I had to free her before that hatred stole the woman I loved. Before she truly believed only blood would protect her.
“Sarah, we have to make our move now,” I said. “First, we’ll take the board. Can you do that?”
She nodded. “Are we ready for it?”
But we didn’t have a choice.
This was the beginning of her war.
This was how I either won Sarah for my own or lost her entirely.
I wasn’t prepared for the takeover, but she was. She had always been. Since the day we stole her, since the day we damned ourselves in greed and sin, this was how it was meant to end.
The only way to defeat my father was to first destroy the empire he created.
And I let Sarah Atwood topple the first stone.
I imagined revenge as bloody, satisfying, and necessary.
I never thought I’d be terrified to seize it. Empty when I took it. Utterly cold when it was delivered.
When Dad spoke of revenge and restoring our pride, he made it seem as though bloodshed and humiliation eased every pain. But that wasn’t meant to satisfy a grudge at all.
I stared at the door to the Bennett Corporation board room, resting a hand over my tummy’s swell—more noticeable in the two weeks since Darius survived my attempt to kill him.
This revenge wasn’t to protect my honor. It was to prevent further suffering.
And if it didn’t work? If everything I sacrificed, everything I voluntarily shamed, everything I spent was ruined? Then the only way to protect myself and Bumper would be through blood.
And most of it would be ours.
Especially since Nicholas revealed his plan to kill Darius was lost, too dangerous to pursue after the poisoning. Darius now expected it. His will was updated and more security added to a private detail. Too much attention focused on him now to attempt a murder.
Our plan shifted to the board instead.
I took a preliminary puff of my inhaler to prevent the anxious tingling in my chest from developing into the consuming tightness. The Bennett Board of Directors expected weakness. They thrived on it, delighted in exploiting it. Sixteen weeks of pregnancy rendered me weak in their eyes.
They didn’t know the strength Bumper gave me. Even I hardly understood it.
Nicholas, Max, and Reed waited for my signal.
Now or never.
I nodded. The doors opened.
And I prepared for a war.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen.” I surveyed the greying men, leering at me from the circular table. I claimed my seat. My step-brothers hovered behind me. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
Confidence. Charisma. Charm.
I had none of it.
That didn’t stop me from presenting my best smile. I worked through the nausea and faced the men who once vowed to kill me to prevent my inheritance of the Josmik Trust. They failed.
They should have killed me then. Nothing would save them now.
But the prickling thorns of fear imbedded within me. My stomach clenched.
He was here.
I hadn’t expected Darius Bennett to crawl from his bed and limp his way into the board room. Then again, I hadn’t anticipated he’d survive the poisoning. I meticulously plotted the dosage and contents, measured and re-measured the materials. The charcoal worked, but it must have been a miserable night for him.
It’d take something blacker than poison to kill the monster. His blood thickened with hate and his heart pumped pure pestilence. It wasn’t a miracle he lived. It was sin.
He sneered in ragged silence—forsaking any insincere greeting to watch as I squirmed or fought his advances.
That pretense was over. Ruined. Burned away in the acid I used to scald his rancid organs.
“My dear.” His voice rasped, cracked from the poison. “Be a good girl and make this quick. You should be resting, growing my son.”
Bryant Maddox didn’t react to the confession though the other board members. Stanley, the eldest, had once presumed my captivity to be tasteless. He felt the same for my rape. But these men had so long cornered themselves within Darius’s depravity that rape no longer shocked them.
But a pregnancy tempted their greed.
“This meeting will be quick,” I said. “And after today, I don’t plan to see any of you ever again.”
Bryant snorted, all formality and patience stripped from his voice. “The little bitch is finally selling her stock?”
“Easy,” Max warned. “Let’s keep it professional.”
Nicholas said nothing, though Reed had stepped forward, so close to me his arm brushed mine. It reassured me, but I hardly needed his support. Not when I knew I had the men beaten with a simple purchase order and invoice.
“The little whore stole our stock,” Bryant said. “I ought to string her up and beat the money out of her.”
“You won’t touch me,” I said. “None of you will.”
“I don’t care about the bastard in your gut.” Bryant’s face flushed red, enraged. “One good punch to the stomach—”
The Bennetts surged forward.
Including Darius.
I raised a hand. “You won’t hurt me. You won’t hurt my child. You will sit there and listen to my proposition because, quite frankly, Mr. Maddox, you have no other choice.”
“I could bleed you out right here.”
Max smirked. “Try. See how far it gets you.”
“Don’t tell me you answer to your whore now too, Max?” Bryant sneered. “Never did have a backbone of your own. You lose that in the car crash too?”
I heard enough of Max’s reputation to realize when a dead man walked in his presence. Nicholas steadied his brother, preventing him from beginning my takeover with a splash of blood heralding a massacre.
We didn’t need to tip-toe through that minefield.
Not yet.
Not if everyone behaved.
And that included Darius Bennett, snaking a smile as he witnessed the first of his sons crack.
“Shall we call the meeting to order?” I asked.
Five of Darius’s most loyal puppets met my gaze with the same cold, dire warning which prickled my insides. Stanley, the eldest, coughed a hacking, phlegm-crusted gasp into his handkerchief. Peter Hannigan edged as far from the table as his morals permitted, still tarnished from his betrayal of Nicholas and sullied by his vote to end my life. Clyde and Jacob remained silent, waiting for the nod of their master before they spoke. Neither Darius nor Bryant interrupted.
The floor was mine.
Darius gestured with an ungracious hand. “What is it you want?”
“Complete control of the Bennett Corporation.”
His laugh was cold. “We’ve traveled this same tired road before, child. You do not have the shares to assume control. You failed in your attempt for a controlling interest, and now you are merely an inconvenience.” His lips twisted into a sneer. “More importantly, an incubator.”
I ignored the insult as it wasn’t offensive. I kept my child safe, and he kept me protected as well. Despite what Darius Bennett planned by breeding me, his arrogance failed him. I was pregnant, but the unborn Bennett was more dangerous to them than me.
“Months ago, I met you all in this very room. I had been kidnapped from the arms of the man I love. I was beaten and violated by my own step-father.” I paused, searching the expressions of the heartless men before me. “You did nothing to aid me. Nothing to prevent my suffering. And nothing to free me from a nightmare you are responsible for creating.”
“Do you plan on shaming us?” Bryant asked. “Believe me, Ms. Atwood, we already regret our decision to spare your life.”
“I’m willing to pardon those past insults.”
“You’re an Atwood. You pardon nothing. Your family exists merely to torment those they feel have slighted them.”
“It’s true,” I said. “I should have you all bound and beaten, raped and murdered, just as you voted for me.”
I paused, the revealing catch in my breathing only noticeable by Nicholas. He didn’t reach for me, but he shifted, a movement breaking his methodical stillness to remind me that he supported this. That he believed in this.