Clay smiles a soft, aw-shucks smile. “Our families make alliances. We don’t marry for love, we marry to create bonds with other rich families, it’s old fashioned, but it’s how the rich stay rich and powerful. If Bastian had been older when he saw you, he wouldn’t have been able to pursue you, because his family would already have had someone lined up for him to marry. Claiming you when he did, before he even knew your name is the only way his parents would have even allowed him to take you out on a date.”

“So you, Evan and Hunter already have fiancées?” I ask skeptically.

“My parents are in talks with the La Mar family, there’s been talk about Hunter and the Hollins girl and Evan was expected to marry Bunny Lawrence, but your mom is putting up some resistance about an arranged marriage that Harry is indulging at the minute.”

I’m shocked by how calmly he’s talking about marrying a girl he doesn’t care for, like it’s a business arrangement, which I suppose it is. “This still doesn’t explain why you care if I hate you.”

He sighs, wearily. “Because for a whole year we got to know you, we watched you work too hard, watched you with Courtney, with your mom, we felt like we knew you, like you were one of us. You are one of us. Bastian is my brother, so that makes you my sister. I’ve never had a sibling before, but I want us to be friends, for you to rely on us.”

His words and his expression are earnest, almost hopeful, but instead of feeling sympathy, I’m outraged.

“You think of me like a sister?” I ask, needing to see if I’m understanding what he’s saying.

“Yes,” he nods eagerly.

“If I were your sister, would you want my life to be completely controlled by a man?”

His eyes cloud, but I don’t stop. “As your sister, would you want me to be in a powerless relationship where I was being held against my will, where in a fit of anger a man isolated me, removed all the meaningful relationships in my life until all I had left was him? Would you want your sister to be held captive by that man, forced to have sex with that man and used for his pleasure without thought for if that was something she wanted?”

He fidgets uncomfortably from his spot on the floor. “It’s”

I interrupt him. “Are you going to say it’s not like that? Because from where I’m sitting, it’s exactly like that. Sebastian strolled into my life when I was barely sixteen years old and declared I was his. When I was so unhappy and lonely that I ran to the other side of the country to get away from him, he threw a tantrum and destroyed my relationship with my mother. Years later, he orchestrated a situation that has left me yet again vulnerable and isolated, only this time, he took my virginity and is literally holding me captive in a very expensive cage.”