“What do you want?” I grew impatient. “I assume you have something else in mind besides discussing my wedding?”

He leaned back into the couch with his knees apart, regarding me with a steely gaze. “It’s time to change things, Fender.” He didn’t specify, but he didn’t need to. It had always been a source of tension between us, and now with the girls in our lives, it came more frequently.

My gaze immediately turned cold. I’d just had to deal with this shit from Melanie a few nights ago, and now my brother came all the way to my residence just to mention it for the millionth time.

“Your fiancée used to be a prisoner there. Does that not change how you feel?”

I drank the wine. “I know I’ve made that up to her.”

“And what about the rest of the girls?” He was more aggressive than he used to be, like he wasn’t leaving that couch until he got what he wanted.

Never gonna happen. I released a low and drawn-out sigh, fighting to keep my patience with him. “We’ve discussed this before, Magnus. If there was another way, I would do it. There’s not.”

He’d been waiting for that answer because he already had a rebuttal. “There’s always another way. I will personally see to the project. I will personally vet every single person we hire. I will make sure they’re loyal.”

“There’s no way to be completely certain of hired help. The girls that we have are completely certain—because they’ll never leave.”

His fingers automatically tightened into a fist of pure frustration. “You’ve accomplished everything that you wanted. You have the money, you have the woman—now live your life. Stop living in the past. Stop trying to prove something to our decomposed corpse of a father. There is no reason to continue carrying on this way.”

The mention of that coward made me look away, because I still carried so much regret from that night. Magnus was the only one I’d managed to save. If I’d gotten there sooner, it could have been two instead of one. The money and the power did soothe my wounds, even now, because I would think about it often, think about everything I’d accomplished despite the odds stacked against me. I did what our father couldn’t. He pissed away our wealth and never bothered to try to earn it back. I did. Alone. “I’ve heard your concerns before. The only reason you are vocal once again is because that woman has a grip on your spine and she’s twisting it.”

“I’m glad she’s twisting it. Your fiancée wants the same. How do you expect to have a life with her when she doesn’t respect what you’re doing?”