EVANDER #2
"I'm thinking perfectly clearly." I yank my hand free. "She thinks she can ignore me. Walk away. Pretend I don't exist. She needs a reminder that I hold every card."
"You hold cards," Lucius corrects. "She holds her own mind. Her own will. And you can't buy those, Evander. You can't threaten them into submission."
"Watch me."
I pull up my contacts. Find my lawyer. Sterling. The one who handles the less savory aspects of Laurent business. The one who knows how to weaponize legal systems.
Me: Need you to file debt collection papers for William Lane. Full amount. 48-hour notice. Make sure local PD is involved for the enforcement.
Tristan's face goes hard. "Evander—"
Me: And make sure the notice is delivered to Aurora Lane at Ardencrest. I want her to know exactly what's coming.
I hit send.
The response comes back in less than a minute.
Sterling: Understood. Papers will be filed first thing tomorrow morning. Notice delivered by courier to Miss Lane by noon.
"Jesus Christ." Lucius is staring at me like he doesn't recognize me. "You're actually doing it."
"Yes." I set the phone down. Pick up my bourbon. "She has 48 hours to come back. To acknowledge me. To resume her responsibilities. If she doesn't, the police show up at Mrs. Calloway's apartment and arrest her father."
"And Liam?" Tristan's voice is quiet. Dangerous. "What happens to him when his father goes to prison and his sister is six hours away at school?"
"Foster care," I say flatly. "Unless Aurora decides that seeing me is worth preventing that outcome."
Tristan stands up. Slowly. His movements are controlled but I can see the anger vibrating through him.
"I've known you since we were children," he says quietly. "I've watched you do ruthless things. Cruel things. Things that would make most people sick. And I've never questioned it because I understood the logic. The strategy."
He leans down. Close enough that only I can hear him.
"But this? Threatening a child to manipulate his sister into compliance? This isn't strategy, Evander. This is you being a fucking monster."
"I know what I am." I meet his eyes. Don't flinch from the judgment there. "I've always known."
"Apparently not." He straightens. "Because the Evander I knew—the one who beat the shit out of those guys in the club for threatening a girl they didn't even know—that Evander had lines. Had limits."
"I evolved."
"You devolved." He grabs his coat. "And when Aurora Lane looks at you with absolute hatred because you destroyed her brother's life to prove a point? When she never forgives you for this? Remember that I warned you."
He walks out. Lucius stays seated for another moment, staring into his drink.
"For what it's worth," he finally says, "I think you're making a mistake."
"Noted."
"She was starting to care about you, you know." He swirls the amber liquid in his glass. "After you beat her father. After you flew her home. And before that, I saw the way she looked at you in class after the gym incident. Like maybe you weren't just the monster she thought you were."
"And?"
"And you just proved you are exactly the monster she thought you were." He finishes his drink. Stands. "Maybe worse."
He leaves too. Leaves me sitting alone at the bar with my bourbon and my phone and the knowledge that at noon tomorrow, Aurora Lane is going to receive notice that her father's debts are being called in.
That unless she comes back—unless she submits, acknowledges my control, accepts her place in the cage I built—her brother's life is going to be destroyed.
It's brutal. Cruel. The kind of move that proves everything she accused me of.
But it's also the only move I have left.
Because I can't lose her. Can't let her walk away. Can't survive in a world where she exists but isn't mine.
I'd rather be the monster she hates than nothing to her at all.
My phone buzzes.
Marcus: The papers will be filed at 9 AM tomorrow. Courier will deliver notice to Miss Lane's dorm room at 12 PM. Local PD has been notified to expect debt enforcement action within 48 hours.
I stare at the message for a long moment.
This is it. The nuclear option. The move that will either bring her back or destroy whatever microscopic chance I had of her ever forgiving me.
I could stop it. Could call Sterling right now and tell him to hold off. Give her more time. Try a different approach.
But I won't.
Because almost three days without her has made me realize something crucial.
I don't want her forgiveness. I don't want her love. I don't even want her happiness.
I just want her. However I can have her. Whatever it takes to keep her close.
Even if that means being the villain in her story forever.
Even if that means she spends the rest of her life hating me.
I'd rather have her hatred than her absence.
I finish my bourbon. Leave cash on the bar. Walk out into the sub-zero evening air.
The campus is quiet, swallowed by the heavy, fresh blanket of snow from the night’s storm. Most students already in their dorms, studying or sleeping or doing whatever normal people do when they're not systematically destroying someone's life to maintain control.
I walk back to my penthouse. Ride the elevator up. Step into the too-quiet space that still smells faintly like her soap.
And I sit in my chair. The one I've been sitting in for two days. Staring at the empty chair across from me.
In about 48 hours, she'll be back in that chair. Furious. Betrayed. Hating me more than she's ever hated anyone.
But she'll be here.
And that's all that matters.
I pull out my laptop. Open my email. Start drafting a message to the scholarship committee recommending additional funding for Aurora Lane's program.
Because I'm going to make sure she has everything she needs. The best resources, the best opportunities, the best future.
Even if she hates me for giving it to her.
Even if every moment she spends in my presence is torture for her.
I'll give her the world. And I'll make sure she can never leave it.
Outside, the snowfall has finally stopped, leaving a new, undisturbed layer of powder behind. The campus is completely coated in white, making everything look clean and pure and perfect.
A lie. Like everything else.
I close my laptop. Stand. Walk to the window.
Somewhere out there, Aurora is in her dorm room. Probably studying. Probably trying to focus on anything except me.
In twelve hours, that changes.
In twelve hours, she gets the notice.
And in about 48 hours, she makes her choice.
Come back. Or watch her brother's life fall apart.
I already know what she'll choose. Because I know Aurora Lane better than she knows herself.
She'll come back. She'll hate me. She'll spend every moment planning my destruction.
But she'll be here.
Right where she belongs.
And I'll make sure she never leaves again.