Page 39 of Sinful Obsession
“You’d beg to forget again. You’d claw at your skull trying to rip the memories out. And you’d realize the dark was the only mercy you ever had.”
I swallowed hard, fighting the panic rising in my chest.
“I need to go back to the House of Devils,” I whispered, my voice resolute, “Please.”
Begging was the only card I had left. “You’re one of the bosses there. If anyone can get me back in, it’s you. And you’re needed. You know that.”
His silence pushed a lump to my throat, but I kept going.
“I need to finish the contest. It’s the only way I can claim what my grandfather left me.”
“It’s not the only way,” Cassian said coolly. “Your grandfather and mine made a pact. As long as we stay married until December of this year... you get everything tied to the Grayson name. Every coin, every ounce of power.”
“Being married to you means you get a share of it,” I said, my voice cutting like glass. “You’d control me. My legacy. Everything my grandfather meant for me.”
He stepped forward and grabbed my jaw, his grip firm but not bruising—yet. “I don’t need a share.”
He tilted my face to his. “You... are enough for me.”
I tried not to flinch. “Easy to say,” I muttered. “But I don’t want you to be part of my win. I want a divorce. Then I’ll go back and finish what I started. Alone.”
Cassian released me, a wicked smirk tugging at his lips. “What makes you think you’d survive there?” he said mockingly. “Among dozens of burly mafia heirs, you—a slip of a girl pretending to be Charles—would’ve turned to ash in the first trial. The fire ring would’ve consumed you, and yet you want to go back?”
“I’d be safer there,” I shot back, my voice rising, desperation breaking through. “Luca, Artem, my father—they can’t touch me in the underworld. I’d be free, in a way, not your locked-up criminal here.”
He hummed thoughtfully, stepping in until all I could breathe was him.
“Please,” I whispered, placing a hand on his chest without thinking.
He grabbed it and looked down at my ring with a flash of cold fury.
“Take it off.”
I blinked. “Isn’t it your ring?” I asked.
Unless they were right—Luca, Artem, my father—unless we were already divorced. Unless I was kidnapped and married to someone else.
He stared at the ring like he wanted to tear it off with his teeth.
“I tried,” I said quickly. “It won’t come off. It’s... burned into my skin.”
Cassian’s eyes darkened. “Then I’ll bring someone to remove it. Today.”
My heart dropped. “Why?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he said. “Your first torture begins tonight. On my bed.”
Then he turned away, leaving me trembling, swallowed by a wave of fear and disbelief.
My first torture? For sins I can’t even remember?
Frustration exploded inside me.
I sank to my knees, hands trembling, fighting back a breaking scream.
Chapter 6
CHARLOTTE
