Chapter 91: Sadie: What Will It Be?

SADIE

I hate how much effort it takes to stand still, but I keep my mouth shut. Not because Celia deserves respect. Whatever comes out of me right now will break at least five rules, assuming I can get through it without crying.

"What exactly did you think would happen?" She leans toward me. "You move on to Trey, show up here with him, and expect me to welcome you?"

My fingers tighten at my sides as she continues.

"I could barely stomach you being with Ezra. I wondered what my son had done to deserve someone like you, and now you dare act as though he’s beneath you?" Her eyes travel over me. "I should break every bone in your body."

After three slaps, I can’t reassure myself that she’s only saying it to scare me. It’s working anyway.

"You’re an orphan, aren’t you? Did nobody bother teaching you manners?" Her hand comes down on the desk. "You learned hierarchy science in third grade. You know what you’re allowed to do as an omega!"

Omega. A month ago, I might’ve stood here feeling smaller than the pen on her desk. But I’m not even one, am I? And even if I were, how much better is she supposed to be?

"First of all, ma’am, I did take hierarchy science in third grade." Her eye twitches, but after three slaps, she’s lucky I’m still using a title. "I know how to respect people who deserve it."

"What did you say?" She rises with both hands planted on the desk.

"I know how to respect people who deserve it," I repeat, keeping my eyes on hers despite how hard my heart is beating. "And if you think you can keep hurting me, I hope you’re ready for what Trey will do to you."

Maybe bringing him into this will make it worse, but right now, I’m too angry to care.

"Yes, I’m an omega. Bottom of the ladder. But if I’m clinging to someone powerful, surely you understand?" A scoff slips out. "You fucked a Mercer and got yourself a better position. Climbed right out of your place into someone else’s. Is that why you see through me so easily? What is it you’re actually scared of? Me forgetting my place, or me ending up in yours? Because someday that title could be mine, couldn’t it?"

She moves around the desk so fast that I only manage to tense before her hand hits my cheek again.

My head turns with it. The sting feels duller now, my skin almost numb, but my eyes fill anyway. I blink hard. I don’t want to cry in front of her. I especially don’t want to cry when she’s the one who should be ashamed.

Her hand closes around my clothes. "How dare you? Have you lost your mind?"

"I don’t have a family. You can look down on me for that all you want." My lips shake around the words. "But I loved your son. I spent years loving him with all my heart."

A tear runs down my cheek and the rest follow despite how hard I’m trying.

"Do you know what it felt like when he cheated on me? When he rejected me?" I draw a breath, but it catches halfway. "September tenth used to just be my birthday. Now it’s one of the worst days of my life, and every year I’ll have to try to enjoy it without thinking about what he did."

Her fist stays closed around my shirt. She’s watching me cry, and I feel stupid for even letting her see how much it hurts.

"Of course you don’t care. I’m just another insignificant omega for you and your son to bully, aren’t I?"

She swears and jerks me toward the floor.

I throw out a hand as I fall. My weight lands on it, bending my wrist beneath me, and the pain brings a cry out of my throat before I can stop it. I clutch it to my chest, my other hand trembling around it while Celia stands above me.

"False allegations against a royal can get you six months in prison." She sneers down at me. "Did they teach you that, too?"

My head lifts so quickly that I forget my wrist until pain shoots through it.

"Do you have proof Ezra rejected you? Or did you reject him?"

My lips part. She can’t be serious.

"Who do you think they’ll listen to first? An omega, or the Luna of Golden Moon?" She waits, watching me. "Especially when I explain that you rejected my son because you wanted to seduce Trey. Everyone knows he’s hated Ezra for years."

My hand closes more tightly around my aching wrist.

"And here you are, visiting together just before the ascension trial. Looking for Ezra’s weaknesses, perhaps?" Her smile widens. "That should make an interesting headline."

I gawk at her, waiting for an obvious hole in her story. Something I can point to and say, See? That doesn’t make sense. But she’s taken the things people can check—that I’m here, that I came with Trey—and given them reasons I don’t know how to disprove.

"You can’t do that," I force out.

"Try me." She tilts her head. "I’m good at securing a better position for myself, remember? That was your point."

"You’re cruel," I whisper.

"How do you think I became Luna?"

She walks back to the desk, resting against the edge with her arms folded.

"Weak people stay at the bottom, Sadie. If they’re lucky, they stay alive. Look at Trey’s mother. Look at me. Which of us would you rather be?" Her eyes settle on my wrist. "You can be as kind as you like, but it won’t get you off that floor. Begging might."

