She takes both boys by the hand and leads them back outside, and I’m left alone with the flowers and the knowledge that Cassian isn’t going to stop.
I pull out the note and read it again.I can still taste you.Five words that make my entire body flush with heat and shame and want. I tuck the note back in my pocket and go upstairs to shower.
Julian’s meeting with the lawyers takes up most of the next day.
I sit in the conference room at the Vance offices downtown, listening to men in expensive suits discuss property transfers and shell companies and legitimate fronts for operations that used to be entirely criminal.
Julian wants to clean everything up. Move the family into real estate development, investment portfolios, and consulting. Leave behind the violence and territory wars that defined Victor’s reign.
It’s ambitious. Maybe impossible.
But watching him work, I can see he’s serious. He’s already shut down three of Victor’s more questionable operations, paid off debts to families we’ve had conflicts with, and hired a team of accountants to make sure every dollar is accounted for legally.
“Your uncle left a mess,” one of the lawyers says during a break, “but we’re making progress. Another six months and most of this will be untraceable to anything illegal.”
“Good,” Julian says. “That’s the goal.”
I excuse myself and step outside for air.
The office building overlooks Central Park, and I stand at the window watching people walk below. Tourists, families, couples holding hands. Normal people living normal lives. I used to be one of them. Before Victor, before the arranged marriage, before I ran and met Cassian and everything fell apart.
Now I’m back in the center of it all, pretending I belong here while hiding the biggest secret of my life.
My phone buzzes with an unknown number.
I almost don’t answer, but curiosity wins.
“Hello?”
“Aurelia.” Cassian’s voice is low, intimate, like he’s standing right next to me. “Did you get my flowers?”
My stomach drops. “How did you get this number?”
“I have resources. You know that.”
“You can’t call me.”
“I just did.”
“Cassian—”
“I meant what I said. I’m not letting you disappear again.”
“I’m not disappearing. I’m just living my life.”
“With your family. In their fortress. Surrounded by security.”
“For good reason.”
“Are you afraid of me, Aurelia?”
The question catches me off guard. “Should I be?”
“No. But you are anyway.”
“I can’t do this,” I say quietly. “Whatever you think is going to happen between us, it can’t.”
“Why not?”
