Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Sold My Name
“No.”
The word came out before I could think.
Victor watched me carefully.
“Liam wouldn't do that.”
Paul placed a phone on the desk.
A recording began.
Liam's voice filled the room.
“I can get Claire outside. But after that, we're done.”
Another man answered.
“Bring her Thursday. Ten o'clock.”
My stomach twisted.
Victor stopped the recording.
I couldn't speak.
Paul quietly left.
Victor poured water into a glass and handed it to me.
I ignored it.
“How long have you known?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“Why does Vale want me?”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“To get to me.”
I laughed bitterly.
“I'm your maid.”
“You slept in my arms.”
I stared at him.
“No one knows that.”
“Paul does.”
“Paul wouldn't—”
“He wouldn't.”
Victor walked toward the window.
“But someone saw you leave my study at dawn.”
“So?”
“In my world, proximity creates value.”
I suddenly understood.
Vale thought I mattered to Victor.
The ridiculous part was that until that morning, I hadn't.
“Then tell him I mean nothing.”
Victor looked at me.
“That may have worked yesterday.”
“And today?”
He didn't answer.
My heart beat faster.
“Victor.”
It was the first time I'd used his first name.
Something shifted in his expression.
“Today,” he said quietly, “I'd be lying.”
The room became impossibly still.
I looked away first.
“Get Liam back.”
Victor picked up his coat.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“I've spent three months paying for his mistakes. If my brother sold me out, I want to hear him admit it.”
Victor studied me.
Then he nodded.
“One condition.”
“What?”
“You stay beside me.”
The warehouse meeting was quieter than I'd expected.
No dramatic shouting.
No chaos.
Just two groups of men facing each other beneath harsh industrial lights.
Liam sat in a chair between them.
His face was bruised.
“Claire.”
I took a step.
Victor's hand immediately touched my lower back.
“Stay.”
Across the room, Anthony Vale smiled.
“So that's her.”
Victor's expression didn't change.
“You wanted a meeting. You have one.”
Vale nodded toward me.
“Interesting choice of maid.”
“She's not part of this.”
“She became part of it when she spent the night in your private study.”
Liam looked at me.
“What?”
I ignored him.
“Did you sell me out?”
“Claire, I can explain.”
“Yes or no.”
“I didn't know they were going to hurt you.”
My throat tightened.
“So yes.”
“I needed money.”
“You always need money.”
“I was going to fix everything!”
“By giving me to strangers?”
Liam lowered his head.
Victor's voice became cold.
“The debt is finished.”
Vale laughed.
“Not yours to decide.”
Victor tossed a folder onto a metal table.
“It is now.”
Vale opened it.
His smile vanished.
Victor had purchased Liam's new debt too.
Every dollar.
“You're paying a lot for a maid,” Vale said.
Victor stepped closer.
“No.”
His gaze shifted toward me.
“I'm paying to remove leverage.”
Vale studied him.
“Same thing.”
Victor's expression hardened.
“No. It isn't.”
Twenty minutes later, we left with Liam.
Outside, Liam tried to approach me.
“Claire.”
I stepped back.
“Don't.”
“I made a mistake.”
“A mistake is forgetting my birthday.”
His face collapsed.
“I didn't know what else to do.”
“You could have stopped gambling.”
“I tried.”
“No. You tried winning.”
He had no answer.
Victor opened the car door for me.
Liam looked between us.
“You're choosing him over me?”
I turned.
“For once, Liam, I'm choosing myself.”
Victor said nothing until we were inside the car.
Then he asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“Home.”
“Done.”
“And tomorrow?”
“You're not working.”
“I need the money.”
“No.”
I turned sharply.
“You don't get to fire me.”
“I'm not firing you.”
“Then what?”
Victor looked out the window.
“Your brother's debt is gone.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Gone.”
“You paid it.”
“Yes.”
“I can't repay that.”
“I didn't ask you to.”
“I won't belong to you because you bought my brother's debt.”
Victor's eyes snapped toward mine.
“Claire.”
His voice was dangerously quiet.
May you like
“You never belonged to me.”
---
