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Fairfax looked like he wanted to argue but the head lawyer spoke up. “Please, ah, uh, please don’t say anything incriminating in here.” He rubbed his face furiously. “I’m going to assume you’re speaking in metaphors, Ms. Servant.”
“Yes,” I said, smiling pleasantly, “metaphors.”
Fairfax glared, but said nothing.
The head lawyer opened his briefcase and took out multiple copies of the main contract. There’d be others, signed and notarized over the course of the next week, but this was the biggest of them all. He handed the papers out to everyone in the family along with pens.
“Sign where marked and we can wrap this up.”
I began to initial each page.
“You’ve come far,” Redmond whispered in my ear. “Are you sure you’re happy with this? We can still walk.”
“I’m happy.” I turned my chin and kissed him. “What’s the point of fighting for more, if what I end up with is ruined? Besides, I like the idea of having another family.”
“You think these people will accept you?”
“I think they won’t have much of a choice. Sixty percent.” I grinned at him and turned to the last page.
All I had to do was sign my name. Cosima and the others were finished already. Fairfax watched with a hawk-like stare. I hesitated, frowning, and considered what Redmond had said.
I could get more. If I walked away from this table, I could keep up the fight, and I’d win. Cosima was wrecked, and the others didn’t have the strength to stand against my men combined with Redmond’s resources. We’d steamroll all of them, and I could control Chicago, and everything else Maeve had.
I was the rightful heir. I was Maeve’s daughter. She had a son once—but he’d been a madman, and he was dead now.
Killed by my own hands.
Chika stood up abruptly. “This is a travesty,” she said, her voice quiet but commanding.
“Chika,” Cosima said, “I only agreed to let you come as protection. Sit back down—”
“Silence, you old witch.” Chika’s eyes blazed. She stared at me with a righteous fury that set my heart fluttering. “I worked for the Servant family for years. I know their secrets, their worst deeds, their minds. I know their hearts.” She began to walk toward me.
Redmond stood, body tense. “Chika,” he warned.
“I know what she is like.” Chika didn’t slow.
“This is inappropriate,” Cosima said, snatching for Chika’s wrist, but she was too slow. “You swore you’d behave. You’re here for security.”
But Chika was too far gone. I saw the hate in her eyes, the rage that consumed her, and I understood.
I felt like that too.
Before Redmond, I was a burning ball of anger, so hot and horrible that I would’ve done anything to get what I wanted.
I sold my sister. I betrayed my brother and my family. I would’ve done worse, if given the chance.
Chika had finally sunk as low as I felt in my darkest hours.
She wouldn’t see reason. There was nothing else beyond her hate now.
Cosima never should’ve brought the woman here, but Cosima didn’t understand. She couldn’t have known.
All those years, resentment simmered, and now Chika was pushed too far.
I was too close to achieving what I’d always wanted, and she couldn’t let that happen.
I smiled, but there was no joy in my eyes. I was filled with sadness for this woman who had served my family so faithfully for so long and was not a husk of her former self.
“Monsters,” Chika said. “Liars and thieves and killers. I know the dirty secrets, Erin. I know what you’ve done, what all of you have done. Your family is a blight on this world, as are all the Oligarchs. What person should have this power? Who beyond God should wield the means to destroy the world? You do not deserve what you have. None of the Oligarchs do. You seek only your own profit—”
“Enough,” Redmond growled and pulled a gun from his waistband.
I pushed back from the table in shock. I didn’t know he came armed. Chika didn’t slow as she pressed forward, stalking toward me like a demon as Redmond aimed the gun at her chest. The lawyers scattered, getting away from the weapon, but Cosima and her family sat transfixed.
“I will not let this happen,” Chika said, reaching to her hip. She drew a knife from a small sheath. “Not while I live. You will not become what you’ve always dreamed. You will be a monster, Erin. You do not deserve it.”
“If you take another step,” Redmond warned.
Chika darted to the side. She was fast, and Redmond was will healing. His first shot missed and the sound was deafening. I covered my ears, a scream of shock on my lips, as Chika came at him. Her knife flashed out and Redmond grunted. A long slice rolled down the arm holding the gun and he released the weapon. It clattered to the floor. Chika kneed him hard in the thigh and smashed an elbow into his wounded chest. He gasped in shock and pain and staggered forward.
