118

118
AURORA'S POV

The elevator lurches. Hard.

Cassian braces me by slamming an arm over my chest. My back strikes the wall. My lungs constrict. Then there was silence.

Not the last sort. However, the sort that hums with fear.

We are no longer falling.

With shaky breath, he says, "Are you okay?"

"What does okay mean?"

I can see the terror in his eyes, yet his jaw twitches. For me, not for him.

He replies, "I believe we paused in between floors." "I think counterweights kicked in."

"Wonderful," I murmur. We are no longer just confined. We're on suspension.

Above, the hatch remains stationary. There are no more voices. No more illumination. Only the indescribable darkness and us.

I drop to the ground, pressing my head against the cold metal and bending my knees. My chest is extremely constricted. I breathe too loudly.

Cassian crouchs close to me without making contact. He reads the room for once.

"You're trembling," he remarks.

"No, I'm not."

"You are."

"Don't act as though you care."

"I'm concerned."

I look him in the eye. "Since when?"

He recoils, but I continue. I am unable to.

Before, you had every opportunity to care. while your quiet was suffocating me. Your folks were feeding you falsehoods whilst I was being ripped apart. You allowed it to happen by remaining still.

"Aurora."

You treated me as if I were a complete stranger. Perhaps I was. because you never made an effort to see me.

"I'm trying right now."

"Now?" It's a hollow chuckle. "Now that you and I are imprisoned in a steel box and the past is seeping through the gaps?"

He doesn't respond. simply observes me as if I were a ghost reentering his life.

I take a deep breath. Release it gradually. "I intended to inform you."

He speaks in a whisper. "Tell me what?"

"I was expecting a child."

portions of his mouth. However, I prevent him from speaking.

"I entered your office. I was trembling. I had practiced every syllable. I reasoned that maybe if you just heard my voice, you would recall that I was a real person.

I look down at my hands. They are too tightly clasped.

But you said it first before I could respond. To Julian. That I was nothing. You would just have to comply with a few formalities after the merger. that you intended to "scrape me off your name" at last.

Cassian takes a deep breath as if I've struck him.

I say, "I walked out." "I left that building right away and entered a world that didn't want me either. Then I started to bleed.

He looks. "You lost the baby?"

My mouth forms a line.

"No," I answer quietly. However, I believed I had. I was crying into my coat in an Eastwick back alley clinic because I felt like I had lost the only positive thing I had left.

Cassian drops on his knees before me. "I had no idea, Aurora. I promise—

"You obviously didn't. You didn't inquire.

He looks down.

"I was by myself," I mumble. "No cash. Not a family. No identification. You now possess the research that I sold to make ends meet.

He raises his head. Stunned eyes.

"Yes," I reply, grinning sourly. "Betrayal and despair led to the founding of Verdant BioPharm. In order to support Leo during those first six months, I sold formulations I had been creating for your father's medical organization. It wasn't until Lucian tracked out the shell account that I realized you were the buyer.

Cassian shakes his head as if attempting to jolt himself out of a bad dream.

"Why didn't you approach me?" He queries.

"Did you think I was real?"

He doesn't respond.

I add, "I didn't leave because I hated you." “I left because I loved you. And it was killing me.”

CASSIAN'S POV

I don’t have words.

I feel like every statement I make is false.

I know—God, I know—that I did this, and she's watching me with a mixture of fragility and fury.

"You were right," I mumble. "I didn't see you. I saw the picture. The risk. the hassle of a legacy I didn't even want.

Her mouth quivers. She averts her gaze.

"But I'm done acting like my legacy is more important than what I lost."

She recoils. Nothing was lost by you. I did.

"I lost you."

We look at each other. She doesn't turn away this time.

I take a step forward. Keep your distance. Enough.

"Verdant's patents don't concern me," I declare. "The name sewn on my uniform, the merger, or Viero Pharma don't matter to me. But Leo is important to me. And you are important to me.

Her voice breaks. "Now you're concerned. But when it mattered, you didn't give a damn.

"Now I'm trying to make it matter."

This type of reality seems like the walls are too thin.

She draws in a deep breath. "Your eyes are in his possession. as well as your obstinacy. And the way that when he's angry, he paces? You are that.

I give a little grin. “Poor kid.”

She doesn't chuckle. Her mouth twitches, however.

She declares, "I don't trust you."

"I don't think you will."

“I don’t forgive you.”

"I'm not worthy of it."

One more beat.

Then, "But I needed you," she murmurs.

And then it strikes.

Everything I was missing. I tossed everything away.

I grab her hand. This time, she doesn't back down.

I say, "I can't change the past." "But perhaps we can also prevent the future from shattering."

AURORA'S POV

I softly wind my fingers around his.

A tenuous tranquility. Unspoken.

Something raw hums in the air. incomplete.

I'm not sure whether I trust him.

But I need something more than rage for Leo's sake.

The elevator shakes once more before I can say anything.

The emergency light totally goes off this time.

Then—

A hiss.

Gas exploded sharply through the vents.

Cassian yells, "Get down!"

My eyesight is already swimming, however.

My last thought before I'm completely engulfed by the darkness—

The goal was not to trap us. The goal was to silence us.