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I knew very well what the loss of the bride-price would do to them.

It would reduce the Pinoteaux to abject poverty, and only then when they were reduced to nothing, and their land was taken to make my family wealthy, would I kill at my leisure.

Réjean and Yves glanced at each other, and I felt my body tense, although outwardly I didn’t move a muscle.

“We shouldn’t even be negotiating without your Da here. Unless there’s some reason he couldn’t be here.”

“He’s dead,” I said. “You know that.”

“So many of your family members seem to disappear,” Réjean retorted, his eyes narrowing cunningly at me. “In fact, there was talk of an older brother who hasn’t been seen in a while. . .”

There was a movement behind me—a gasp—an uneasy rustling. . .

But I didn’t move a muscle.

“Dig up the Bastide graveyard, see if you can find some corpses to fight then,” I shrugged. “Perhaps that is the only way to beat us.”

But something indefinable had changed in the room. I could feel my muscles, coiling in readiness.

“Rumor has it that paternity test you’ve been passing around is faked,” Yves said, his face expressionless.

Inside, my heart began to pound harder.

But I had prepared for skepticism, and I only laughed, shoving the papers across the desk at them.

“Unfortunately not. Bring the doctor in, if you don’t believe me. He’ll verify what I say.”

“I know what the papers say, son."

“I caught her in person. I saw her with my own two eyes. There is no question of her infidelity.”

“I haven’t spread your family shame yet because I respect our relationship too much. But it could make things very difficult for your suppliers if word got out.”

“You say she was caught with your own brother,” Réjean said. “That would shame you as well. It is in all of our best interests to keep this quiet.”

I shrugged. “It does not matter who an unfaithful wife whores around with. It still a shame on her family.”

“Yet, you didn’t throw her out,” Yves said. “Why?”

I snorted, resting my hands on the table between us. Casual. Relaxed.

“Of course I did. I wouldn’t keep a whorish wife in the house.”

“So where is she?”

“That’s my business, isn’t it? I bought her from you, I paid the bride-price for her. She’s mine until you give me the money back.”

Réjean shifted in his seat.

That’s right. Squirm, fucker.

“You're well within your rights to turn her out of the house and onto the back of the mountain. How have you not done that yet? Is it possible you yourself do not believe the paternity test?”

I scoffed. “Why would I even risk an unfaithful wife? You really think I don’t have plenty of women who could take her place?”

Jerking my head sideways, I put my hand on Faustine’s thigh, her miniskirt inching up and bunching around her hips as I spread my grip out possessively.

My fingers dug in as Yves bent forward.