Page 1 of Unwillingly His

CHAPTER 1

STELLA

Istormed across the courtroom and slapped Lucian Manwarring across the face.

Unlike in the movies, there were no shocked gasps, no outraged cries, no laughter.

Definitely no laughter.

There wasn’t even the repeated frenzied slam of a gavel as a red-faced judge screamed, ‘Order! Order in the court!’.

There was only silence.

Tense, repressive, ominous… silence.

After all, I had just slapped a vengeful god.

At least that was what everyone was thinking around me. I could literally feel their mortal terror. It radiated off the assembled courtroom like a wave of heat after a bomb blast.

Lucian Manwarring was the foreboding patriarch of the powerful and rich Manwarring family. His exploits in business were famous… or rather infamous. There were few people in New York who weren’t terrified of this man.

When crossed, he didn’t get angry, he got even. Scorched earth even. His billion-dollar whiskey empire was built on the charred remains of countless other businesses and men.

He was feared, respected, reviled, and envied.

My father had hated him with a burning, white-hot passion.

Which was why it made no sense. Why would he name Lucian Manwarring the trustee over my inheritance in the event of his death?

A sharp pain pierced my chest.

They were gone. Both of them. My parents had been taken from me in an instant.

A vision of twisted car metal, the smell of blood, and my mother’s moans as snowflakes gently drifted down on me from the opening in the torn roof floated across my inner eye. I shook the disturbing image away.

I needed to focus.

If I didn’t do something, Lucian would succeed in not only stealing my entire inheritance, but in having complete control over my life until I turned twenty-nine. That was three years from now!

The very idea of being under this man’s thumb for that long was untenable.

My right palm stung, but I resisted the urge to rub it against my thigh.

I didn’t want to give the bastard the satisfaction of knowing he had hurt me.

Trying to match his glare, my eyes watered as I refused to blink.

Or were they tears?

Through clenched teeth, I threatened, “You won’t get away with this.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Little one, I already have.”

CHAPTER 2

LUCIAN

How amusing.

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