Meadow's POV
I didn't sleep.
I lay in my childhood bedroom staring at the faint crack in the ceiling I used to trace with my eyes when I was fifteen and couldn't escape my own thoughts. Back then, my worries had been small, exams, curfews, whether Tyler would call when he said he would.
Now every memory felt poisoned.
Alaric's words replayed on a loop, precise and merciless.
Tyler was going to use you.
Your sister was already helping him.
If you choose me… there's no pretending you don't know what I am.
Honest about the damage I do.
The sentence followed me like a shadow. Not because it scared me, but because some awful, traitorous part of me believed him.
Morning crept in slowly, pale light bleeding through the curtains. I checked my phone out of habit.
Three missed calls from my sister.
One text from Tyler.
We need to talk. Please.
I laughed. The sound was brittle,
unfamiliar.
By the time I showered and dressed, the decision had already been made. Not because I trusted Alaric Ashford. Not because I wanted him.
Because I couldn't afford to stand alone anymore.
Ashford Tower was even more intimidating in daylight.
Glass and steel rose into the sky like a declaration of dominance, reflecting the city back at itself in sharp, unforgiving angles. I paused outside the revolving doors, my reflection fractured into a dozen versions of myself, each one looking just as uncertain as the next.
Options, he'd said.
I stepped inside.
The lobby staff recognized me immediately. No questions. No hesitation. I was ushered upstairs with the kind of efficiency that came from money and fear working in perfect harmony.
His office door was already open.
Alaric stood by the window, jacket off, sleeves rolled to his forearms. He wasn't on the phone. Wasn't working. He was waiting.
That realization settled heavily in my chest.
"You came," he said, turning as I entered.
"I said you'd give me tonight," I replied. "You didn't say anything about changing your mind."
A corner of his mouth lifted. "I don't make offers I don't intend to honor."
The door closed behind me with a soft click.
I stayed standing.
"So?" I asked. "What happens now?"
He studied me in silence, gaze sweeping over me like he was cataloging changes. I hadn't bothered dressing up. Simple jeans. A sweater. No armor except exhaustion and resolve.
"Now," he said, "you ask questions. And I answer them."
I blinked. "That's it?"
"For today." He gestured toward the chair. "Sit."
I didn't argue this time.
The moment I did, he moved, circling the desk but not sitting, leaning against it instead, close enough that I could smell his cologne again. Clean. Dark. Controlled.
"First question," he said. "Say it."
I swallowed. "How bad is it?"
His eyes didn't soften. That was answer enough.
"Bad enough that Tyler was planning his exit," Alaric said. "Bad enough that your name was already positioned to take part of the fall."
My hands curled in my lap. "My credit?"
"Lines opened. Accounts discussed. Nothing finalized yet."
Yet.
"And my sister?"
"She knew more than she'll admit," he said. "Less than she thinks she did."
I closed my eyes briefly. Betrayal burned hot and sour in my stomach. "Why tell me any of this?"
"Because leverage works best when it's informed."
I opened my eyes. "So I'm a weapon."
"Yes."
The bluntness knocked the air from my lungs.
"And you?" I asked. "What does this cost you?"
He considered me. "Control."
I scoffed. "You don't seem short on that."
"I am," he said evenly. "Which is why this will be… structured."
I stiffened. "Structured how?"
He straightened, all business now, the dangerous intimacy of last night packed away behind polished authority.
"Rules," he said. "Terms. Conditions."
The words sent a chill through me.
"You will move into one of my properties," he continued. "Discreet. Secure. Your name won't be on the lease."
"I won't live with you," I said immediately.
His gaze flicked to mine. "I didn't say you would."
Relief came too fast. I hated that.
"You will be seen with me," he went on. "Publicly. Selectively. Enough to unsettle Tyler. Enough to draw him out."
My throat tightened. "And when he reacts?"
"I document," Alaric said. "Everything."
I hesitated. "What do I have to do?"
A pause.
Then, carefully, "Nothing you don't agree to."
The room felt quieter.
"No sleeping together," I said flatly.
A muscle in his jaw ticked.
"Understood."
"No lying to me."
"I won't," he said. "I'll just choose my truths carefully."
I grimaced. "That's not comforting."
"It's honest."
I huffed out a breath. "You really are unbelievable."
"And yet," he murmured, "you're still here."
I hated that he was right.
"And Tyler?" I asked. "What happens to him?"
"That depends," Alaric said, eyes sharpening, "on how hard he struggles."
I shifted, nerves prickling. "You enjoy this."
"I enjoy order," he corrected. "Chaos irritates me."
"And me?" I asked quietly. "What am I to you in all this?"
He didn't answer immediately.
When he did, his voice was lower.
"An anomaly."
My pulse stuttered.
"You don't behave like someone who wants revenge," he continued. "You behave like someone who wants closure. That makes you unpredictable."
"Does that bother you?"
His gaze held mine. "It should."
Silence pressed in again, heavy but different now. Charged.
"So," I said finally. "Those are the terms?"
"For now," he replied. "They will evolve."
"Of course they will."
He smiled faintly.
I stood. "Then I'm in."
Something shifted in his expression. Satisfaction, maybe. Or something darker.
"Good," he said. "Then there's one more thing."
I braced myself. "What?"
He stepped closer, not enough to trap me, but enough that I could feel the heat of him.
"You don't get to pretend this is just strategy," he said quietly. "If you stay, you stay present."
My heart hammered. "Meaning?"
"No dissociating," he said. "No disappearing when it gets
uncomfortable."
"That's not fair."
"No," he agreed. "It's necessary."
I searched his face for mockery. Found none.
"And if I can't?" I asked.
"Then you leave," he said simply. "Before you break."
The sincerity in his voice scared me more than the threat ever could.
I nodded once. "Okay."
He stepped back, control sliding into place again.
"I'll have someone show you the apartment," he said. "You'll receive a phone. Encrypted. For emergencies only."
"Emergencies defined by you?"
He smiled. "By me."
I turned toward the door.
"And Meadow?" he called.
I paused.
"You did choose," he said. "Don't forget that."
I didn't look back this time either.
But the truth followed me all the same.
I had chosen.
And whatever Alaric Ashford was about to do to Tyler, to my sister, to the careful lie I'd built my life on,
I was standing right beside him now.