FAZER LOGINZara looked nervous for a bit, then relieved. “Hi.”She didn’t come empty-handed either. She held out a small gift bag. “I didn’t know what babies like,” she said awkwardly. “So I got something neutral.”Cassie took it gently. “Thank you for coming.”They stood there for a moment longer than necessary, years of tension flickering and fading in the space between them.Then Cassie stepped forward and hugged her. Zara froze, then hugged her back just as tightly.“I’m really happy you’re okay,” Zara whispered.“I am,” Cassie replied. “And I’m glad you’re here.”They pulled apart, both a little emotional, both smiling. Over dinner, Zara shared her news when she was asked about how life had been.“I’m seeing someone,” she said, almost shy. “He works at the company but not in my department. He’s… calm and kind. So, no drama.”Mia clapped. “We love calmness.”Chloe raised her glass. “We love healed.”Zara laughed. “Therapy works.”Cassie reached across the table and squeezed Zara’s hand. “I’m
Victoria called Cassie into her room just after dusk. Cassie stood outside the door for a long moment before knocking. Her heart pounded the way it used to when she was younger, when she wasn’t sure whether she was about to be punished or protected. She stepped in slowly.Victoria sat on the edge of the bed, hands folded in her lap. She looked older somehow. Not weak but worn in a way she had never allowed herself to see before.“Sit,” her mother said.Cassie obeyed, perching on the chair across from her, spine straight, and hands clenched together. The silence floated between them as their minds flashed through everything unsaid.Victoria spoke first. “I was wrong,” she said. Cassie’s breath seized for a moment.Victoria looked down at her hands. “I spent months telling myself I was protecting you. That distance was discipline, and that pain would teach you what I couldn’t explain.”Her voice wavered, just slightly. “But the truth is… I was afraid.”Cassie swallowed. “Afraid of what?
The courthouse felt like a stage that was meant to expose all the evil Genevieve and Ryan had committed.Cassie noticed it the moment she stepped out of the car. There were press barricades lining the steps, the sharp clicks of cameras, and the low whispers of voices hungry for spectacle. Her name wasn’t being called, but she could feel herself being seen anyway, pulled into a story she never asked to be part of.Nicholas’s hand closed around hers before she could retreat into herself. “I’m here,” he said quietly. She nodded, drawing strength from the steadiness of his grip. They walked in together.Inside, the courtroom buzzed with tension. Reporters filled the back rows, legal assistants kept whispering to one another, someone coughed, another dropped a pen, and the sound echoed far too loudly.Ryan sat at the defense table, thinner than she remembered, eyes darting around the room like a trapped animal. He didn’t look at her, not even once. Genevieve, on the other hand, did.She sa
Ryan didn’t look like a man who had just lost everything. He looked hollow.Cassie saw him briefly through the glass wall as officers led him down the corridor, wrists cuffed and shoulders slumped. He didn’t fight this time and didn’t shout. His eyes searched once, found hers, and whatever he saw there made him look away.That was the last time she saw him as anything other than a shadow of the past.*****The charges were read aloud. Attempted kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, false paternity claims, and psychological coercion. When investigators followed the trail back far enough, Genevieve’s name surfaced again and again. She was finally arrested and dragged while kicking and screaming. She had wanted to secretly stow away when she heard of his arrest.She was charged with harassment, fraud, forgery, threats, and coordinated intimidation. Cassie didn’t follow them to the police station because she couldn’t. The weight of all the years of fear, the manipulation, and the quiet terror
|Cassie|I was gone for less than five minutes.That was the lie my mind kept repeating as my feet carried me back down the corridor, chart tucked under my arm, the faint smell of disinfectant clinging to my clothes. Five minutes wasn’t enough time for anything to happen. Five minutes was harmless and safe.However, the door to my son’s room was open. That was weird because I never left it open, and it was not his checkup time.At first, my brain refused to register what my eyes were seeing. The machines were still there, humming softly. The chair Nicholas had been sitting in was pushed slightly back, as if someone had stood up in a hurry. The blanket was folded at the foot of the bed.But the bed itself was empty.The sound that tore out of my throat didn’t feel human. It was raw, sharp, something ripped from a place deeper than fear. I dropped the chart. Papers were scattered across the floor, but I didn’t look down.“No,” I whispered, stumbling forward. Then louder. “No. No, no, no
With the recent revelations and other evidence provided by Charles, Nicholas consults his lawyers to sue both Genevieve and Ryan for emotional distress, conspiracy to defraud his reputation and career, and manipulating Cassie into silence.The email arrived first in a cold, legal, merciless manner. It was their notice of the crimes they had been sued for. Ryan read it twice, then a third time, his fingers trembling so badly he nearly dropped his phone.This wasn’t a warning but an annihilation.He paced his apartment like a trapped animal, bare feet slapping against the tile, breath coming too fast. If this went to court, there would be no soft landing or any form of clever spin. Everything he had done, every lie, half-truth, and act of blackmail, would be dragged into the light.Genevieve had promised protection and power, but now she wasn’t answering his calls.Ryan laughed then, a sharp, brittle sound that startled even him. Of course. Of course she had vanished. She always did whe







