LOGINThe flight was a blur of white noise and aching silence. Cassie sat pressed against the window, her forehead resting on the cool glass, watching the clouds drift by without really seeing them. Her heart hadn’t stopped its beating fast since she had boarded. Every beat echoed the same painful questions: What if Reggie never forgives me? What if he believes the worst? What if I’ve lost him forever? She had barely slept the night before, packing through tears, replaying the slammed door and the look of betrayal on his face. And she was feeling the heaviness of heartbreak and lack of sleep. The photo he had thrust at her still burned behind her eyelids. She had deleted every threatening message from Dominic, but the damage was done. The secret she had carried for so long was now a weapon pointed at the heart of everything she loved. The flight attendant offered her water and a snack. Cassie shook her head, her throat too tight to speak. She clutched her phone like a lifeline, rereading
Cassie coiled in the middle of the living room, the photo still clutched in her trembling hands. The tears continued. She pressed her face into her arms, trying to muffle the sound, but it was no use. The pain poured out of her in waves; the hurt in Reggie’s eyes, the betrayal in his voice, the way he had looked at her like she had shattered everything they had built. She cried until her throat burned, until her eyes swelled, until her chest ached with every gasping breath. Sleep never came that night. She stayed on the floor for hours, rocking back and forth, replaying the confrontation on an endless loop. Every word he had thrown at her cut deeper each time. "How long have you been lying to me?" She had tried to explain, but he hadn’t let her. He had walked away. The man who had promised her safety, who had held her through nightmares, who had asked her to be his girlgirlfried had walked away. The apartment felt colder than it ever had. The candles from the night before had long
The front door slammed open with such force that the walls seemed to shake. Cassie jumped up from the couch, her heart leaping into her throat. She had been waiting for him, curled up with a blanket, trying to rehearse how she would finally tell him everything. But the man who stormed into the apartment was not the Reggie who had kissed her goodbye days ago. This Reggie looked shattered. His eyes were wild, red-rimmed, and burning with a pain so raw it stole her breath. His hair was disheveled, his shirt wrinkled from the flight, and in his clenched fist was a piece of paper. He crossed the room in three long strides and thrust it into her face. “What the fuck is this, Cassie?” His voice cracked with hurt and betrayal, low and trembling. “Tell me. Tell me right now.” Her hands shook as she took the paper. It was a photo of her from the Forbidden. It was enlarged and was a bit blurry. She was on her knees before the dominant figure. The angle and the lighting did not help the intima
Reggie stood at the wide glass windows of the temporary executive suite, gazing out over the sprawling construction site below. The steel skeleton of the new building stretched toward the sky, illuminated by floodlights that cut through the gathering dusk. Ten days. Ten grueling days of back-to-back meetings, site inspections under harsh sun, tense negotiations with contractors, and late-night reviews of blueprints that all began to blur together. He hated that his business partner had insisted that they be hands-on for this project. Mr. Robertson was a good man but he had obsessive tendencies. He always wanted things a certain way, which was both a good and bad way. He was glad for the partnership though. Reggie was not one to let go of a business opportunity. The fear of going broke, reverting back to being a broke foster kid had turned him into an workaholic.He missed Cassie. He needed to spend more time with her. He realized that he had been away for longer periods than he had
Cassie sat on the edge of the bed in the dim glow of her bedside lamp, the apartment wrapped in heavy silence. It was raining again. She had come back to the house when it was almost dusk, having sat at the bench for hours. She had taken a bath, hoping it would calm her down, pre-heated some food from the fridge and attempted to eat it but did not have an appetite. She decided to head to bed and try to get some sleep. But before that, she decided to call her friends and tell them what was going on. Twenty minutes later, her thumb was still hovering over the video call icon in the group chat with Emily and Sarah. Her eyes were already burning with unshed tears. The weight she had been carrying alone felt like it was crushing her lungs. She couldn’t do this anymore. With a shaky breath, she tapped the button. The call connected after two rings. Emily and Sarah’s faces filled the screen, both of them in casual clothes, lounging in what looked like Sarah’s living room. “Hey, you!” Emi
Cassie sat at the small corner table in the neutral café, hands wrapped tightly around a lukewarm cup of tea she had no intention of drinking. The place was quiet. It was mid afternoon, with only a few scattered patrons typing on laptops or reading newspapers. Soft jazz played in the background, but it did nothing to calm the storm raging inside her chest. Her heart hammered so hard she could feel it in her throat. Every few seconds, her eyes darted toward the door, waiting for him.She had decided to unblock one of the numbers and text Dominic for a meet up. Maybe facing him and warning him off her would do the trick since texts didn't do. She had arranged the meeting through a single, terse text at dawn when she woke up from the nightmare. They were to meet at a neutral and public place. She had warned him about playing games. She had spent the entire morning pacing the apartment, rehearsing what she would say, how she would stay calm, how she would demand he delete every photo an
Cassie stood in the doorway of the break room, arms crossed loosely over her chest, watching the team arrange platters of sandwiches, fruit skewers, and a towering chocolate cake someone had clearly spent too much time decorating. The sign above the table read “Farewell, Cassie!” in bright blue mar
Mr. Patel came back the next week.Cassie sat at the small conference table in the glass-walled meeting room, hands folded in her lap, trying not to fidget while Mr. Patel flipped through the final pages of her evaluation packet. The supervisor’s face remained unreadable, lips pursed, pen tapping o
Cassie woke most mornings to the soft clink of Reggie in the kitchen, the smell of coffee drifting under the bedroom door like a promise. The weeks after her internship ended carried a gentle rhythm she had never known before. There were no deadlines pressing at her temples, no hospital beeps echoi
When they reached Asher’s house, the porch light glowed against the dusk. Mrs. Carla had leftsome soup simmering on the stove, fresh bread on the counter, the guest room made up with clean sheets. Reggie helped Asher inside, one arm around his waist, the other holding the walker steady.He tried t







