Page 131 of His Forced Bride

"Insurance will cover the losses. It's more important that she feels vulnerable. Desperate people make poor decisions. She'll come running to me."

The call ends, and I'm left staring at the screen in shock.

She'd ordered the destruction of my warehouse with the same casual tone someone might use to arrange a dinner reservation.

My employees' livelihoods, my months of work, the custom pieces I'd designed for loyal clients—all of it reduced to acceptable collateral damage in her larger scheme.

"There are seventeen more calls," Yuri says quietly.

"Each one planning another attack on your business, your reputation, your life. She choreographed every moment of your desperation."

He plays another recording, this one from just days before her visit to the compound.

My mother's voice again, speaking to someone whose responses are filtered through electronic distortion.

"The girl is ready to break. One more push and she'll accept any lifeline I offer her."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Then we move to the permanent solution. Either way, I get control of her assets."

The permanent solution?

My mother was planning my murder?

I'm not her daughter in these conversations.

I'm nothing more than an obstacle to be removed or a resource to be exploited.

And she'd been planning this for years.

I think about the months of escalating threats, the way each attack had seemed designed to push me closer to desperation.

The warehouse fire that destroyed my spring collection.

The break-in at my showroom that damaged my reputation with high-end clients.

And I never put two and two together.

All of it was orchestrated by the woman who gave birth to me.

"She studied me," I whisper.

"Every weakness, every fear, every trigger that would make me vulnerable."

"She's very good at reading people. It's how she's survived this long in a world that doesn't forgive mistakes."

Yuri pulls up the final set of documents—detailed psychological profiles that make my skin crawl.

My mother had hired professionals to analyze my behavior, my decision-making patterns, my emotional responses to stress.

They'd mapped out my personality, identifying the exact points where pressure could be applied for maximum effect.

I read descriptions of myself that feel violating in their accuracy.

My tendency to blame myself when things go wrong.

My desperate need to maintain control in chaotic situations.