로그인CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN "Absolutely not," Margaret said, setting down her wine glass with more force than the moment strictly required, the stem clinking sharply against the counter. "You are not putting garlic in a proper pot roast, Eleanor. That's not a pot roast anymore, that's an assault on the meat.""I've made this exact recipe for thirty years," Eleanor said, entirely unbothered, continuing to season the roast on the counter like Margaret hadn't spoken at all, her hands moving with the confidence of an old habit habit. "Nobody's complained yet.""Nobody has complained to your face."Cassie stood at the kitchen island, wine glass in hand, watching the two women who used to occupy opposite, careful corners of her life now bickering over a roast like old friends who'd known each other for decades, something she still hadn't fully adjusted to no matter how many times it happened these past weeks."I feel like I should be taking notes," Leo said from his stool at the counte
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN Her fingers moved to his belt. She tugged the leather free of the buckle with a soft clink. “Need help with this too?”Dom swallowed hard, Adam’s apple bobbing. His voice came out rough. “Yes.”That single word unlocked everything.She pulled the belt open, unzipped him, and freed his cock. It sprang heavy and hot into her hand. Cassie leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to the tip before swirling her tongue around the head. Dom groaned, one hand threading gently into her hair. She took him deeper, lips stretching around his thickness, sucking slowly while her hand stroked what her mouth couldn’t reach. Her eyes stayed on him the whole time, watching every flicker of pleasure cross his face.“Fuck, baby… your mouth,” he rasped.She hummed around him, the vibration making his hips twitch. She worked him with a steady rhythm—long, wet strokes, tongue pressing along the underside until his breathing grew ragged. But she didn’t let him finish. Cassie pulled o
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN Her fingers moved to his belt. She tugged the leather free of the buckle with a soft clink. “Need help with this too?”Dom swallowed hard, Adam’s apple bobbing. His voice came out rough. “Yes.”That single word unlocked everything.She pulled the belt open, unzipped him, and freed his cock. It sprang heavy and hot into her hand. Cassie leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to the tip before swirling her tongue around the head. Dom groaned, one hand threading gently into her hair. She took him deeper, lips stretching around his thickness, sucking slowly while her hand stroked what her mouth couldn’t reach. Her eyes stayed on him the whole time, watching every flicker of pleasure cross his face.“Fuck, baby… your mouth,” he rasped.She hummed around him, the vibration making his hips twitch. She worked him with a steady rhythm—long, wet strokes, tongue pressing along the underside until his breathing grew ragged. But she didn’t let him finish. Cassie pulled of
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN Dom didn't answer her for a long moment, his eyes still fixed on the screen, jaw working like he was trying to physically hold back whatever wanted to come out of his mouth. The wind off the water picked up slightly, catching the hem of Cassie's dress, and she barely noticed it, all her attention locked on the way his shoulders had gone rigid in the space of a single breath."Dom." She put her hand on his arm, feeling the tension locked into every muscle beneath his sleeve, hard as rope. "Talk to me. You're scaring me."He finally turned the phone toward her, his thumb still pressed too hard against the edge of the screen. A message from Whitfield, terse and clearly typed in a hurry, none of the careful, measured phrasing the lawyer usually used.Flagged unusual asset movement from Marcus's accounts this afternoon. Attempted transfer to an offshore holding company, blocked by the freeze order but concerning. I will call first thing tomorrow. Nothing t
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVEThe negotiations took the better part of two weeks, conducted mostly through lawyers, a slow, grinding series of phone calls Cassie and Dom sat in on together, Whitfield's careful, measured voice walking them through terms neither of them fully understood the weight of until they saw them written out in black and white."He'll plead guilty to a reduced charge," Whitfield explained during one call, Cassie and Dom sitting close together on the couch, phone on speaker between them, a legal pad open on the coffee table where Cassie had been taking notes without quite meaning to. "Conspiracy to commit vehicular assault instead of attempted murder.”"That's still real time," Dom said, glancing at Cassie for confirmation."It is," Whitfield confirmed. "But it avoids the public trial, the discovery process being aired in open court, months of coverage that neither of you seem eager to relive, based on everything you've told me.""What about after he's out," Cass
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENCassie woke to an empty bed and the sound of the back door easing shut downstairs, sunlight already fully up outside, later than she usually slept, her body clearly having needed the exhaustion of last night to finally give in. She found him in the garden a few minutes later, sitting on the low stone bench near the hedges, his bad leg stretched out in front of him at an angle that had to be uncomfortable, staring at nothing in particular the way he did when something had settled too heavy to process sitting still indoors."Hey," she said softly, approaching slowly across the wet grass, unsure of her welcome.He didn't look up right away. "Hey.""Can I sit?""It's your garden too, Cassie."She sat beside him, close enough to feel the tension still radiating off him but careful not to reach for his hand the way she normally would without thinking. "You didn't come to bed.""I was working.""I'm sorry," she said, the words coming out smaller than she meant
The coat room suddenly felt smaller with both of them standing, Cassie still in her rumpled engagement dress and Dom in his perfectly tailored tux. She was still holding his hand, she realized. His grip was warm and firm and nothing like Marcus's carefully measured touches.She dropped it."So," Ca
Cassie blinked and suddenly burst into a sharp and disbelieving laugh. "What?""You heard me.""This is insane, you're insane.""Probably." Dom shifted, still crouched at her level, his expression serious despite the absurdity of what he was proposing. "But think about it. Marcus wanted you for the
Her dress was pooling around her like a deflated parachute. As she cried so hard her entire body shook terribly. She wiped away the tears that had completely blocked her vision.Three years.Three years of dinner parties with the Hales where Eleanor critiqued everything from Cassie's posture to her
"To Marcus and Cassie," someone called out, and the sea of champagne flutes lifted in unison like a choreographed wave. The sound of glass clinking filled the air in celebration, each clink another nail in the coffin of Cassie's composure.The crystal chandeliers of the Grand Rosewood Ballroom cast







