She cut him off. “You want his money.”
He didn’t deny it. “His influence. His reach. And let’s be honest, you wouldn’t suffer. He seems taken with you.”
She turned, almost ready to walk away. He stopped her with a single, quiet threat. “If this doesn’t work, if he tires of you, or you sabotage it, I’ll be forced to consider alternatives. Perhaps arrange a match for Heather first. The Marquess of Bellcliff is still looking, and you know how he likes... younger brides.”
Anna froze.
He smiled like a man who thought he’d won.
“You wouldn’t,” she said, quietly.
Isaac’s tone turned cold. “Try me. You’ve left me with very few choices.”
He paused, then added, almost casually, “Of course, if you were clever, you wouldn’t leave it to chance. The Duke may not be ready to propose, but we both know a scandal can be… persuasive.”
His smile sharpened. “You’ve already been seen walking with him. Alone. One more slip might be all it takes.”
Anna said nothing at first. Her hands trembled where they gripped the edge of the balustrade. She blinked hard, but a tear slipped free anyway.
Then…quietly, steadily, Anna's voice was like glass when it finally came. “I will not be your pawn, Isaac. Neither will Heather. Not for you. Not for this estate. And certainly not for some scheme to secure your name in the clubs.”
“Think carefully,” he didn't blink. “You don’t have the luxury of pride.”
She looked at him and for a breathless, appalled moment, she couldn’t even speak.
There was no mask left. No false civility to soften it.
He was using her. And he was willing to use Heather too.
The cold disgust rose like bile in her throat. She had been angry with him before, wary, even insulted, but now, standing here with his words still echoing in her ears, she felt something far darker.
“You are unrecognizable,” she said quietly. “Whatever you once were, it’s long gone.”
He smirked. “What I am is realistic.”
“No. What you are is disgusting.”
He took a step forward. “You forget yourself.”
“I’ve had enough words from you, I think.”
She turned, her face unreadable, but her pace swift and unhesitating. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a flinch.
But just before she reached the end of the corridor, his voice followed her, low, measured, and unmistakably cutting.
“You can walk away from me, Anna. But you won’t walk away from what I can do.”
She paused. Then she turned slowly to face him.
Isaac stood a few paces back in the corridor, perfectly still, perfectly composed. His eyes held none of the warmth they used to, not that there had ever been much.
Isaac’s smile was almost pitying. “You did well enough while it was convenient. But the estate doesn’t belong to you anymore, Anna. It never did. You were standing in until someone with the right name returned to claim it.”
Her throat tightened. “I held this place together when no one else would. When my father was absent. When the tenants had no coal. No food. No voice.”
“And now they do,” he said, evenly. “Mine.”
“You treat them like burdens. Like ledgers to balance.”
