Page 142 of His Forced Bride

He ends the call and sets the phone down, but I see the way his shoulders have grown tense in less than twenty seconds.

"What is it?"

"Your mother has been busy while we've been planning. She's filed emergency injunctions with three different courts, claimingyou're being held against your will and demanding immediate control of your remaining assets for your protection."

I nearly choke on a bite of pancake as I sit straighter to object.

"She can't do that."

"She can if she bribes the right judges. Which she has."

His voice remains level, but I can see the fury building in his eyes.

"The injunctions were filed this morning. By the end of the week, she'll have legal authority to seize everything—your company shares, your personal accounts, even your inheritance from your father."

My vision blurs with rage so pure, it takes my breath away.

"She's stealing everything."

"Yes."

I stand abruptly, and the chair scrapes against the floor.

"She's erasing me."

"Inessa—"

"No."

The word explodes from my chest.

"I'm done. I'm done reacting to her moves, done being protected while she destroys my entire life, done being treated like some fragile thing that needs to be kept safe while everything I care about burns down around me."

I grab my empty water glass from the counter and hurl it against the wall.

It shatters in a satisfying explosion of crystal shards, and the violence of it feels good, like it's purging my pent-up emotion.

I've barely had a chance to grieve my father and my mother comes in to destroy me.

None of this is right.

Yuri rises slowly, hands raised in a calming gesture that only makes my fury burn hotter.

"You need to stay calm."

"Calm? She's stealing my identity, my life's work, my future, and you want me to stay calm?"

"I want you to think rationally about what we're dealing with?—"

"What we're dealing with?"

I shouldn't take my anger out on him, but it's so consuming, I don't know where to put it.

"No. What I'm dealing with. This is my mother, my business, my life she's destroying. And you're treating me like some helpless victim who needs to be managed and protected while the adults handle the real work."

"This isn't a game, Inessa. The people we're dealing with don't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way. Your mother's already proven she's willing to have you murdered if it serves her purposes."

"Then maybe it's time I proved I'm willing to fight back just as hard."