~LAYLA~
I shut my bedroom door and leaned back against it, trying to calm my breath. My pulse was still sprinting from that confrontation in Axel's study.
But the adrenaline didn't drown out the images burned into my brain: the papers, the contracts, the unmistakable name: Watson Holdings.
My father's company.
And Axel's name, his or someone in his family's, woven through deal after deal, as if our bloodlines had been tangled in business long before this farce of a marriage.
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes.
What was in that letter? Axel had ripped it away so fast it had to matter.
It wasn't enough that my father, the man I had once idolised, the one I had broken myself to please, had only ever seen me as an investment, a bargaining chip.
And now, Axel, was turning out to be no different. If I wasn't careful, he'd use me just like my father had.
I sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the sheets in my fists.
No.
I wasn't going to let that happen.
