Page 12 of Merciless Vow
"You don't look old enough to be having much fun," she said, her voice dry as she glanced down at the heavy math textbook tucked under his arm.
"Actually, maybe you can help me with my calculus homework later? I heard you were smart, as well as beautiful."
That little?—
The effect was instantaneous. Addie’s entire posture softened, the tension bleeding out of her shoulders as she looked at him with something approaching warmth. It would appear she was a sucker for a compliment when it came to her intelligence. Or maybe that was just for a Blackwood who wasn't currently holding her leash.
I reached the door, my hand clamping down on Ivar’s shoulder with enough force to bruise. "Go do your homework in the den."
Ivar gave me a mocking wink before disappearing back into the house, leaving a trail of boyish laughter behind him.
Addie’s gaze traveled up from the empty doorway to my face. The second our eyes met, the warmth vanished. Her smile fell away as if it had never existed, replaced instantly by that hard, emerald wall of resentment. The anger was back, colder and sharper than before.
"Where's my car?"
CHAPTER EIGHT
ADDIE
"Idonated your car, Adolpha."
"Donated?" The word somehow found a way through my slackened jaw.
"You won't need a car any longer."
He didn't even have the decency to look annoyed. He sounded as if he was discussing a redirected shipment of office supplies. His tone was so reasonable it made me want to scream.
"You’ll have a driver at your disposal twenty-four hours a day. It’s safer, more efficient, and befitting your new station. If it makes you happy, you can choose whichever vehicle you’d like the driver to use."
I blinked a few times, trying to keep his face from going blurry with rage. "I don't want a driver. I have a car. I bought it with the money I earned at a job I no longer have because of you."
"Which is why I've simplified things."
"What do you mean?"
"Check your bank account."
My hands shook as I pulled my phone from my bag. When I opened my banking app, my heart came to a full stop against my ribs. Account Closed. I tried the savings. Account Closed. Every cent I’d saved, every dollar of my independence, was gone.
"No, not your old accounts. I had those closed. I mean your new accounts."
A notification banner slid across the top of my screen. A text from Vidar. New login credentials.
I tapped it, my vision blurring with fury. When the new account loaded, I gasped. There were so many zeroes it didn't look like money; it looked like a coordinate.
"That is your monthly allowance. Your new black card, with no preset limit, is being overnighted to our home. You'll never have to worry about the cost of anything again."
"Our home? I have an apartment. I can't break my lease."
"I broke it this afternoon. My people are moving your things to my penthouse as we speak." He checked his watch, entirely unbothered by the fact that he was dismantling my soul in real-time. "We'll stay here at the family estate tonight while everything is being settled."
I felt the wolf inside me clawing at my throat. He was erasing me. He was overwriting ten years of my life in a single afternoon. And there was nothing I could do about it.
"I want to see my brother," I rasped, the anger making my chest ache. "Now. I’m not moving another inch until I see Elias."
"Elias will join us soon."
"Why not now? You said he was safe."
