Cassian’s POV

My blood boiled, a white-hot fury that I struggled to contain. My father, a man who had built his empire on cold calculation, sat across from me, his expression as unyielding as the granite floor. He had already signed my life away, and he saw my fury not as a sign of betrayal, but as a childish tantrum.

"I will not marry her," I said again, my voice low and strained. "I have no intention of marrying Isobel. You can't force me."

A flicker of a smile, cold and cruel, touched ...