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"Sera? Wake up."

"Sera —"

A familiar voice pulled her back.

She opened her eyes to find Damien at her bedside. He sighed when he saw she was awake.

He reached to push her hair out of her face. She flinched away on instinct.

His hand froze in the air. A few seconds later, he slowly pulled it back.

"Sera, I know you're upset. But this one's on you. I'm done making excuses for you." There was no missing the reprimand in his voice. Even groggy, she heard it clearly.

"Excuses?" She wet her cracked lips. "Damien. Did you actually look into any of it? Do you hear yourself?"

His face darkened. "You know exactly what you did. I'm not here to argue."

"Because of your mother's surgery — and the scene you made at the house — Vivienne's reputation is shredded. The moment you're discharged, you're going to host a reception. You're going to apologize to her publicly. You're going to walk back the rumors. You're going to reframe your mother's coma as a standard-risk complication. Give her her name back."

She thought, for a second, that she'd misheard.

But when she looked at his face, she knew he was serious.

"What did you say?"

Her mother was a vegetable because of Vivienne Ashcroft. And he was sitting here, telling her to clear Vivienne's name?

Had he lost his mind?

"That's not happening."

He was out of patience.

"I'm not asking. Think hard before you say something else you can't take back. Your mother's still critical. Your brother's still in prison."

And there it was again.

She couldn't fight back. She couldn't refuse. She was still Damien Thorne's prisoner. Until her brother was free, until she was gone, she had to play along.

She closed her eyes. No more wasted energy.

"Fine. I'll host the reception. But I want my brother out first."

He hesitated for a second. Then agreed.

He set the terms.

One month.