Lahat ng Kabanata ng Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother : Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

CHAPTER EIGHTY ONECassie had finally decided, it was time to talk. Three days of sitting beside him while he did his exercises and eating breakfast with him at the kitchen counter and watching him navigate the penthouse suite on the crutches with the particular grim determination that had replaced the cold withdrawal of the hospital weeks, three days of smiling at the right moments and asking the right questions and being exactly the wife he needed her to be while the information sat inside her chest like something with a heartbeat of its own, alive and insistent and impossible to ignore.On the third morning she woke up before him and lay in the dark and listened to him breathe and made the decision.She couldn't do it anymore. Not because she was weak or because the weight had become too much but because she understood finally that carrying this alone was its own kind of betrayal. She had spent weeks watching Dom shut people out and then watching him come back from it and she had

CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE By morning, it was everywhere.Cassie woke up to forty- seven notifications and a missed call from Officer Chen. The early morning light she was beginning to associate with bad news because bad news seemed to prefer arriving before she had fully woken up. She sat up and looked at her phone and scrolled through the alerts and felt something cold settle in her stomach.The story had legs. It had been picked up overnight by four major outlets and by morning it had spread to the kind of coverage that didn't disappear with a news cycle, the kind that fed on the family name and the wealth and the dramatic shape of a story about a man who may have tried to have his brother killed. Every headline had some version of the Hale name in it and every version of it was worse than the last.Dom was already awake. He was exercising his leg with his phone in his hand and the expression he wore when he was processing something at depth."Chen called," she said."I know, he called

CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE“Babe, are you sure about this? You haven't left this hospital since you got here and the doctor says you need to sit still.”“But I am healing very fast and tired of walking around this room. I need some fresh air.”“Then we can take a walk to the back.”“Which is still inside the hospital.”“But… what if.. what if your leg can't carry the pressure?”“We won't know if we don't try.”“Babe… okay, how about the doctor?”“The doctor doesn't have to know until I am gone and the cafe is just two blocks away from the hospital. I was strategic about it. He comes in for the check at seven and doesn't come again till twelve. If we leave by nine, after the first check, we will be back before twelve.”Cassie sighed heavily and shook her head. “Looks like your mind is already made up.”“I am afraid, it is.”………….The cafe was Dom's kind of place.Cassie noticed it the moment they walked in. It didn't need to advertise its own exclusivity because the exclusivity was structural

CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVENLeo barely came around these days. The work load was becoming too much for him to handle with Dom being in the hospital. Most times, they were on call, talking about what to do next and what not to do. Dom had even offered for some work to be brought to him here in the hospital but Leo strongly refused. Said he could handle it. He came to the hospital on a Wednesday afternoon with his laptop and a taunt expression that meant that he had something that required a table and their full attention.He sat down and opened the laptop and turned it to face them and on the screen was a name neither of them recognized attached to a photograph of a man she had seen before. She had seen him at a business dinner months ago and at a charity event the previous spring and she had shaken his hand and moved on without a second thought because he was the kind of person who existed in the background of rooms occupied by people like Gregory Hale, present and unremarkable and apparent

CHAPTER EIGHTY NINECassie turned back toward Dom with a distant look in her eyes. "I love your bromance."Dom looked at her. "My what?""Your bromance."He made a face. "That sounds disturbing.""It isn't. I wish I had a best friend who has my back like Leo has yours. It's just me in my little world.""Ouch… that hurts. What about me?"Cassie chuckled. "Are you a woman?"They fell into a comfortable silence, the question hanging over them, neither of them in a hurry to fill it."I want to see Marcus." Dom said out of nowhere. "I want to see if he feels any slight remorse.""Okay…"He turned his head and looked at her in the dark, searching her face for something, hesitation maybe, or fear."You're not going to stop me?""No… if that would make you feel better, do it. My priority is you being fine."A mist grew in his eyes. "I love you.""I love you too," she replied. "Now go to sleep."He almost smiled. "Bossy.""Always," she said.She felt him exhale slowly beside her and she stayed