Page 201 of The Fire We Make

“Enough!” Byron banged a fist on the desk causing both Joy and Jermaine to freeze. He massaged the bridge of his thumb and for the first time, Joy noticed how weary he looked. “Joy… You agreed to come home and help.”

“I thought you needed legal help and you knew that. You know damn well I wouldn’t have come back if I knew this is what you wanted from me. After everything he’s done to me how can you even ask this of me?”

“A queen must sacrifice for the⁠—”

“And is that what I’ll be? The queen? Or just a bargaining chip for you two to play with and cut me out? Again.”

Jermaine stood. His height was comparable to Ace’s but Joy thought he looked smaller. Felt smaller. Whereas Ace’s power was loud and his presence spoke before he did, Jermaine was the kind of man that needed to assert his power at every step or it’d be forgotten.

“You think you deserve to be a queen after what you did?”

Joy didn’t need him to specify. She could see him running down the list in his head.

Six months ago, that would have been enough to shut her up. She’d have fallen in line, eager to prove herself. Prove her worth.

Today though, the indictment didn’t land the same. She knew she deserved it. She’d worked for it. Bled for it.

Ace had seen the queen in her. Had been willing to give her the throne, not in spite of everything she was but because of it.

You left, she reminded herself. What Ace did or didn’t see no longer mattered. She’d left him and the family that’d welcomed and loved her beyond her own comprehension in favor of fulfilling her duty to her family and taking back the rightful place.

She’d be a fool to think it’d come without sacrifices.

Joy shook her head. The two sides of her warred for control. The old Joy who desperately wanted to be welcomed home. The one who would do anything her father — her general — required of her.

The new Joy, the one she’d spent a year trying to kill. The one who felt strong and beautiful, despite the darkness she now harbored.

“I deserve that and more. You deserved what you got too. Plus some,” she said definitively.

Byron stood as well. “Why don’t we sleep on it for a few days, have some discussions and reconvene to iron out the details later,” he proposed.

Jermaine smirked. “Yeah,” he said, waving his security along as he headed to the door. His eyes never left Joy’s. “Sleep on it.”

Joy spoke up as soon as she and Byron were alone.

“He’s not doing this because he loves me or even for power. He’s doing this because he wants to punish me. Marrying him wouldn’t be a partnership,” she spat. “You’d make me his prisoner.”

Joy didn’t know why she was surprised by her father’s willingness to offer her up. Since she could remember, he’d inflicted and allowed unimaginable pain. He’d done it under the guise of preparing her to take over the organization. To survive in a world that would automatically put her at a disadvantage.

“This will build your tolerance, princess” he’d said. “You’ll never overpower your enemies so you’ll need to be smarter. Stronger. Not physically but mentally. You need to be able to withstand pain that they would cower from.”

Joy had accepted it as a necessary part of her training.

She now saw it for the abuse that it was.

Byron sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder as he passed. “Sleep on it.” He opened the door wider.

Joy scoffed to herself. They both knew that she didn’t have a choice though. Not if she wanted to remain there.

Joy took the silent command and made to leave.

“I know you’ll make the right choice, princess,” he said at her back.

“Bitch you better stay down there because the way I’m feeling, the next time I see you, I’mma wring your fucking neck!”

Joy never thought she’d find comfort in being berated and threatened but as she listened to Melody holler into the phone at her ear, she couldn’t help the peace that washed over her.

“I know Mel. I’m sorry,” she apologized for the 13th time since they’d gotten on the phone.