Chapter 6 - The Father Behind the Betrayal
They stood alone in the cathedral's side chapel.
Vivien crossed her arms.
“Did you mean it?”
“What?”
“That I can leave.”
“Yes.”
“No retaliation?”
“None.”
“No debt?”
“None.”
“Pier Seventeen stays mine?”
“Yes.”
“My father's problems stay his?”
“Yes.”
Vivien stared at him.
“You're terrible at negotiating.”
“Only today.”
“Why?”
Lorenzo didn't answer.
“Lorenzo.”
He looked at her.
“Because somewhere between you setting fire to my office and insulting my coffee, this stopped being business.”
Vivien’s expression softened.
“That's inconvenient.”
“Extremely.”
“What do you want?”
“You.”
She stiffened slightly.
Lorenzo immediately corrected himself.
“No. Wrong answer.”
Vivien waited.
“I want the opportunity to know you when neither of us owes the other anything.”
“That sounds less terrifying.”
“I'm working on it.”
“And marriage?”
“Not like this.”
He took the temporary agreement from his jacket.
The one containing Vivien's terms.
He tore his signature from the bottom.
Vivien stared.
“What are you doing?”
“Ending the deal.”
He handed her the paper.
“If you ever marry me, there won't be money attached.”
Vivien looked down.
“Lorenzo—”
“No debt. No ports. No political arrangement. No leverage.”
“And if I say no?”
“I drive you home.”
“And if I say yes?”
“To marriage?”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“To dinner.”
He smiled.
“I know a place.”
“Public?”
“Yes.”
“No private dining room?”
“No.”
“No bodyguards sitting at our table?”
“They'll be somewhere nearby.”
Vivien narrowed her eyes.
“Lorenzo.”
“I'm negotiating.”
She laughed.
Then her phone buzzed.
A news alert filled the screen.
SENATOR ARTHUR HASTINGS IN FEDERAL CUSTODY FOLLOWING PORT CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION
Vivien stared at it.
Lorenzo didn't speak.
Finally she put the phone away.
“My entire family name is about to be destroyed.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Arthur's reputation is.”
Vivien swallowed.
“And mine?”
“You decide what yours becomes.”
Those words stayed with her.
That evening, she left the cathedral unmarried.
But she left beside Lorenzo.
Not because her father ordered it.
Not because a contract demanded it.
May you like
Because she chose to.
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