I stare at her, realizing for the first time that she knows exactly what she’s doing to me. It’s not like she hasn’t thought this through. She’s placing my entire life in Corvus’s hands—after he already betrayed me once. In one cruel twist he could take away my home, my job, my family, everything I care about. What the hell will I do if he decides to kick me out? No planet will take me, and even in the unlikely event I can secure a spot on another ship, it will never be mine like Fortuna was.

And no matter what happens, I’ll always be as helpless as I am now. I’ll never have the control of my life that I’ve always craved.

“We haven’t talked to Corvus in three fucking years,” I say, struggling to keep my voice level. “We have no idea what the war has done to him! He could’ve been paralyzed. He could’ve lost his damn mind, he could’ve…” I trail off as a surge of pain makes it too hard to speak. When I start again, my words come out quiet and empty of venom. “Even aside from that, he’s already made it damn clear where his loyalties lie, and it’s not with the family.”

“What did you think was gonna happen?” she asks. “Did you notice the state that Gaia was in? Did you notice the tension on Deva? This system is changing, Scorpia. Things are getting worse, not better, especially for people like you. Something big is coming, and I need to know that someone is taking care of my family when I’m gone.”

“I can—”

“You can’t even take care of yourself! Look at the mess you got yourself into on Gaia.” She barks a laugh at the surprise on my face. “What, you think I forgot about that? You think one clever ploy on the Red Baron excuses it? You got yourself arrested twice, botched the job, triggered a quarantine. If I wasn’t there to drag you out of trouble, you and your siblings would be dead right now, all because of you. You really think you could handle the responsibility of an entire ship? Of being in charge of the whole family?” She shakes her head, turning away from me. “I feel sorry for you. I do. But I built this business from nothing, and I’m not going to let you destroy it.”