Chapter 8 - THE FIRST WIFE
Cassian didn’t speak for several seconds.
Then he said, “Where is she?”
Evelyn looked toward Rebecca.
Rebecca answered.
“Downstairs.”
My heart jumped.
“You brought Celeste here?”
“She came this morning.”
Cassian turned toward the door.
Then stopped himself.
He looked at Rebecca.
“Does she want to see me?”
That question told me he had already changed.
Maybe only a little.
But enough to ask.
Rebecca nodded.
“Yes.”
We went downstairs.
Celeste Vale—Celeste Brennan now—was waiting in a small sitting room near the lobby.
She was forty-one.
Elegant.
Calm.
Nothing like the frightened young woman in my mother’s photograph.
Cassian stopped inside the doorway.
“Hello, Celeste.”
She studied him.
“Hello, Cassian.”
No one knew where to stand.
Finally, Celeste smiled at me.
“You must be Lydia.”
I almost laughed.
“Apparently everyone knows who I am.”
“Evelyn told me.”
Cassian stayed standing.
Celeste pointed to a chair.
“You may sit. I’m not afraid of you anymore.”
His face tightened.
He sat.
She did too.
The rest of us remained near the windows.
Celeste looked at Cassian for a long moment.
“Dominic didn’t make me leave.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
He accepted that.
She folded her hands.
“You never hit me. You never threatened me. You never raised your voice.”
Cassian looked down.
“But you made me feel like a piece of furniture.”
The sentence hurt him more than anger would have.
Celeste continued.
“We married because my father wanted Vale protection. You spent our wedding night in your office.”
Cassian said quietly, “There had been a problem at the docks.”
“There was always a problem somewhere.”
He had no answer.
“I tried for months to talk to you. I told you I was lonely. I told you I wanted a marriage that wasn’t an arrangement.”
“I remember.”
“You said you needed time.”
“Yes.”
“You never gave me any.”
She wasn’t cruel.
That made it harder.
“When I finally said I wanted to leave, you told me to speak to Dominic because he handled private matters.”
Cassian closed his eyes.
“I remember.”
Celeste nodded.
“He helped me go.”
“So he didn’t lie to you.”
“Not then.”
She looked toward Rebecca.
“But he learned something from me.”
Cassian opened his eyes.
“What?”
“That I could leave you and the world would assume you had driven me away.”
Rebecca whispered, “He used the rumor.”
Celeste nodded.
“After me, every failed marriage made the story stronger.”
Cassian looked sick.
“I gave him the weapon.”
“You gave him the opportunity.”
Celeste leaned forward.
“Don’t take responsibility for choices that belonged to him. But don’t hide from yours either.”
He nodded once.
“I won’t.”
That afternoon, we returned to the Vale estate.
Dominic was waiting in the library.
So was Margaret.
Nobody sat.
Cassian placed three objects on the table.
His father’s ring.
His mother’s rosary.
Marisol’s scratched bracelet.
Dominic stared at them.
Then at Cassian.
“You found Evelyn.”
“Yes.”
“And Celeste.”
“Yes.”
Dominic exhaled.
“So now you know.”
“Enough.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“You know what frightened women remember. You don’t know what I prevented.”
Cassian’s expression hardened.
“Tell me.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“After Celeste left, you were useless for months.”
I expected Cassian to react.
He didn’t.
“You stopped sleeping. You made mistakes. You nearly handed control of two companies to men who would have torn this organization apart.”
“So you decided I should never have another wife.”
“I decided you should never be destroyed by one.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“We weren’t destroying him.”
“You were changing him.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“All of you.”
Cassian’s voice went low.
“That was my decision to make.”
Dominic looked suddenly older.
“I promised your father I would keep you alive and keep Vale standing.”
“My father has been dead seventeen years.”
“I know.”
“Then stop obeying a dead man.”
That landed.
Dominic looked away.
Cassian continued.
“You frightened five women.”
“I gave them exits.”
“You threatened their families.”
“I threatened consequences.”
“You used my mother’s rosary.”
Dominic’s jaw clenched.
“I needed them to believe me.”
“You used my father’s ring.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to Margaret.”
Dominic turned toward her.
Margaret’s eyes were wet.
“You told me Cassian would destroy us.”
“I told you the agreement mattered.”
“You told me Lydia’s mother would lose her house.”
Dominic didn’t answer.
Margaret looked at me.
For the first time, she looked ashamed without trying to defend herself.
“I believed him.”
“That doesn’t excuse you.”
“No.”
She nodded.
“It doesn’t.”
Cassian looked at Dominic.
“Why Evelyn?”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“Because you were slipping away again.”
“What?”
“You were talking about selling three clubs. Closing the old security division. Moving money into legitimate construction and shipping.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed.
“You thought marriage was causing that?”
“I thought hope was.”
The room went silent.
Dominic looked almost desperate now.
“You think I enjoyed doing this? I watched your father trust people who abandoned him. I watched your mother beg him to leave this life, and when he refused, she spent twenty years miserable.”
Cassian looked at the rosary.
“So you decided misery was safer.”
“I decided attachment made men weak.”
“No.”
Cassian shook his head.
“It made you afraid.”
Dominic’s face collapsed for just one second.
There he was.
Not the manipulator.
Not the strategist.
A frightened young man who had spent half his life trying to prevent the past from repeating.
Then the moment disappeared.
Cassian pointed toward the door.
“You’re finished.”
Dominic stared at him.
“With the business?”
“With my companies. My house. My security. Everything.”
“You can’t do this.”
“I can.”
“You need me.”
Cassian looked at Lydia.
At Rebecca.
At Evelyn.
At Celeste.
Then back at Dominic.
“That belief is the reason you did all of this.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
Two security men entered.
Cassian did not threaten him.
Did not touch him.
He simply said, “Walk out.”
Dominic turned toward the door.
Then stopped.
He looked at Margaret.
“You should tell her.”
Margaret went pale.
My stomach tightened.
“Tell me what?”
Dominic smiled sadly.
“The replacement bride was never Margaret’s idea.”
I looked at her.
Margaret whispered, “Dominic…”
“No,” I said.
“What does he mean?”
Dominic looked directly at me.
“He knew Evelyn might run.”
My skin went cold.
“He told Margaret exactly what to do if she did.”
I turned toward her.
“The dress?”
Margaret began to cry.
“The dress. The shoes. Your mother’s cottage.”
Every detail.
Planned.
Cassian’s voice became deadly quiet.
“Why Lydia?”
Dominic looked at him.
“Because I knew you would refuse her.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Dominic gave one last bitter smile.
May you like
“And after seven failed brides, I knew you would never try again.”
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