Chapter Forty-one
Sloane
He looks different.
When they lead me into the visitor's room, I expect the Vane Sterling of the sixty-first floor—immaculate, terrifying, and in absolute control of his pulse. Instead, I see a man who looks like he has been through a war. His eyes are bloodshot, his jaw is covered in a thick, dark stubble, and his shirt is wrinkled at the collar.
He looks... human. And in this place, it is the most frightening thing I've ever seen.
We sit on opposite sides of the scratched, greasy plexiglass. He reaches out, his hand pressing against the cold surface, his fingers splayed. I don't mirror the gesture. My hands stay in my lap, the heavy steel of the shackles biting into my wrists every time I breathe.
"Sloane," he says. The name isn't a command anymore. It's a broken thing.
"Did you do it, Vane?" I ask. My voice sounds dead to my own ears, a flat line on a monitor. "Did you set this up? Is this just another 'Audit'? Another way to keep me 'indefinite' by making me a felon?"
The look of pure, unadulterated agony that crosses his face answers me before he can open his mouth.
"No," he whispers, his breath fogging the glass between us. "I would have burned this city to the ground before I let them put you in a cage. Arthur... he was smarter than I gave him credit for. He didn't just want the firm. He wanted to take the only thing I ever valued. He wanted to prove I destroy everything I touch."
"I'm a pariah, Vane. My mother is being cared for by a man under house arrest. I am facing twenty years for a crime you committed in your head."
"Take the deal, Sloane," he says, his voice dropping to a jagged rasp.
I freeze. The air in the room feels like it's turned to ice. "What?"
"Take the deal the DA offered. Tell them I coerced you. Tell them I used your mother's medical bills to force you to lie. Tell them I'm the monster you always thought I was. Give them the villain they're looking for."
"Vane..."
"If you do it, you're free. I've already moved the trust to Switzerland. The moment you walk out of those doors, you and your mother can disappear. You'll never have to see me again. You'll never have to sign another contract or look at another spreadsheet. You get your life back."
I look at him, and for the first time, I see the "No Emotion" clause being applied to himself. He is sacrificing his empire, his freedom, and his last link to me—just to save me from the fallout of his own war.
"And what happens to you?" I ask, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"I'll survive," he says, though we both know the truth. In the world of high finance, a coercion charge is a death sentence. He would spend the rest of his life in a federal cell, or worse, in a world that has forgotten he ever existed.
"You told me once that I was the only thing you couldn't buy," I say, my voice trembling as the tears finally blur my vision. "And now you're trying to buy my freedom with your own life. You're trying to liquidate yourself for me."
"It's the only trade I have left, Sloane. The only one that matters."
I look at his hand against the glass. I think of the woods in the Hamptons. I think of the way he looked at me in the clinic. I realize that if I take the deal, I'll be out of the prison, but I'll be locked in a different kind of cage forever. I'll be the woman who destroyed the only man who truly saw me as a person and not a pawn.
"I'm not taking the deal, Vane," I say, my voice steadying.
"Sloane, don't be a fucking fool—"
"I'm not an asset anymore," I say, standing up, the chains rattling with a violent, metallic clatter that draws the guard's eye. "And I'm not your victim. I'm your accomplice. We're going to fight them. And if we go down, we go down together. I'm not letting Arthur win by letting you lose."
Vane stares up at me, his eyes wide, his hand still pressed to the glass. For the first time, the predator looks humbled. He looks like a man who just realized he's not the one in charge of the deal.
"You'll lose everything," he warns, though I can see the desperate hope flickering in his eyes.
"I've already lost everything," I say, leaning in until my forehead almost touches the plexiglass. "The only thing I have left is the truth. And the truth is, Vane... you're a monster. But you're my monster. And I'm not letting them have you."