All Chapters of Twice His Wife: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Cassian didn’t speak for a long time after the door closed behind Dahlia.He just stood there in the middle of Anaïs’s living room like he’d forgotten how to move. Like everything in him had gone still. Anaïs watched him from across the room, her hands pressed tightly to the edges of the counter as if they were the only things anchoring her to the ground.“Cassian,” she said, her voice low. Careful. “Sit down.”He didn’t. Instead, he looked at her. Not the kind of look that pleaded or begged. It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t angry either. It was something worse—numb.“You knew?” he asked quietly.She hesitated. “I suspected.”“But you didn’t tell me.”“I wasn’t sure yet, and you were already—”“I was already what?” he cut in sharply. “Already broken? Already distracted? Already losing my mind because the woman I thought I could trust was lying to my face every day?”Anaïs flinched. Her voice came out smaller than she wanted. “Cassian, I didn’t lie.”“You didn’t have to,” he said bitterly. “Y

Cassian sat in the dark, elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped in front of his mouth like a man praying—but this wasn’t prayer. It was silence, loaded and bitter, the kind that settles in your bones and makes a home there. The kind that comes after too much shouting, too much holding back.The door to Anaïs’s hospital room was closed. Still. And he hadn’t gone in. Not yet. He had stood there when they wheeled her in, lifeless and pale, his chest caving in with the weight of it. But now—he couldn’t. Not yet.Maris stood at the end of the corridor. She didn’t say a word. She just watched him like she knew better than to ask what was going through his head.Nina was the one who came back from the front desk. “The doctors say she’s stable. They’re running more scans. She might wake up within a few hours.”Cassian barely nodded. His face was unreadable. Not calm. Not angry. Just empty.“She fought,” Nina added quietly. “I think you should know that.”He blinked slowly.“She kicked. Sh

Anaïs stared at the empty spot in the safe like it had personally betrayed her. The flash drive was gone. The one she never mentioned to Maris or Nina. The one she kept separate from everything else because she knew exactly how dangerous it was. And now it was in Daniel’s hands.The note stared back at her.Let’s see what the world thinks when I’m the one telling the story.Her stomach turned.She didn’t even realize she was shaking until her phone buzzed again.Maris.“I’m outside,” she said. “The pharmacy was hell. How’s Cassian?”“He’s still out,” Anaïs said quietly. “Come in.”She clicked off the call and locked the safe again. There was no use staring at it now. What mattered wasn’t that Daniel had taken it—it was why. Why now? Why that drive?When Maris walked in with two bags of supplies, she looked immediately to Anaïs’s face. “What happened?”“Daniel called me.”Maris dropped the bags. “He what?”Anaïs picked up the note. “He said Cassian wasn’t the prize. Just bait. He said

Anaïs didn’t speak for a full five minutes.The news anchor’s voice kept looping in her head—“…warrants are being prepared for multiple individuals, including Anaïs Temi and Cassian Adeoye.”She heard it once. Then again. Then again.Maris whispered something, maybe her name. Nina said it louder. Still, Anaïs didn’t respond.Not until she reached for the remote, switched the TV off, and turned to face them.Her voice was low.“Get your bags.”Maris blinked. “What?”Anaïs didn’t repeat herself. She walked to the desk, pulled out the folder of names she’d backed up, and shoved it into her bag. Then the laptop. Then the burner phones.Nina was still frozen. “Anaïs—wait—”“She’s got the government now,” Anaïs said, still not raising her voice. “That means the airports are being flagged. The borders too. Phones tapped by morning. I don’t need to see the memo to know how this goes.”“But—”“We leave now.”Nina moved first, cursing under her breath. Maris followed. They packed fast, quiet. N

The receptionist looked up, startled. She blinked twice, then tapped something into her keyboard.Anaïs didn’t shift her weight. She just stood there. One hand still on the strap of her bag, the other hanging loose at her side like she was waiting for coffee instead of an ambush. But inside, her chest was tight. Not with fear — no, this was the kind of tension that came with knowing you were walking into something with your eyes wide open.“She’ll see you,” the woman said after a beat. “Top floor. Glass door at the end.”Anaïs nodded. “Of course she will.”The elevator ride was silent. Too clean. The kind of silence that doesn’t come naturally — it’s imposed. Built into places that don’t want to leave room for questions, or doubt, or noise. She caught her reflection in the metal panel opposite her. Her lips were dry. She didn’t lick them.Cassian had said nothing when she left that morning. He hadn’t even asked where she was going. Maybe he knew. Maybe that’s why he’d kissed her foreh