Chapter 2

Cassandra’s POV

The morning after felt unreal. Like someone had pressed mute on my life.

I woke up to my phone buzzing incessantly with countless messages from my bank and my accountant.

“Unauthorized transfer.”

“Account frozen.”

“Urgent, call me.”

By the time I reached the closet to grab my robe, I already knew something was terribly wrong.

The screen of my phone lit up with another notification. My credit cards had been declined. The joint accounts I had with Austin had been closed.

Even my mansion had been sold.

My breath caught and my hand holding my phone shook as I stared at the message again, rereading it until the words stopped making sense.

The house, my house, it was gone.

Austin had really sold it overnight.

By the time the news channels picked it up, I was sitting on the floor of the living room of my spare apartment.

“Fashion mogul Austin Barker acquires full rights to Olvera textiles.”

My father’s company. The one I inherited when he died. The one he had put his sweat into. The one I had put my blood into. It was legally transferred to my husband.

I had foolishly signed off my life.

My body went cold.

I tried calling him. He couldn’t have meant to do this. It had to be a mistake. Austin couldn’t be this cruel. He idolized my father, he swore he loved me, he wouldn’t just reduce my life to rubble.

He couldn’t.

The line went straight to voicemail.

A small sob escaped me as I shakily tried Mirabel’s number too.

Blocked.

My lawyer’s number, too. Nothing went through.

Within hours, I wasn’t Cassandra Barker anymore. I was no one.

I don’t remember when I started drinking. Maybe when the sky turned orange. Maybe before. The first glass burned, the second didn’t. I kept pouring until the bottle was empty.

I was pregnant, but the fire consuming my insides needed more, and I kept listening to it.

I sat crumpled in the middle of the living room and looked around the apartment, the temporary one I’d kept for when I needed space. The furniture was sparse, and impersonal. A few of my clothes were in the closet. It wasn’t home.

I had no home to go to.

My reflection stared back at me from the mirror above the fireplace, pale, trembling, eyes red and teeth chattering. I hated her. I hated how pathetic she looked.

I threw the glass and cried. The mirror shattered.

For a second, everything was quiet again, until someone knocked on the door.

Three firm knocks.

I froze. No one knew I was here.

No one even knew this place existed.

Another knock. “Cassandra?”

The voice was deep and calm.

I whipped my head around at the absolute mess I’d made, hesitating. Whoever was at the door was powerful enough to know exactly where I was with unwavering certainty. I wasn’t sure whether that was someone I could keep waiting.

Another sob threatened to wrack out of me. I was at my lowest and some irritating bastard wanted to see it.

I stood up slowly and walked to the door, not caring about the sharp fragments of glass on the floor.

I jerked the door open.

He was tall, impossibly so. He was at least a foot taller than me.

His amber eyes drilled into me like he had access to my skull. I suddenly felt like I should have tried to wear something thicker.

“Theophilus Charles,” he said, offering a small nod. “May I come in?”

I’d heard the name before. Austin’s business partner. The one who’d abruptly left the company months ago. Austin said the partnership had been dissolved because of misconduct.

“What do you want?” I asked, my voice hoarse, standing protectively in front of the doorway.

I didn’t want anything that had to do with Austin at my door.

He stepped inside anyway, gently nudging me out of the way. It felt gentle, but he still exerted enough force to push me far back. His presence filled the house, dwarfing it.

The scent of sandalwood followed him about, and it was so vivid, so fitting, that I could almost see the wisps of it around him.

Every part of him was built to intimidate, but I didn’t feel threatened. “You deserved to know the truth long ago.”

I didn’t respond. Partly because I was tired, and partly because I was in shock at his audacity. The audacity to basically force his way into my house.

He took off his gloves, placed them neatly on the table, and looked at the broken glass scattered around the living room, his face unchanging. “I was forced to end Austin and I’s… partnership because I refused to frame you for adultery. That was his plan to escape from you initially.”

My breath hitched. “What?”

Theophilus’s jaw tightened, the only noticeable change in his experience I’d seen since he entered. “Austin planned everything. The transfer of your assets, the sale of your house, even the statement that would go public once he filed for divorce. He wanted you ruined before you even knew what hit you.”

I stared at him blankly. Austin had planned everything meticulously. He really didn’t care.

Even if it had started as a ploy to deceive me, hadn’t all our years together even slightly been enough to derail him?

I’d been married to myself.

His tone was steady, almost gentle, but it felt clinical, like he simply came to give me facts. “You got those anonymous texts a few months ago, didn’t you? Telling you to check your company’s legal documents, to stop signing without reading.”

I froze.

The texts. The ones I ignored because Austin had convinced me they were spam.

“It was you?”

He nodded. “I tried to warn you. But you trusted him.”

The words hurt more than they should’ve. I could’ve saved my house, my father’s company, I could’ve saved it all.

My legs gave out, and I sank to the floor. Fury simmered beneath the shock, hot and thick.

My crumpling was interrupted by a large hand pulling me up and nudging me to a chair.

“Don’t you touch me!”, I said, trying to jerk away. I’d had it with men trying to control me.

“You shouldn’t hurt yourself, Miss Langston.”

Miss Langston. Of course. I had no husband anymore.

As soon as he had me on the couch, I snatched my arm away. His face remained the same.

“How long have you known?”

“Long enough to know he won’t stop,” Theophilus said quietly. “He’s preparing divorce papers right now. They’ll make it look like you cheated. He’s arranged for photographs and fabricated evidence.”

I felt sick. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I owe you,” he said simply. “And because if you stay here, he’ll destroy you completely.”

The silence stretched. The only sound was the ticking of the wall clock.

I pressed a hand to my temple. My world had already collapsed, what was left to destroy?

But then I thought of the life growing inside me. The tiny secret still safe in my belly. I looked around, at the mess I’d made, the mess I’d become.

I couldn’t let him win. Not like this.

Theophilus’s gaze softened when he noticed the shift in my expression, his amber eyes becoming like molten honey.

I almost gasped.

I’d always been in awe of amber eyes, and I was seeing them morph right in front of me. They were beautiful.“You’re thinking of fighting back.”

I furrowed my brows and blinked, shaking my head to dispel my awe. “I don’t have a choice.”

He nodded once. “Then start by leaving. Tonight.”

He left the same way he came, abruptly quiet, deliberate, without another word.

My mouth opened and closed in confusion. He didn’t even say goodbye, he just exited like a phantom.

When the door shut, I sat there for a long time, staring at the wreckage of my reflection in the broken mirror.

Austin had taken everything, my home, my company, my reputation. But he hadn’t taken me. Not yet.

I walked gingerly to the window, avoiding the glass shards and pulling the curtains open. The city lights blurred in the rain. For years, I’d helped build this empire beside him, late nights, boardrooms, designs he took credit for, investors I charmed. My fingerprints were on every brick.

And now it was all his.

I pressed my palm against the glass and whispered, “You took everything from me, Austin. But I’ll make sure it hurts when I take it back.”

Then I turned away.

I packed quietly. A few clothes. My passport. The little box with the pregnancy test. I slipped it into my coat pocket.

By the time dawn broke, I was already walking down the empty street, a small suitcase rolling behind me. The air smelled like wet asphalt and new beginnings.

Somewhere far behind me, the city kept burning with light.

I didn’t look back again.