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My father looked back to Jasmine and I could only watch on in shock. I’d always known deep down he was ruthless, but this— “You must earn the right to this business. Your brother couldn’t do what was needed, so now it’ll be expected for you to. The VanDoren name must be vindicated and we are giving you the opportunity to do it.”
He then took a step away, his back to us as he added, “It’s your choice. You walk out of here, and the family business is destroyed. Your reputation is forever ruined, and you and your mother will eventually fall penniless.”
He looked over his shoulder and finally made eye contact with me. “Walker only has a few weeks left of his Initiation, and it is expected for you to be his belle until the final Trial.” Was he daring me to say something? Or in his fucked up head did he think he was doing this for me?
“That’s not what was decided,” Montgomery cut in. “Jasmine has access to that business when she—”
Another Elder boomed, “Montgomery Kingston! You are not an Elder. Watch your tongue.”
No matter how pissed I or Montgomery or any other of my friends were in this room, our blue-blood training that had been ingrained in our beings prevented us from arguing any longer. It was almost as if the Elder had hit the “behave” button on Montgomery’s robotic self, because he shut his mouth and no one else offered a rebuttal. Including me. What good would it do?
The one thing I did know that I could control was that Jasmine was standing in nothing but a tuxedo jacket, shaking and dripping wet. I needed to get her warm, I needed to get her out of the view of these assholes, and I needed to get her alone so we could talk.
“Let’s go,” I said as I approached her, ready to lift her in my arms because I could see she was about to keel over.
“I can walk,” she said, her lips pursed together at each one of the Elders. “This is so wrong, and you all should be ashamed.”
Even though I wanted to carry her out of the room, I allowed her to walk beside me with her head held high. I could sense that every step she took was difficult, and I was pretty sure her tired and beaten body needed rest, but there was no way I was going to take away what little strength she had.
“We’ll figure this out,” I said as I held onto her arm just in case she did collapse. “Let’s go to my room.”
As we walked out, I made eye contact with Beau, who nodded at me. As if I could read his mind, I nodded back. Yes, this was fucked up. We both agreed. But what we did about it…? Who the fuck knew. At least Jasmine was alive. At least she was with me so I could protect her at all costs. I knew one thing—I was never going to allow her to leave my side again. The Order would have to pry her from my dead body.
“Let’s get you into the bath,” I said as we finally entered my room.
“No more water,” she said, shivering as she crossed the threshold.
I reached for the cashmere blanket on the foot of the bed. Removing her soaked jacket, I then wrapped the dry blanket around her, making sure I focused on her face rather than her naked body. I wanted her to know I respected her. I wasn’t going to look unless granted access. And she most certainly wasn’t giving anyone permission tonight.
“I’ll start a fire,” I said as I guided her over to the couch next to the hearth.
“Why did they do this? How could they do this?” Her voice cracked, but I could see she was resisting crying. She wasn’t going to give them her tears. “I’ve known some of those men in that room my entire life. They’ve been in my home. They know my mother.”
She covered her face with her pruned hands. “Oh God… my mother. This is going to kill her. It’s going to ruin her.”
“This is their payback for Sully not completing the Trial,” I growled. “We should have known that the punishment would be far worse than just not allowing him in the Order and taking over the business. We don’t have a choice but to become members, and they are making sure that each one of us sees that fact. They are going to use this as an example to all that you don’t just get to say no. You don’t get to just walk away and never look back. Clearly our families aren’t even safe from their reach.”
“They’re going to destroy my business,” Jasmine said dully.
I finished lighting the fire and then sat down beside her, pulling her body next to mine as I rubbed her arms to try to take away the chill. “We aren’t going to allow that to happen. They said you just have to complete the Trials with me.”