My throat tightens. She talks like Trey’s mother simply wasn’t strong enough, as if she and Alpha Vincent had nothing to do with what she went through.

I’d sooner swallow my own tongue than beg her. Matron couldn’t make me do that in all those years, and this woman isn’t getting it out of me tonight.

"There it is again. That stubbornness." Her smile grows when I refuse to answer. "No wonder Trey’s interested. Women rarely hold his attention. None that I remember, anyway."

"What do you want from me?" I snap. "You didn’t drag me here just to hit me, and if you wanted me dead, we wouldn’t still be talking. What do you want?"

"Now we’re getting somewhere." She shrugs. "Your visit prompted Ezra to tell me about the problems between you. Personally, I have no desire to send you back to him. Unfortunately, my son wants you."

"Well, I don’t want him."

"That’s unfortunate. It doesn’t change anything."

"Trey and I are—"

"Trey is dispensable."

My fingers loosen around my wrist. For a second, I forget to keep supporting it.

Celia comes closer and crouches before me. I draw my injured hand against myself again as she grips my jaw, turning my face to one side. Her thumb presses into the cheek she slapped, and I flinch.

"I haven’t lowered myself to this sort of thing in years," she says, still holding my face. "You’re a very lucky girl. Follow my instructions, and you can continue being one."

Then she releases me, gets up, and brushes her hands together before returning to her chair.

"First, you’re going to prepare Ezra for the ascension qualifiers."

I look up at her. All that confusion over why he suddenly wants me back, and the answer is that he needs tutoring. I wish that sounded ridiculous enough to laugh at. Instead, I’m sitting on the floor with tears drying on my face, finding out there’s another use for me.

"His father won’t help him. Vincent thinks Ezra’s purpose in this competition is to challenge Trey. To make his chosen heir better." She settles behind the desk. "I’m sure you understand why that doesn’t suit me."

She pulls a document from beneath a book and flings it toward me. It slides off the desk, landing close enough for me to read the title.

ASCENSION TUTORING AGREEMENT

"I know you’ve attended previous contests. Attendance is restricted to a select few, which puts you in an excellent position to prepare Ezra." She exhales. "Help him qualify, and you’ll receive fifty thousand dollars. I doubt you’ve ever seen that much in one place."

I don’t know what I hate more: how little she thinks of me or how certain she is that she gets to decide what I do next.

"Once he wins the final round, his father will have to rethink the succession. At that point, you’ll receive five hundred thousand dollars."

She waits before continuing, giving the amount time to do whatever she expects it to do to me.

"That could last you the rest of your life if you’re clever with it. And you’re a statistics major, aren’t you? I shouldn’t have to explain what to do with money."

My eyes return to the document beside me.

"So, what will it be?" Celia leans back. "Accept my offer, or watch me set fire to your life."

I stare at the contract until the words blur, listening to the clock on the wall. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Every second brings me closer to having a choice I wasn’t given.

Die or be killed. Is this really the choice? I can’t see a way out that leaves me with the little happiness I came here with.

Ezra, you’ve found another way to put a knife through my chest. I thought leaving you behind meant the hurting would eventually stop. I’m bonding with someone who makes me smile, and for once, I’ve been letting myself think about what comes next without dreading it. Why couldn’t you leave me with that? You didn’t want the love I gave you. Did you have to take this from me, too?

A tear lands on the paper, then another. I wipe my cheek, wincing when my fingers pass over the soreness.

"And if I refuse?" I lift my head. "What if I say no?"

"As I said, Trey is dispensable." Celia remains seated. "I’ve left him alive because everyone would look at me first. But now there’s you. You live with him. You were his brother’s mate."

My hand stops against my cheek.

"If something happened to him, people would have questions for you, wouldn’t they?"

I try to swallow, but I can’t get past the thought of Trey waiting in the garden, not knowing she’s in here desperate to get rid of him.

Somehow, I’m on my knees. I move toward the desk, keeping my injured wrist against my chest, and the first attempt to speak comes out as a sound I barely recognize.

"Don’t you touch him." I look up at her. "Don’t you dare lay a finger on him."

"You—"

"You won’t get away with it. Do you think I’m stupid? That I won’t tell him?" My voice shakes, but I keep going. "What could you possibly do to stop me? Even if I agree to help you, Trey will know you’re up to something. I meet you, then suddenly change my mind about everything?"