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‘Any laorth his salt will tell you—any contract you sign under duress can be easily declared null and void’

‘That’s just the thing I want out’

‘What do you mean when you say you want out?’ he asks casually As if I could be spooked into changing e gulp, ss and coughs ‘All?’

‘All’ I stare at hih forthat is not already insound ‘You’ll be a pauper’ But I notice that he is not trying too hard to persuadehow serious I am

‘Hardly’

‘Well, you knohat I ain

‘Yes, by your standards, I will’

‘Then you’ll need a job You can run the business for e, how I never saw the supercilious arch of his eyebrow, that condescending tilt of his chin For the first tireedy, grasping man of dissolute tastes who can’t even pretend to lead A spineless fool without even a whiff of what it takes to sit at the front of a dynasty as vast and powerful as the Barrington’s

I s different’

‘You sound like Quinn’

‘You’ll e’

‘I really need you, Blake I’ll lad that he is not my brother He wants to hire e new alliances’

‘You’re just going to walk away froered and irritated by my decision not to work for hiht occur to hi ‘Yeah’

He frowns, genuinely confused ‘Why?’

‘When I was younger, the idea that all of nature—hualaxies, even universes—is nothing ical software progra We are all anireat precision It took the eometric prison, but I didn’t kno I could escape it Until recently Now I find new beauty and astonishment whenever I act out of autopilot Whenever I leave the hivea predator or lead a life of love and hared with soe