All Chapters of A LOVE TOO REAL TO FAKE: Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Cassian didn’t sleep. He sat at the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor as if the answers to everything he’d fucked up might be buried in the fibers of the hotel carpet. The room was quiet now—Eden had dozed off sometime after their conversation, exhaustion finally crashing in. But sleep was a stranger to him. It had been for years. He reached for the glass of water on the nightstand and took a slow sip, his eyes drawn to her silhouette beneath the blanket. Peaceful. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t running from him or throwing truths like daggers. And yet, even in that stillness, he could feel the weight of what hung between them. She was right about everything. About the lies, the manipulation, the silence he let fester for far too long. There had always been a part of him convinced that protecting her meant keeping her in the dark—but now, that excuse sounded as thin as the excuses his father used to make before sla