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“Working?” I shut the door behind me, moving further into the room and pointedly avoiding the love seat by the wall, opting for one of the leather chairs across from Alexander’s desk instead. “I wish I could say the same for you.”

Alexander shoots me a steely look. “Something you’d like to say, Ezra?”

“There’s plenty I’d love to say,” I seethe. I jerk my head back toward the now-closed office door. “Would it kill you to be discreet? Why don’t you just fuck her in reception next time?”

“I would watch my tone if I were you, boy,” Alexander says in a carefully measured way. “What I do is none of your goddamned business.”

“Mom—”

“Your mother is happy and taken care of,” he cuts in. “I suggest you remember that. You wouldn’t want to break her heart, would you?”

My teeth clench so hard I fear they might crack, but I remain dutifully silent.

“Now,” Alexander says dismissively, as if I didn’t just walk in on the tail end of his latest tryst. “Lorenzo tells me that Bianca’s lawyer is attempting to file an injunction over the inclusion of Bianca’s trust.”

“I can’t exactly stop them from filing,” I point out. “It wasn’t agreed upon in the preliminary discussions.”

“This whole case is becoming a pain in my ass,” he says with a scowl. “I didn’t expect Bianca and her little lawyer to fight us so hard.”

I want to tell him that his first mistake was underestimating Bianca’s “little lawyer,” but I keep quiet. I imagine he’ll realize that soon enough.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Maybe you should pay a visit to Bianca,” he ventures. “You could…remind her how much she stands to lose when we win this.”

My lip curls. “You want me tothreatenher?”

“That isn’t the word I’d use.”

I make a disgusted sound. “But it’s the one you meant.”

“Sometimes you have to make the hard decisions for the greater good.”

“Whose greater good? Yours?”

Alexander narrows his eyes. “The greater good of this firm. Ourfamily’sfirm, remember?”

Our family.It takes everything in me not to laugh. I push up from my chair in a rush, shaking my head. “I’m not threatening Bianca. I can win this case without that shit.”

“You’d better,” Alexander warns. “I don’t need to remind you of what I expect of you here.”

As if I could ever forget.

Alexander waves his hand, dismissing me. “Go. I have work to do. See what you can do about blocking that injunction.”

“Sure thing,” I practically spit.

I spin on my heel, desperate to get out of the room, but my father’s voice stops me at the door.

“Your mother’s been asking to see you.”

I’m reminded of how much I hate him at this moment. Reminded of the way he owns me, the way he can break me with a word. I rush out of his office, feeling my heart thud behind myribs at a rapid pace as I move down the hall, bypassing my office entirely. I pull my phone out to call my mother’s nurse, pausing midstride when I notice an incoming text.

Sour Patch:I plead the Fifth.

If I wasn’t teeming with rage and frustration, I’m certain this text would make me smile. Even though it doesn’t, it still offers a splash of calm in the midst of the raging storm inside me. Dani might be the only person alive who could do even that. Later, I’ll wonder what that means.

Right now, I need to see my mother.