MAYA
“Five hundred million?”
My brain tried to do the math, but the numbers were too big and the reality was too small. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Bullshit!" I blurted out. No one was buying anyone in the twenty-first century. "Pfft... Five hundred million? Dad, please tell me I’m at least worth a billion. This is insulting.”
I turned to my dad, beads of sweat breaking out on my forehead. My voice dropped to a whisper, pleading for a logic that didn't exist.
“He meant the company, right, Dad? He bought the office and the stocks? Tell me he's talking about the business. Tell me he's talking about the Sullivan name and the real estate.”
"Maya, be serious!" my father sobbed. He wouldn't even look at me. He was too busy burying his face in his hands, acting like if he couldn't see me, the sin of what he’d done would just disappear.
This was getting terrifyingly real. I looked back at Silas, and my stomach did a slow, sick flip that felt like the drop of a roller coaster.
“You’re joking. This is a prank, right? Where are the cameras?”
I spun around. The sound of my heels clicking on the floor was the only sound in the room as I searched the corners of the ceiling, looking for a lens or a red light. I let out a high, shaky laugh that sounded more like a scream.
“Cut the cameras! You can come out now, guys. Prank’s over! Ha! Very funny, Dad! You really got me with the 'sold to a billionaire' bit! I almost believed you!”
I waited. I waited for a producer to walk in with a clipboard. I waited for a film crew to pop out from behind the curtains and tell me I was the star of a new reality show. I waited for a single shred of evidence that my life wasn't currently being destroyed.
Silas didn't move. He didn't even blink. He just watched my meltdown with a calm, steady gaze that made my laughter die a slow, pathetic death.
Then, he reached out.
His thumb hooked under my chin, tilting my face up until I had no choice but to look him in the eye. His skin was warm, but his grip was absolute. It wasn't the kind of hold that hurt. It was the kind of hold that told me my permission didn't matter anymore.
"No cameras, Maya," he said, cutting through the silence of the office. "Just a contract and a paid debt."
He leaned in, looking at me as if he were already figuring out exactly how to use me.
"You’re coming with me," he murmured. "After all... Daddy likes what he’s seeing.”
I gasped.
“Fuck you! Dad, call the lawyers. Call the fucking lawyers! You can't do this to me!”
I was in denial. This didn't happen in real life. People didn't get traded like stocks in the twenty-first century. This was a nightmare I just hadn't woken up from yet.
“I can't do that, Maya. Just go with him. It's the best option,” my father whispered. “I don't want to go to prison.”
“Best?” I repeated. My eyebrows shot up as I looked at the man I called my father, who was currently handing me over to save his own skin.
I looked at his shaking hands and realized there were no lawyers coming to save me. There was nobody left but the man standing in front of me.
“You should listen to your father,” Silas added. He wasn't asking me to follow him. He was telling me that my life as I knew it was over.
“How did this happen? Why me?”
“You’re the only asset Arthur has left that isn't already underwater,” Silas replied. “You aren't a daughter today, Maya. You’re currency, collateral. And your father just spent you.”
He was right. The company was a sinking ship. My father had sold the sails to pay for his booze and the oars to pay for his women. I was the only thing left on board to trade for his life.
“What’s the plan, then? What happens now?” I swallowed hard, the reality of it clawing at my throat. “What's going to happen to me?”
“Now?” Silas’s gaze dropped to my lips. “Now I own the rights to that mouth of yours.”
He gripped my chin again, his thumb brushing against my lower lip. “Although, I’m still weighing my options. With a mouth as sharp as yours, it’s either going to be your greatest asset or your undoing.”
He let go of my chin so abruptly my head snapped back slightly.
"Let's go.”
"I have plans tonight," I argued. "And those plans definitely don't involve being a debt collector’s plus-one.”
"You still think you’re a person with a schedule?" Silas leaned down, his face hovering so close to mine that his breath was warm against my lips. "That’s cute. But your time belongs to me now. Every second of it, sweetheart."
For the first time in my life, I couldn't find a comeback.
"Welcome to the Blackwood family," he added. "Do try not to die in the first week. It would be such a waste of my Botox money.”
He straightened up, adjusting his cuffs with a terrifying level of nonchalance, as if he hadn't just crashed my entire world in under ten minutes.
Silas’s fingers closed around my elbow. I tried to pull away, but my body seemed to lean into his touch of its own accord, drawn to the very man who was ruining me. He didn't wait for me to find my footing. He simply turned and began to lead me toward the door.
As the heavy mahogany doors swung open, I saw Marcus’s horrified face. His eyes met mine for a split second before he looked at the floor. He was ashamed that he was letting this happen. He wouldn't look at Silas.
Just as the doors swung shut, my phone buzzed in my pocket, making me flinch. It was a jolt of the real world hitting me at the worst possible moment. I didn't need to look at the screen to know who it was.
Liam. It was probably a text telling me he’d booked the table at that Italian place I liked. Maybe a "Can't wait to see you, beautiful.”
My throat ached with a sob I refused to let out.
I wasn't going to my date with Liam. I wasn't going back to my apartment to wipe off my makeup and forget this day ever happened. I wasn't going to see the sun set as a free woman ever again.
I was being collected.
And Silas Blackwood didn't look like the kind of man who ever lost what he owned.