chapter 7
His brows drew together. “From what?”
From ten years of hell. From watching you die because you trusted the wrong man. From becoming the kind of woman who begged for mercy from someone who enjoyed hearing it.
Instead I said, “From a merger we don’t need.”
He let out a short breath through his nose. “This isn’t about love, Nora. It’s about stability. Expansion. The port contracts. Their financing arm and our manufacturing lines together—”
“Then make the deal through paper,” I cut in. “Not through me.”
He stared at me.
In my last life, I had never spoken to him like that. I had still been trying to be chosen, trying to be pleasing, trying to fit perfectly into the future everyone else designed for me.
Now, there was something far less polite inside me.
“Run an internal audit,” I said quietly. “A real one. Top to bottom. Off-book, outside counsel, no one from Shaw Capital anywhere near it. Check our debt exposure. Check the shell companies tied to our logistics acquisitions. Check who’s been approaching Peter Lawson in treasury.”
That got his full attention.
“How do you know about Peter?”
Because in my last life Peter had been the first crack in the wall. Because Ethan had bought him for less than the price of a watch.
“I overheard something,” I lied. “Enough to know we’re not as protected as you think.”
My father’s face changed by degrees. Confusion first. Then calculation.
He had built an empire from nothing. He did not survive that long by ignoring instinct, especially when it arrived wearing his daughter’s face.
“All right,” he said at last. “I’ll look.”