#Chapter 27: A Kingdom Without Chains

He didn’t answer. Not directly. Instead, he reached for a folder at the edge of the table and handed it to me. Inside were court transcripts—sealed ones. Ones I had never seen. Documented interventions. Last-minute delays. Signatures rerouted. Objections sustained that should have been crushed. Legal traps set for me that vanished the moment they were filed. They bore his seal that he had been protecting me for months. Doing so quietly and ithout leverage, without demands. I closed the folder as Lucian stepped forward, one slow, deliberate movement after another, until we stood face-to-face beneath the wide window, the snowlight ghosting over his cheekbones like pale flame. “You want justice, Violet,” he said. His voice was low, measured, carved with certainty. “But justice alone is a sword.” He paused, letting the silence between us fill with breath. “With me, it becomes a kingdom.” I should have spoken. I should have drawn a line, told him I didn’t need saving, didn