Chapter 4

Before his lips could even touch hers, she turned her head, and the kiss landed on her cheek. "Don't," she said, her voice flat.

"I loved you," Dallas said, her voice cutting through the tension. She spoke directly to Antone, but her words were for everyone in the room, for the closed study door behind which her fate was being sealed. For herself. It was a confession, but not of love. It was a confession of her own folly.

She looked at his stunned face, a mask of disbelief. "I pursued him," she said, her eyes finding Desmond's as he emerged from the study, drawn by the commotion. "I was foolish. He never accepted me. It was all me. I was the one who couldn't let go."

Antone stared at her, his mouth slightly open in shock. He couldn't believe she was taking the blame, protecting him even now.

But she wasn't protecting him. She was freeing herself. She was accepting the full, bitter truth of her situation. She was a charity case who had dared to love. She was a pawn who had been played by masters. By admitting it, by taking all the shame onto herself, she was cutting the strings.

"I am the one who has disgraced this family," she said, her voice eerily calm. "I am the one who is shameless."

The hallway fell into a dead silence. Chelsea, who had followed Desmond out, looked horrified. Antone was pale with disbelief. Desmond's face was a mask of thunder.

"This is a mess," Chelsea finally whispered, breaking the spell. "Desmond, we should call your parents."

"They already know," Desmond commanded, his voice sharp. He would not let this spiral into a public family scandal. "This stays here. I am the head of this house now. I will handle it."

He looked at Dallas, and for the first time, she saw not just anger, but a deep, possessive hurt. He was wounded, not by her supposed love for his brother, but by the loss of his control over her.

"In this family," he said, his voice low and menacing, "disgrace has consequences. There are rules."

Antone lunged forward. "Desmond, no. If anyone is to be punished, it should be me. I'll take it."

"No, you won't," Dallas said, her voice stopping him short. "This is my mess. And I'm done with it. I'm done with you." She looked directly at Antone, her gaze empty. "I'm taking back every feeling I ever had for you. They're all gone."

Without another word, she turned and walked toward the grand study, the heart of the Morgan empire, where Mr. Morgan was waiting. It was a place reserved for business, for contracts, and for ceremonial dismissals.

She ignored Antone's shocked cry and Desmond's dark, watching eyes.

She stood before Mr. Morgan, who sat behind his massive desk like a king on his throne. Her back was straight. She was ready.

The family's head of security, a grim-faced man who had been with them for decades, entered with a thick legal document and a pen. He was the enforcer of Morgan family discipline.

"This is a contract," Mr. Morgan said, his voice cold as ice. "It terminates your rights as an adopted member of this family. You will relinquish the Morgan name and any claim to the estate. In return, the family will provide your dowry to Mr. Simmons. Sign it."

The pen was a line of fire in her hand. The words on the page, a white-hot and blinding pain, shot through her. Signing it felt like peeling off her own skin.

She bit down on her lip, tasting her own blood. She would not cry. She would not give them the satisfaction.

She signed her name: Dallas Cole. Not Dallas Morgan.

The world began to blur at the edges. The pain was a roaring ocean, threatening to pull her under. Through a haze, she saw two figures standing in the doorway. Desmond and Antone. Watching.

After she pushed the signed document back across the desk, she collapsed against the chair, her strength gone.

"Do you know your mistake?" Mr. Morgan's voice boomed above her.

She pushed herself up, her vision swimming. She looked past him, at the two brothers silhouetted in the doorway.

"I know," she whispered, her voice a raw, broken rasp. "My mistake... was ever loving anyone in this house."

And then, the world went black.