8| EVERYTHING IS FALLING

Cassian's Pov

I slammed the penthouse door hard enough to rattle the picture frame near the entrance.

"Cassian." Lydia's voice came from the bedroom. "What on earth.."

"She was there with Sterling," I said, walking straight past the living room and into the kitchen. I found the cabinet, went to the back of it and pulled out the bottle I kept behind everything else.

"Dante Sterling. They left the gala together.

Lydia appeared in the doorway in her silk robe, one earring still in, the other in her hand. She looked at me and then at the bottle. "You called me from the car," she said. "I already know."

"Then help me think," I said. "I need to know how long it has been going on. Whether he is the one who has been funding her from the start. Whether this whole thing was his idea or hers."

"Cassian." She walked in and sat on the edge of the counter with her arms crossed. "Stop. Just stop for one moment and listen to yourself."

"I am trying to figure it out."

"You are spiralling," she said.  You have no actual plan. That is not figuring anything out. That is falling." She looked at me carefully. "How much did the stock drop today?"

"That is not the point right now."

"That is the only point," she said.  She uncrossed her arms and put her hands flat on the counter. "You are paranoid and  broke, if you do not get yourself together very soon, we are done. I mean that, Cassian. I am not being dramatic. I am telling you exactly where I stand."

"Do not threaten me," I said.

"I am informing you," she said. "There is a difference. I did not marry a man who falls apart. I married a man who wins, so either find a way to win or stop expecting me to stand here and keep pretending this is fine." She picked up her remaining earring and walked toward the bedroom. At the door she stopped. "Call your analyst. He has been trying to reach you for two hours." Then she went in and closed the door behind her.

I stood in the kitchen with the bottle and did not pour anything.

Lexi came down the hallway still in her gown from the event. She had her phone in her hand and she was scrolling before she even looked up.

"Dad," she said. "Someone posted a photo from the gala, you are in the background of it and you look bad.

"Put the phone away," I said.

"I cannot just put it away," she said. "That photo has my name tagged in the caption because I was at the same event.

She finally looked up. "How am I supposed to manage my image if you are going around events looking like that? And is it true about the house? Because Sienna's father told her something, Sienna told me and now I need to know if I should be making different plans."

"Nobody is losing a house," I said.

"You say that but you are not actually answering what I asked," she said. "Dad. I have worked very hard to build something on my platform. I have real followers, real opportunities coming in and all of that depends on how we are perceived as a family. So if something is happening that is going to affect how we look, I need to know now.”

"Lexi." Lydia's voice came through the bedroom door, sharp and clean. "That is enough. Go to your room right now."

"I am literally just…"

"Now," Lydia said.

Lexi made a sound in her throat, looked at me like I had personally ruined her evening,  turned and went back down the hall. I heard her door close.

Leo appeared thirty seconds later. He had already changed out of his event clothes into a plain shirt and trousers. He came as far as the kitchen doorway and leaned against the frame with his arms at his sides. He did not say anything for a moment.

"Your analyst has been calling the house line," he said. "He said your phone was going to voicemail. He sounded like it was urgent."

I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

"What else did he say?" I said.

"That you need to call him back immediately," Leo said. He did not move from the doorway. "Dad. I need you to tell me what is actually going on. What is happening to the company?"

"I am handling it," I said.

"You have been saying that for three months," he said. "And every week something else drops. I did the research myself because nobody tells me anything in this house. He looked at me steadily. "I am not a child anymore. Tell me the truth."

"Leo.."

"Just once," he said quietly. "Just tell me the truth."

I looked at my son. He was looking back at me the same way he had been looking at me for the last year.

I did not have anything to give him.

He read it on my face. He nodded once, like he had expected it. Then he pushed off the doorframe and walked back down the hall. He did not slam his door, he just closed it quietly. Which was worse than if he had slammed it.

I sat down on the couch.

I called Park.

He picked up before the first ring had finished. "Sir. I have been trying to reach you for two hours."

"I know," I said. "Talk."

"Hargrove Logistics," he said. His voice was tight and careful. The voice of a man delivering news from a safe distance. "Our last stable eastern supply line. They signed an exclusive contract with V. Intl tonight, sir.  Effective immediately, they are gone."

I did not say anything, because I couldn’t. I had no words.

The list was short. And somewhere out there in that city, Valerie was sitting across a table from Dante Sterling, she was not counting anything because she already knew exactly what she had.