Halle's struggles were useless in his grip. His arms were like iron bars around her as he held her on his lap, straddling him, her palms pressed desperately against his chest in a futile attempt to create distance. Her breathing was quick, each inhale shallow from both anger and annoyance.
If there was one thing she had learned about Zade, it was that he had an infuriating inability to keep his hands to himself—and an even greater inability to give her space.
She glared at him, the green of her eyes sparking with defiance, but he only smirked, a lazy, dangerous curve of his lips that spoke of ownership. Leaning in, his breath brushed the shell of her ear as he murmured,
"Did you think I married you just to watch you from a distance?"
The question slithered into her thoughts, freezing her for a beat before her mind snapped back. She shoved at him with both hands, and—thankfully—he let her go. She scrambled to her feet, unsteady for a second, clutching her bag like a lifeline.
"I don't think this is worth discussing!" she snapped, her voice sharper than she intended.
Zade rose as well, unhurried, his gaze locked on her like a predator unwilling to give up its prey. He didn't step toward her, but his words were a wall all the same.
"You're going nowhere, Halle. At least, not until you've agreed to move in with me."
Her lips parted, ready to fire back a refusal, but he cut her off before the word could leave her mouth.
"And before you impulsively say no, I'd like to get you something."
He turned and strode toward one of the side rooms, disappearing briefly before reemerging with a brown envelope.
She hesitated before taking it from his hand, the weight of it somehow heavier than paper should be. Sliding out the contents, her eyes scanned the legal print. At first, it made no sense—just clauses, percentages, and terms she'd never seen before. But the more she read, the more the words began to dig into her skin.
The document was an amendment to an old shareholder agreement—her name printed neatly beside her father's, along with a block of shares in Campbell Cybernetics. Shares she didn't even know she owned. Her pulse stumbled. These… belonged to her mother. Her dead mother.
She didn't need a law degree to understand the rest. The papers stated that as her legal spouse, Zade had the right to claim half of her assets in the event of divorce—shares included. Her throat tightened.
It shouldn't have mattered; the money, the company—it had never been hers in the way that counted. But the pain wasn't about numbers. It was about history.
Her mind spiraled backward, to nights when she was barely tall enough to see over the kitchen counter, watching her parents work late into the evening. Her mother hunched over a laptop, fingers flying across the keys while her father took late calls with potential investors. They were building something together—their company, the dream they both bled for.
Things had gone well and they had become successful in the modern market, but with wealth the relationship between her parents strained to the point where Her father hit her mum.
When Halle was just shy of thirteen, the weight became too much and she took her life. It did not take long before her father remarried, poured himself into the company, and enjoyed the fortune that her mother had helped buld_ with another woman at his side.
Now, those same shares her mother had fought for were being dangled in front of her, neatly packaged into a legal trap.
Her green eyes locked with his obsidian ones, her spine straightening as though bracing for impact. "Are you showing me this because you want half of the shares… or because you think you can use it to trap me into this marriage?"
"Because I want you baby," he said and then continued, "I want you to be mine as much as I am already yours."
That goddam name, "baby" It really had her body respond in an unfamiliar manner, and the way he casually used it made her question if he actually loved her or he just wanted to satisfy his own desires.
"You expect me to be flattered?" she shot back, her hands curling against her sides.
He leaned forward, closing the last inch of distance, his voice dropping to that dangerous low that seemed to vibrate right through her. "Imagine this instead—getting your shares, Halle. Taking back what's yours. Standing as an equal to that bastard of a father you have. Wouldn't you want that?"
Her brows furrowed, and she tilted her chin up a fraction. "Why would you call him that?"
"I have looked into him, and let's just say I did not like what I found out. So, what do you say?" He asked, changing the subject while eagerly waiting for her response. If she would refuse to move in with him, he would find a way to have her bend to his own will.
She folded her arms, refusing to let him think his words were sinking in too easily. "I'll need time to think about it."
"You'll have all night to do that."
~~~