Lucian
The timing couldn't have been worse.
Mara and I had just started getting it right—finally seeing each other, choosing each other—and now I was being handed the reins to Steel Corp. Just like that.
A gift wrapped in pressure. What should’ve felt like an achievement only felt like a threat to the time I needed with my wife.
Why now?
The only thing that made this breakfast worth it was Mara’s honesty. The way she claimed me in front of them. No hesitation, no sugarcoating—just truth.
She was blunt, and beautifully aligned with my own thoughts. She wasn’t going to let Martha’s niece slip through the cracks. She didn’t trust her. Neither did I.
Martha was predictable, really. She’d tried everything else—guilt, manipulation, exclusion—and now she was trying charm. Pretending to b
