Page 60 of Cruel Deception

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I climbed into bed slowly. Closed my eyes. Let my thoughts float.

Then it came—one of those memories that creeps in like sunlight through old curtains.

My grandfather, in his threadbare sweater, humming off-key while he cooked our favorite dinner—boiled yam and scrambled eggs, the only thing we could afford most nights. He used to pretend it was a royal feast, setting the chipped plates down with a dramatic bow like we were in some grand palace.

And I’d laugh, always. Not because it was funny, but because he made it feel like magic.

When it rained and the roof leaked, he’d pull our mattress into the dry corner of the room and say, “Now we get to sleep by the window, like rich people do.”

Even when life was cruel, he made it gentle.

I missed him so much, it felt like grief had hands—pressing down on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

If he were still here, none of this would’ve happened. He would’ve stood between me and the world. No matter how small or tired or poor he was.

He was my whole world. And the world stole him too soon.

I didn’t know when sleep took me, but when I woke up—

My legs were draped across Cassian’s.

My arm was resting against his chest.

I froze.

What the fuck?

What was I doing, curled up on my captor like a goddamn cat?

I held my breath, panicking, trying to ease my limbs away before he noticed.

But he did.

“I’m your husband,” he murmured, still half-asleep. “You can thrash on me all you want.”

My chest constricted.

“I didn’t mean to...”

Before I could finish, he pulled me in—fully. His arm wrapped around my waist, tugging my smaller body tightly against his side.

His scent hit me. Deep. Clean. Expensive. Terrifying.

I hadn’t expected this. I hadn’t expected his warmth to burn like this, or his breath to raise goosebumps across my skin.

I wanted to run from him. Wanted to drive that dagger into his heart and end it.

But I couldn’t move.

Not yet.

Because for one horrifying, heart-breaking second—

I liked the way it felt.

And that terrified me more than the spiders ever could.

Chapter 11

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