Mrs. Vold.”

Fair argument.

“Is he here right now?” I tilt my head. “No? That simplifies things. I’m not asking you to fly to Norway. Just wait outside. Five minutes. Ten. Lord knows I’m not planning an escape through my mother’s drawing room.”

A smile fights at the corner of her mouth and loses. “Yes, ma’am.”

She steps out, closing the door behind her with an expression that tells me she’s already drafting how she’ll justify it later.

I’ll handle Aric if it comes to that.

My mother sits on the lilac settee by the low brass table, a cup of mint tea cooling beside her. Spine straight, hands folded—exactly the way she taught me. Dark hair swept up off a face that’s only a softer, older echo of my own, every feeling locked behind it the way I was taught to lock mine. A queen in everything but title.