Page 71 of Sinful Obsession
What if I failed? What if the world swallowed us whole?
After zipping the suitcase, I dragged it out, the wheels rumbling like thunder in the quiet house.
Cassian was still in the living room, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his posture rigid, like a statue carved from stone and sorrow.
He pointed to the table, where a black card lay gleaming under the lamp. “Use that to take care of you and your child.”
The gesture hurt, a final severance that twisted in my chest.
I met his ocean-blue eyes, those eyes that had burned with obsession, that had softened in rare moments of tenderness. This man who’d tortured me but also protected me, who’d chained me but whispered promises in the dark. Now he was pushing me away, his love a fire he couldn’t contain.
“What if I get kidnapped?” I asked, my voice soft, testing the waters. “Will you feel a thing?”
He smirked, but it didn’t reach his eyes, pain flickering beneath. “Feel a thing? I’d feel everything if something happened to a single strand of your hair. It’d rip me apart.”
Tears streamed down my face, hot. “So why are you sending me away?”
“Haven’t you always wanted to leave?” he countered, his voice rough, breaking at the edges. “Isn’t this your chance to walk away from the man obsessed with you? The one who can’t breathe without you?”
“No,” I whispered, the truth spilling out. “I don’t want to leave you anymore. I love you, Cassian.”
“And I love you, Charlotte,” he said, the words a vow and a curse, the distance between us a chasm despite being so close.
I searched his decisive face, tears clouding my vision. “Are you still sending me away?”
“It’s your baby, not mine,” he said, his voice cracking, raw with emotion. “I know you’d do anything for that child, fight the world for them. But I can’t... I can’t raise another man’s legacy under my roof.”
“Divorce, marriage—it all means nothing when it comes to you. I love you so fucking much, Charlotte, with every beat of my heart, until my dying breath. You’re etched in me, a part of my soul I can’t carve out. But with that baby... raising Ethan’s child? Hell no. I can’t even imagine it.”
He pointed to the table again. “That black card has enough to last you and the baby a lifetime. But never contact me. I’ll never contact you.”
I hummed, silent tears tracing paths down my cheeks. “So this is the end?”
“Yeah.”
I forced out a painful laugh, bitter and broken. “Keep your card.”
“I’m not giving you an option,” he said, his voice firm but laced with regret. “Take it.”
I looked at the card, sleek and impersonal, and picked it up, slipping it into my pocket. “Can I at least sleep here tonight? I’m tired.”
He nodded, his eyes shadowed. “Okay.” Then he turned toward the door, his shoulders tense.
“Where are you going?” I asked, my voice small.
“Out,” he said, not looking back. “I’ll come home when I’m sure you’re gone.” He stepped out, slamming the door shut behind him, the sound echoing like a final nail in a coffin.
Tears rushed down my face, unchecked, as I sank to the floor.
He wouldn’t even stay under the same roof with me because he believed I carried another man’s child.
The house felt empty, colder without him, and doubt crept in. He was right—I couldn’t fully trust Ethan. What if he’d lied? I needed to confirm the truth myself.
I stepped out of the house, the night air cool against my tear-streaked face, and made my way to the estate gate.
A guard nodded me through, his eyes averted, as if he knew the storm brewing.
I hailed a cab outside, directing it to a shady tech shop in the city’s underbelly—a black-market gadget specialist, tucked in a dimly lit alley where hackers and fixers dealt in untraceable mods. The place smelled of solder and ozone, neon signs flickering over shelves of circuits and tools.
