Chapter 4

He crouched down and held the contract out in front of me.

"Sign it, and I'll marry you, and from now on we'll live a good life together."

"But if you don't sign, and you keep talking back to my mother, don't blame me for playing rough."

I met those eyes, so full of scheming.

I said coldly, "Playing rough? What could you possibly do to me?"

As if she'd already known I wouldn't obey, Ada Dickerson settled back into her armchair.

"Peter, with all these people watching, we can't let this woman drag the whole Gilbert name through the mud."

Those words were like a signal.

Peter Gilbert forced my hand down onto the paper to sign my name.

I fought with everything I had, and the thin sheet crumpled to shreds.

"Cora Fox, you insist on being difficult. Do you really think that just because the contract is torn, you won't have to sign?"

He took a stack from Chloe Abbott.

"There are so many here. One of them, you're going to sign."

Chloe crouched down and helped him pin me in place.

I struggled as hard as I could, and they couldn't manage it at all.

"Mom, this isn't working. She's too strong—there's no way to get it signed."

Chloe's makeup was ruined too, and she carried the paper full of torn spots over to Ada to complain.

"Then what do we do? Can't the whole great Gilbert family handle one woman?"

Ada planted her hands on her hips, her eyes darting around and around.

"Chloe, go get the seal. If she won't sign, have her stamp it."

Chloe made a show of searching for a while.

"Mom, the seal's gone. Maybe we should try another way."

With the auspicious hour drawing closer, Ada was growing very impatient.

"Mom, if the seal's gone, we can use blood. It's all bright red anyway."

"And besides, she talked back to you today in front of the ancestors and all these relatives, so she really ought to pay some kind of price."

Ada's eyes lit up, and the corner of her mouth curled into a grin.

"What are you standing there for? Your wife is right. If we don't teach her a lesson today, once she's in the door she'll be riding on my neck for good."

Peter hesitated.

I'd thought he still had some scrap of conscience left.

But when Ivy Gilbert handed over that gleaming knife—

He took it at once.

A flash of light shot past my eyes.

"Cora, I'm begging you. Just sign it properly, all right?"

"Didn't you say long ago that money is just a thing outside yourself? You're still young, you still have your company, you're capable—it's only a few houses and shops."

He pointed to Jayden Gilbert behind him, who could only drool.

"Jayden is my nephew, and Ivy is my sister. None of them are outsiders."

Looking at him standing there holding that knife, his face so full of hypocrisy—

I spat hard.

"I won't sign it. Peter, if you still have any conscience, stop now, while there's still time."

He let out a soft sigh.

He seized my right hand in an iron grip, raised the knife, and brought it down hard on my thumb.

A sharp, piercing pain shot through me.

A stream of warmth flowed out, and I couldn't stop it.

Chloe brought the paper over, and Peter pressed my hand down hard onto the signature line.

"Mom, it's stamped, look."

Ada looked over the contract, now stamped with my bloody fingerprint.

Just as she was about to nod in satisfaction, Chloe stomped hard on my right hand.

"Peter, to keep her from denying it later, make her sign a few more copies."

Soon the blood from my right hand dripped down into a pool.

Once they had the contract they'd been so desperate for,

the two of them holding me down let go.

Drained, I dragged myself forward.

I glared at Peter and asked, one word at a time, "You really don't regret this?"

He fell silent, about to say something to talk me around.

Just then, I heard a familiar voice.

It was Paula, come to save me.

Sure enough, I turned my head and saw that bold streak of red.

I grabbed the stool beside me and hurled it hard at the altar table next to Ada.