“Cassian, your hands are tied. Grayson is her father. It’s only right you deliver her to him for a... reunion.” Luca’s single eye glinted.
They spoke of me as if I were an object, a pawn to be traded.
White-hot anger surged through me.
“Don’t start a war with me,” Cassian warned, his grip on my hand tightening.
“A war you can’t afford,” Artem replied, his gaze flicking briefly to me. “Not with her back.”
“Don’t underestimate me,” Cassian growled. “You all know what I’m capable of. Just because my hands are tied doesn’t mean I can’t fight.”
He pointed a shaking, furious finger at the three men. “She betrayed me. Not you. Not you. And definitely not you. She’s mine to deal with—mine to punish as I see fit. Touch even a strand of her hair, and you’ll be dead before the sun rises.”
Laughter echoed in response. Then my father’s voice cut through it.
“Even after catching her cheating—with another man—you still dare to shamelessly call her yours?”
My stomach dropped.
What?
“That’s right,” Artem added, voice laced with smug satisfaction. “She isn’t yours anymore. Look at her finger.”
Cassian turned to me. I tried to hide my hand too late.
“See that ring?” Artem sneered. “Her captor didn’t just cage her—he married her. Legally. Claimed her, right under your nose. While you were rotting in prison.”
Prison? What the fuck?
My chest heaved. It felt like the floor shifted beneath me.
Cassian had been in prison? When? Why? My mind reeled, the fog of those missing years thicker than ever.
“I don’t care who’s touched her,” Cassian said, voice low and sharp. “Or who thinks a piece of paper makes her theirs. Charlotte is mine. What she’s done, what they did to her—it changes nothing. She was mine then. She’s mine now.”
Luca stepped closer, his smirk widening. “You still don’t get it, Cassian? We have the divorce papers—yours and hers, signed three years ago. You have no claim to her now.”
Divorce?
I stumbled back, dizzy.
The ring on my finger wasn’t Cassian’s? Another man—a captor—had married me, forced me into a bond I couldn’t recall?
They thought I was dead? The revelations piled like stones, crushing me. I wanted to scream, to demand answers, but my voice was trapped, my body shaking with panic.
My past was a black hole, and these men kept shoveling in twisted truths.
My father smirked again. “You’ll hand her over, Cassian. She’s a Grayson. She belongs with us.”
“I’m not a fucking pawn,” I whispered.
None of them listened.
Cassian’s voice was lethal now. “Touch her—and I will start that war.”
Artem tilted his head. “Then I suggest you start preparing for it. Because the moment she walked back into this world... everything changed.”
The air crackled with tension, the three men staring Cassian down..