"Leave your son?" Kathrine asked calmly, her fingers resting lightly against the edge of the table. "Why?"
Her voice did not tremble. It did not rise. She had expected this from the moment Marcus texted her.
He would not confront Ethan again.
He had already tried.
Kathrine had seen the disappointment in Ethan's eyes the night his father suggested she was not suitable. Ethan had stood firm, but the quiet fracture between father and son had been impossible to ignore.
When persuasion failed with Ethan, Marcus had chosen a different route.
Her.
Marcus arched a brow, studying her as though measuring how much pressure she could withstand.
"Because you are not a match for him," he said evenly.
The words were precise. Controlled. Deliberate.
"He needs someone worthy to stand beside him. Someone who strengthens his position. Your name," he continued, his gaze sharpening, "is drowning in scandal and distaste. It brings no advantage. No respect. No leverage."
