Chapter 156
For the first time, I didn’t follow her,
Didn’t chase.
Didn’t apologize.
But I didn’t forget, either.
And some part of me always carried that moment–like a shard of glass pressed into the soft part of my palm.
I found Cassandra in the solarium, stretched out on the chaise in a pale silk robe that shimmered like armor. Her legs were crossed neatly, a magazine open in her lap, a tall glass of cucumber water sweating beside her. It could’ve been a spa commercial–if not for the sharp flick of her gaze when she saw me walk in.
She didn’t smile.
I didn’t either.
d the Silverclaw financial logs,” I said quietly
Her fingers paused mid–turn.
“I was reviewing pack expenditures,” I continued, my voice level, trying to stay calm. “You told me you had a follow–up appointment with the OB. Who said you could still have children.”
She blinked once. “Okay?”
“But there was no appointment.” I moved closer, my hands in my pockets. “No charge. No clinic visit. Just a full- day spa package. Five hundred dollars.”
Now she looked at me
“I’m trying to figure out why you lied to me.”
Cassandra sat up and folded the magazine shut with exaggerated precision, like she was trying not to show that her hands had gone a little stiff.
“I didn’t lie,” she said calmly.
“You said you went to the doctor.”
“I said I talked to the doctor,” she corrected. “And then I realized I needed something else. Something for me.”
My jaw tensed. “You crafted this whole moment. Like you were opening up. Like you were finally letting me in. You made it seem like you were processing the loss–like it was about healing.”
“I am processing it,” she snapped. “You think a spa day erases the grief? I needed air, Derek. I needed to feel human. You wouldn’t understand.”
“I understand coping,” I said. “I just don’t understand deception. Not from you. Not now.”
Her expression twisted. “Oh, please. Don’t stand there and pretend like you didn’t start this pattern. You’ve always said yes, Derek. Always made things easy for me. Always made me the center of your world–until she came back.”
Chapter 150
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Lexhaled. Slowly, “I know.
shablinked, caught off guard.
“I know I always said yes,” I repeated. “I spoiled you. I made every compromise. And for a long time, cominced myself that was love.”
Her brow furrowed. “And it wasn’t?”
“It was something.” I admitted. “But it wasn’t healthy. You were the one who shouted louder, but I was the one who kept backing down. Every time you pushed, I bent
She looked away.
‘And then when things started to get worse–when the cracks started to show–I doubled down. I lopt trying to fix everything with gifts, or trips, or silence. I thought if I could just give you enough, you’d stop needing more
1 swallowed the lump in my throat.
“But I didn’t help you,” I said. “I enabled you.”
Cassandra didn’t speak. She crossed her arms, but her posture sagged a little. Not anger. Not defiance. Just resignation.
“You became someone I don’t recognize,” I said. “But the truth is, I helped build that version of you
“And now you hate her.”
“I don’t hate you.”
She scoffed, but softly.
“I once promised to mark you,” I said. “To protect you. To build a life with you. And I meant it.”
She looked down.
“You saved my life once. And I’ve never forgotten that. I never will.”
Her voice was quiet when she finally spoke again. “But you don’t love me anymore.”
I didn’t answer right away.
Because the truth was complicated.
Because no, not the way I used to.
But I wasn’t sure I’d stopped completely.
Π
“I don’t know who we are anymore,” I said. “And I don’t know if we can come back from L……..”
She nodded once. Then leaned back against the cushions, drawing her robe a little tighter
“I hope she’s worth it,” she said after a while, but it wasn’t biting. It was sad. Small.
and
I looked at her at the woman I’d once believed I’d spend my life with. At the woman I’d tried to rescue, at spoil, and hold together. At the woman I’d kept saying yes to, even when it hollowed me out.
I wasn’t blameless in this. I had shaped her, just as much as she had shaped me.
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Maybe, if Elena never forgave me… if I never found my way back to her… then this Cassandra—was the life I would have to live with.
“Not because I chose her.
But because, in too many ways, I’d created her.
And maybe, just maybe… this was the price I had to pay.
Chapter 157
