“We’re done,” Aurora said flatly, pushing her wine glass away.
“Done?” Daniel’s voice broke open like a cheap seam. “Aurora, what are you—”
“I'm done being a transaction,” she said. “I'm done signing away my choices.”
Evelyn Myers did not raise her eyebrows. She already had the ledger open in her head.
“You know what this means,” Evelyn said, calm and cold. “The Myers-Gu agreement has been negotiated. The deposits cleared. You walk out of this, you walk out of a guarantee to the family.”
“I don't care about guarantees.” Aurora stood. Her chair scraped. Heads turned. The private banquet room in Harbor City's East Bay Club fell into the kind of quiet that made people arrange their loyalties by instinct.
“Sit down,” Evelyn ordered. “You will marry Marcus Wang. The families expect—”
“Expect me to be sold?” Aurora cut her off. “You sold my name the day you signed the escrow.”
A ripple of gasps. Carly's smile froze. Guests slid their phones into pockets like weapons.
“Is this a stunt?” a man in a dark suit said. “We cleared expenses, Aurora.”
“This isn’t a stunt,” Aurora said. “It’s a choice. I refuse.”
Daniel reached for her hand. His fingers trembled. “Aurora, please. Think about the shipments. My contacts. Your grandmother—”
“My grandmother signed her name on a ledger, not on my life,” Aurora answered. “I’m done pretending that ledger is me.”
Daniel's face changed from pleading to
