Chapter 19
Johansen stumbled back, blood dripping from his lip, shock widening his eyes.
“What the hell-!”
“That’s for nearly killing her,” Scott growled, fists clenched, nostrils flared.
Johansen wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his jaw throbbing. “You think this was my fault? You think I’d ever hurt her?”
“You already did. Over and over,” Scott spat. “And now someone tried to burn her alive. Don‘ pretend it’s not connected to you–or your toxic mess with Maureen.”
“Don’t drag her into this!” Johansen stepped forward, fury tightening his chest. “You don’t know a damn thing about me.”
“I know you had two women, lied to one, and lost a child with the other. And now you want sympathy?”
“I love her!” Johansen yelled, grabbing Scott by the collar. “I never stopped loving her!”
Scott shoved him back. “Then why did she have to beg for your attention? Why did she cry herself to sleep while you held someone else?”
“You think you’re better?” Johansen sneered. “You’re just the rebound. A clean suit and timing.”
Scott’s fist slammed into his cheek again. “At least I was there when she needed someone! Where were you when she lost your child? When she burned her wedding dress? When she disappeared because you made her feel disposable?!”
They clashed again, punches thrown with years of resentment behind each swing. Chairs overturned, a table crashed between them.
Until- A loud, shrill beep echoed through the hall. Then another. Then chaos.
‘Emergency code! Room 304!” a nurse shouted.
Both men froze, breathless.
Cassandra. They bolted down the corridor.
nside the room, Cassandra had just woken up. Her vision blurred, her lips cracked. She looked around, eyes heavy and slow to adjust. The overhead lights hummed. The machines beeped beside her, steady.
Scott…?” she whispered, voice hoarse.
But no one was there.
Of course not. Why would he be?
Maybe… he had better things to do. After all, they were never real. Just an arrangement. He didn’t >we her anything. Her body was too weak to move. Her arms trembled when she tried to lift hem. Just then, the door creaked open.
A nurse stepped in. Mask on. White uniform. Gloved hands.
You’re awake,” the nurse said, approaching slowly. “Good. You should be awake for this.”
Cassandra’s gut twisted. That voice–familiar. Ice–cold. Tinged with malice.
hapter 18
BE ON
She blinked hard, tried to focus.
Then it clicked.
“Maureen,” she rasped.
“Yes,” Maureen hissed, pulling off the mask. “And this… this is for everything. You took him from me. You ruined everything!”
“No–Maureen-” Cassandra tried to scream, but her voice cracked, barely a whisper in her dry
throat.
Maureen’s eyes were wild. Unhinged. “You don’t get to say my name.”
She lunged forward, pressing a pillow down over Cassandra’s face. Cassandra flailed, her arms weak, legs tangled in the hospital sheets, gasping for air as the cotton sealed over her mouth and nose.
“You ruined everything!” Maureen spat, her voice venomous. “He was mine. MINE. And then you came back. Like some ghost he couldn’t stop chasing.”
Cassandra’s fingers fumbled across the bedside rail, searching for the emergency button.
“You think you’re the victim? He married me. I was there when you disappeared! When you broke him, I picked up the pieces. I made him smile again. I gave him a reason to stay!”
Cassandra’s lungs screamed. Her vision darkened.
“But he never looked at me the way he looked at you. I saw it! Every time I kissed him, I knew he was thinking of you!”
Tears streamed from Maureen’s eyes as rage consumed her.
“I was supposed to be enough. I should’ve been enough!”
Cassandra’s hand found the button.
With the last of her strength, she slammed it.
A siren blared. Footsteps thundered down the hall.
Scott and Johansen turned the corner just in time to see staff scrambling toward Cassandra’s
room.
“Move!” Scott barked, running faster.
They shoved the door open–and found Maureen, wild–eyed, pressing down hard on Cassandra’s face.
“GET OFF HER!” Johansen roared.
He lunged first, yanking Maureen by the shoulders. She screamed and scratched him.
Scott grabbed Cassandra, pulling her limp form into his arms. “Cass! Stay with me!”
Doctors rushed in. Security followed, pulling Maureen back as she kicked and screamed.
“She doesn’t deserve him!” Maureen shrieked. “He was mine!”
Chaos surged. Cassandra whimpered. Her lips trembled.
“Scott,” she murmured faintly, her eyes fluttering open.
Johansen stood frozen.
4:00 pm 64 14 M
Scott leaned close. “I’m here, I’ve got you. You’re okay now”
And in that moment, holding her in his arms, Scott remembered,
The fire. Her body in his arms, smoke clinging to her skin. The way she whispered, barely breathing, “Don’t let go”
“I’m not letting go” he had told her. “Not ever”
And now–again–he held her, trembling but alive.
Johansen’s fists remained clenched at his sides, his chest rising and falling with the weight of everything unspoken.
But Cassandra… she never once looked at him.
She was in Scott’s arms now–weak, trembling, barely conscious–but still, it was Scott she whispered for. Scott she reached out to even in her haze of pain and fear
Johansen’s mind flashed back to that night–the blood on her dress, her body limp in his arms after the stabbing. The way he had carried her, swearing she would live. Swearing he would never lose her
But now… someone else had saved her.
Scott.
Johansen swallowed the ache building in his throat. It should’ve been him. It used to be him.
She had chosen.
And this time… it wasn’t him. Not the man who had let her break, who buried her beneath lies
and silence.
It was the man who caught her before she could fall again.
