Chapter 31 · Year Two

"Sign here, or you walk out with nothing but the ring." Dominic Voss dropped a folder on the table, right on top of the quarterly report I'd stayed up till three fixing.

I didn't touch it. "You want me to sign my own eviction, cousin? Read the room. I'm still CFO. My name's still on that signature line, not yours."

"For now." He smiled the way rich men smile when they think the floor's already theirs. "One year, Nora. That was the contract. Today it's done. The family votes whether it renews. You don't get a vote. You get a chair."

Luca's hand landed on my knee under the table, warm, heavy, the kind of grip that says *don't*. I didn't need it. I wasn't going anywhere.

Six men sat around that table, Voss blood or Voss money, and every single one of them was staring at the folder like it had teeth. Luca didn't look at it. He looked at Dominic.

"You called a family council to renegotiate a marriage contract," Luca said, flat, bored, the tone he used right before somebody's knees stopped working. "That's cute. Say what you actually want.