WRITER'S POV:
Three days passed.Peace was still a foreign language, but Ivy was starting to understand the grammar.
The estate had calmed. No gunfire. No screaming. No Gina.
And then Cassius summoned her.
Not because he didn't have words, but because he didn't need them.She expected another quiet conversation. Another check-in. Another maybe.What she got instead was a seat at the long, shadowed table in the meeting room—the one she'd accidentally walked into all those chapters ago, when she'd just been a flight attendant with bad direction and worse timing.Now she was here by invitation.
Cassius stood at the head of the table. Jason and Monday flanked him. Aurora stood by the window, impassive as ever.
A leather folder sat in front of Ivy."What is this?" she asked."An agreement," Cassius said. "It gives you access to my operations. The legal ones. And the discretion to walk away if it ever becomes too much."
"You're giving me your... empire?" Ivy asked in confusion."I'm giving you the option to choose how close you stand to it."Ivy stared at the folder.
Inside, she found control. Respect. Partnership.Not chains. Not hostage clauses. But real terms."Is this real?" she whisperedCassius stepped closer
"You wanted a choice. This is it." he said. She signed.Jason clapped once. Monday raised an eyebrow. Aurora—shockingly—smiled.
Ivy looked up. "So what am I now?"Cassius's smile was slow."Now? You're one of us."
She blinked.
Not a prisoner. Not a problem. Not a pretty distraction
A partner.Approval? Maybe.It didn't mean the danger was gone. Or the politics. Or the ever-looming threat of more chaosOr acknowledgment that Ivy had outlasted the hurricane.But for the first time, Ivy didn't feel like a pawn.
She felt like a queen.And she was ready for whatever came next.