Jonathan went quiet for a beat, as though the ground beneath him had shifted too suddenly for him to find his footing.
Catherine took the chance to rise, instinctively pulling away from the tension gathering in the air, but Maximilian's arm tightened around her waist, firm and unyielding, guiding her right back onto his lap as if the movement had never happened.
"I don't have to talk to you," Jonathan snapped at last, irritation sharpening into something uglier. "Every time we were scraping for funds… she had all that money and never helped us."
There it was.
Not outrage. Not betrayal.
Greed.
Maximilian's gaze cooled, his fingers resting lightly but possessively at Catherine's waist, grounding her against him. "Why, exactly, would she fund your business?" he asked, his tone almost idle, but the edge beneath it was unmistakable.
