Chapter 76 Meeting Again

Chapter 76 Meeting Again
Cassian POV

It had been two whole years, yet somehow the past still found ways to slip through the cracks of my present, like light forcing its way through a door I thought I had long since shut.

Marriage… it wasn’t what I had imagined it would be.

Not in a bad way just… different from what I imagined.

When I married Elena, I had braced myself for something cold and I had expected distance, obligation, a life built on responsibility rather than feeling but Elena surprised me. She was warm in ways I hadn’t anticipated, patient in ways I didn’t deserve and our daughter… God, my daughter changed everything.

The first time I held her, something inside me shifted. She had Elena’s beautiful eyes but my stubbornness, and every time she wrapped her tiny fingers around mine, the world seemed to narrow down to just her and most days, that was enough.

More than enough but not always because sometimes when the house was quiet and when Elena had fallen asleep beside me then my daughter’s soft breathing echoed through the baby monitor my mind betrayed me and it wandered ack to her, Ariyha.

Her name alone was enough to stir something restless in my chest. It wasn’t loud anymore, not like before. It didn’t consume me the way it once had but it lingered like a shadow I couldn’t quite outrun.

She had disappeared not literally because no one had filed a missing person report, or launch an investigations but in every way that mattered, she was gone.

She left the company and left the public eye.

Even the blogs, those vultures who thrived on every scandal, every whisper had nothing on her. It was as if she had erased herself completely like she did before.

And Zayn, he still showed up at parties, galas and business events but he was always alone.

That had been the first thing I noticed then It became a pattern too obvious to ignore.

No Ariyha at first, I told myself it didn’t matter.

It shouldn’t matter, I had made my choice and I chose Elena.

I chose stability and I chose the life I was living now but sometimes, late at night, a quiet voice in the back of my mind would whisper ...and what did she choose?

Or maybe… what choice did she have left?

I hadn’t been back to Dubai in two years.

Avoidance wasn’t something I liked to admit to, but that’s exactly what it had been.

Business had given me excuses, expansions, contracts, responsibilities that kept me elsewhere and I took every single one of them until now.

“Mr. Wolfe, they’ve been very clear. They want you personally,” my assistant had said, her tone careful, almost apologetic.

I had stared at her for a moment, jaw tight. “Then schedule it.”

This was one of our big investors and I won't forgive myself if I lost this deal because I was scared of running into her

And just like that, I was on a flight back to a city that held too many ghosts.

Dubai hadn’t changed, still loud, alive and glittering with excess power. The skyline rose like a challenge, sharp and untouchable, just as I remembered but I had changed.

Or at least, I told myself I had.

The meeting itself was routine nusiness talk, numbers, contracts and handshakes that meant more than words ever could.

It was after that everything shifted.

“My daughter has a lesson now,” my client said casually, glancing at his watch. “You should meet her tutor, she’s exceptional.”

" She accept children from all over the city"

I nodded politely, only half-listening as we walked through the house.

It was a beautiful place with high ceilings, glass walls, sunlight pouring in like liquid gold and then I saw her.

Time didn’t slow down, It stopped because Ariyha was standing right in front of me.

She stood near the grand piano, her back partially turned, her voice soft as she corrected the little girl beside her.

“No, not like that,” she said gently, guiding the child’s fingers. “Feel the rhythm, don’t force it.”

Her voice oh God, I hadn’t realized how much I remembered it until that moment.

She turned and just like that, the air left my lungs.

She looked… the same still beautiful.....no, more than that. There was something deeper now. A kind of strength that didn’t need to be loud to be felt.

Her eyes met mine for a second something flickered there recognition, shock then maybe even something else I didn’t dare name and then it was gone.

Her expression smoothed into polite neutrality, like I was nothing more than another stranger passing through her day.

“Miss Ariyha,” my client said, smiling. “This is Mr. Cassian Wolfe.”

She gave a small nod, composed, distant.

“Nice to meet you.”

Three words that was as sharp as a blade.

I stared at her, something twisting uncomfortably in my chest.

Nice to meet you?

After everything?

After us?

“Ariyha…” Her name left my mouth before I could stop it, rougher than I intended.

Her gaze didn’t change. “I believe the lesson is still ongoing,” she said calmly, turning her attention back to the child as if I hadn’t spoken at all.

Just like that I was dismissed, I understood that she thought I chose Elena over her.

And the truth?

I had, no matter how complicated it was, no matter how many justifications I could pile on top of it, I had made a choice and she had accepted it.

I watched her for a moment longer, the way she leaned slightly toward the child.

The way her voice softened again and she didn’t look at me not even once.

For the first time in two years that hurt more than I expected and standing there, in a house that wasn’t mine, in a city I had avoided, staring at a woman I once couldn’t let go of…

I realized something I hadn’t allowed myself to admit before.

I had moved on, built a life, gotten married and even had a beautiful daughter this was everything I was supposed to want but somehow, I still feel empty.