125

125
CASSIAN'S POV

I did not make it ten steps before Colin caught up with me again. His voice was tight, low enough not to carry in the wind. “Sir, you asked me to dig deeper. I have something. You need to see it.”

I turned to face him, barely able to mask the impatience clawing under my skin. “If this is another line item or shell fund—”

“It is not numbers. It is Bastian,” he said. “Or more specifically, what he buried.” My heart kicked like it had been punched.

I followed him back into the car, slamming the door harder than necessary. Colin handed me a folder. Actual paper. That alone told me it was bad. “No digital trace,” he said. “You will see why.”

I opened it. My eyes scanned the first page. Then the second. By the third, my pulse went numb.

“These dates,” I said. “These signatures. This file shows that Aurora’s clearance was revoked before the leak even happened.” My voice was hoarse.

Colin nodded grimly. “That is not all. The internal memo you received? The one Bastian handed you—”

“It was doctored,” I finished for him. The words tasted like rust. “He forged her access and used it to make it look like she—”

“Sold proprietary data to a competitor. But the competitor was a dummy company. Owned by one of Bastian’s shell networks,” Colin said, voice tight. “He set her up, sir.”

I dropped the folder onto the seat between us like it was scalding. My throat felt like it was closing.

“He framed her,” I muttered. “He did not just lie. He let me destroy her with that lie.” My chest burned.

Colin shifted uneasily. “I think he was trying to push her out. Maybe so she would not compete later. Maybe something else. But it was calculated.”

I pressed my hands to my face, trying to breathe through the guilt clawing its way up my spine.

She had begged me to believe her. Quietly. Desperately. And I had done nothing. I had done worse than nothing.

“Did you tell anyone else?” I asked, my voice low.

“No,” Colin replied. “Only you. I figured you would want to handle this directly.”

I nodded. Slowly. “I am going to him.”

Colin tensed. “You should not—”

“I am not going to touch him,” I snapped. “But he is going to look me in the eye. And he is going to say it out loud.”

I leaned forward, voice ice. “And then he is going to explain why he made me the man who left her to rot.”

AURORA'S POV

Leo had just drifted off again, his tiny fingers curled against my sweater, when my phone buzzed on the windowsill. I answered without checking. My voice was a whisper. “Yes?”

Julian did not waste time. “Bastian is on the move. Cassian confronted him.”

I stood up too fast. The chair scraped loudly. Leo stirred, but I rubbed his back until he settled again.

“What do you mean ‘confronted’?” I asked. “Where?”

“Viero Tower. Thirty-second floor. Private lounge. Colin tipped me off. Said you should know.” Julian’s voice carried something between warning and caution.

“I do not care if they eat each other alive,” I said flatly. “He chose Bastian over me. He believed him.”

There was a pause. Then Julian said, “What if he does not believe him anymore?”

I stared at the night sky past the window, the city humming beyond the glass. “That would be convenient, would it not?” I said. “Now that he has nothing left to lose.”

“Aurora,” Julian said, quiet but firm, “you are allowed to be angry. But do not pretend it would not mean something if he finally saw the truth.”

I said nothing. I did not know what to say.

After a beat, Julian added, “You always said the worst part was not that he hurt you. It was that he never looked back.”

CASSIAN'S POV

I found Bastian by the bar, lounging like nothing had ever burned. He smirked as I walked in.

“Well, well. If it is not the golden son, back from the flames.”

I walked straight past the jokes and slammed the folder down beside his drink. “Explain it.”

Bastian glanced at it, then back at me. “I knew Colin would sniff too deep.”

“Explain it,” I repeated, my voice cold.

He picked up the top page, skimmed it lazily. “She was a liability. You were distracted. It had to be done.”

“You destroyed her,” I said. My jaw locked. “You watched me take that report to my father. You let me call her a traitor.”

He shrugged. “She would have walked eventually. She was never meant for this world.”

I stepped closer. “You were my friend.”

“And you were a fool in love,” he said sharply. “You built your empire on emotion. I just trimmed the rot.”

I almost hit him. But I did not.

Instead, I looked him straight in the eye and said, “You did not just take her down. You broke something in me I may never get back.”

Bastian scoffed. “You think telling her this will change anything?”

“No,” I said, voice low. “But I will not keep her in the dark while you walk away clean.”

He stood, eyes narrowing. “You tell her, and she will never forgive you. Not for believing me. Not for abandoning her.”

I nodded. “I know.”

AURORA'S POV

I stood outside the hospital’s chapel, staring at the stained glass like it might give me clarity.

My phone buzzed again. A message this time. From an unknown number.

It just said: “I know the truth now. I need to see you.”

I deleted it without replying. I did not trust the timing. I did not trust anything anymore.

But that did not stop the ache in my chest from widening like a crack in ice.

Behind me, the nurse’s voice was soft. “Your son is awake.”

I turned quickly. “I am coming.” I touched the edge of the pew as I passed. It felt cold. Real.

The world did not stop spinning because of Cassian Viero’s regrets. Not anymore.

CASSIAN'S POV

I drove without thinking. The city blurred by. I was not sure where I was going.

I only knew I needed her to hear it from me. Not in a file. Not from Julian. From me.

The truth. The whole damn truth.

But when I reached the hospital, the front desk told me she had stepped out. I waited.

Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen. I checked my phone. Still nothing.

Then I saw her through the glass doors, standing by the fountain.

I opened the door slowly. Called her name.

She turned. But her face was unreadable. Her arms folded across her chest.

“Cassian,” she said, cool as winter, “I do not want to hear another excuse.”

I stepped closer, the folder in my hand. “It is not an excuse,” I said. “It is the reason.”

She did not blink. “Then say it.”

My voice was rough. “Bastian lied. About everything. He framed you. I believed him.”

Her mouth parted. Not in shock. But something sharper. “And now you want to fix it?”

“No,” I said. “I just want you to know I finally see it. I failed you. Completely.”

She stared at me. “That is not enough,” she whispered. “Not anymore.”

And before I could answer, she turned away again.

But not before I saw the shimmer in her eyes.

The truth did not set me free.

It only proved how much I had already lost.