Page 224 of The Obedient Lie

Because in our world,wantdidn’t matter.

Onlydutydid.

Emilia didn’t say anything else.

She just turned. Walked out. Said sheneeded airlike that would be enough to patch the hole she left behind.

The door clicked shut behind her, and the silence that followed felt sharp.

Like pressure building in my ears.

I didn’t move at first.

Just stared at the contracts.

The gold-embossed seals. The inked signatures. The waxy sheen of dynasty blood trades masked as “alliances.”

Then I reached down and picked one up.

My fingers didn’t tremble.

Not like Luca’s.

He was pacing now. We’d switched places, and we both knew it.

“You know,” I said quietly, eyes still on the contract, “maybe we just have to play the long game.”

Luca turned toward me sharply. “The long game?”

I looked up.

He was barely holding it together now. That unshakable control of his? Gone. His hair was a mess from raking his fingers through it. His jaw was locked so tight it looked painful. He was breathing like he’d just run ten miles uphill in winter.

“You think we’ve got time for that? You think Alexander’s ever going to agree to a merger with our family?” he snapped. “Even if wedodrag it out to twenty-one, you think he’s just gonna hand her over and say congrats, boys, thanks for fucking my sister?”

I didn’t flinch. Because I’d already thought about that. About all of it. But Luca wasn’t looking for strategy right now. He was looking for blood.

“And what aboutourside?” he hissed. “What aboutDamius?”

That name landed like a blade.

“He’s not going toletus marry someone wewant,Bastion. Not when we’re still defying him every fucking day by refusing to become another cold-blooded psycho killer like Vince.”

Silence stretched between us.

I didn’t answer.

Not right away.

Because the truth?

Luca was right.

Damius had always hated the fact that Vince claimed us—raised us. That he made us something he couldn’t control. Couldn’t bend into monsters like the rest of his legacy.

Vinceshieldedus. Took the brunt of it. Made himself the first line of fire so we didn’t get pulled in too soon.

But Vince wasn’t immortal.