He pressed the plastic drive into my hand.

“Keep this safe,” he said. “Do not let anyone see it.”

“Why did they choose me for this?” I asked. “Why an arranged marriage to a man in a coma?”

Ethan gave a dry, bitter laugh that turned into a cough.

“Because your father owed my grandmother ten million dollars,” he said. “And because they thought you would be easy to control.”

The truth felt like a cold weight in my chest.

My father had not just traded me to save his business; he had sold me to be a puppet in a corporate execution.

“If I don’t sign those papers tomorrow, what happens?” I asked.

“Jason will expose your father’s fraud,” Ethan said. “He will send him to prison. And he will find another way to force my grandmother’s hand.”

“And if I do sign?”

“Then I die,” Ethan said simply. “An unexpected cardiac arrest. A sudden relapse. Jason cannot let me recover once he has the keys to the castle.”

I gripped the flash drive tightly, the hard plastic edges digging into my palm.