Chapter 8 - The Queen’s TermsCeleste gripped the back of the visitor’s chair for support. “You’ve ruined us. You took everything.”
“I took back what belonged to my family,” I corrected sharply, standing up from my desk. “Your brother murdered my grandfather and stole a nation. You tried to crush a woman you thought had no voice because she sold bread instead of stocks. You brought a class war to my doorstep, Celeste. I simply finished it.”
“And Leo?” Celeste whispered, her voice cracking with maternal desperation. “Are you going to destroy him too?”
I paused, walking over to the floor-to-ceiling glass window that overlooked the Charleston harbor.
“Leo is a good man,” I said quietly. “He loved the baker. Whether he can love the queen... that is entirely up to him.”
Just then, the office door clicked open.
Leo walked in. He wasn't wearing his usual expensive corporate suit; he wore a simple black button-down shirt, looking tired, resolute, and free of the toxic weight of his family’s expectations.
He looked at his mother, then turned his steady gaze toward me.
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“I resigned from the Ashbourne board this morning,” Leo said simply. “Not because of the money, and not because of the crown. But because I realized I never want to be in the same room as people who measure human worth by a bank account.”
Celeste let out a choked sob and walked out of the office, closing the heavy mahogany door behind her, leaving us alone in the quiet penthouse.
