Chapter 146 Glass
Cassie
He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing visibly. I watched him struggle with what to tell me, how much to reveal. Watched him calculate whether he could get away with a partial truth or if he needed to lay everything bare.
"He called me," Greyson said finally, the words coming out rushed and unsteady. "The morning before everything. Before I saw you with... before the café. He told me about your promotion. About how you'd been lying about your position,but that wasn't all we talked about."
I waited, my silence a demand for more.
"He has this plan." Greyson's hands were shaking now, and he shoved them into his pockets.
"He wants to move against the Massa territory. He knows about your deal with Aiden, knows about the partnership. He thinks we could... that we could leverage your connection to take over their shipping routes. Cut them out and absorb their business."
My blood ran cold. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. "You're talking about a hostile takeover."
"I told him I'd think about it." The words came out as almost a whisper. "Before I knew... before I understood what you'd actually accomplished with that deal. He made it sound like you'd just gotten lucky, like Aiden Massa had done you a favor because he wanted to sleep with you or something. Like it wasn't real.You built a partnership, didn't you? A real one. Built on mutual benefit and trust."
"Yes." I stood up, too agitated to sit still, and paced to the window. The men were still out there, still watching. Still waiting.
" if you move against the Massas, you'll destroy everything I've built. That partnership is worth billions over the next decade, more than that, it's built on trust. On my word. On Aiden believing that I'm someone he can work with, someone who honors her commitments. If he thinks I was using him, that I was planning to betray him all along..."
I didn't need to finish the sentence. Greyson was smart enough to understand the implications. In the world I operated in, reputation was everything. Trust was currency. And if the Massas thought I'd betrayed them, they wouldn't just end the partnership. They'd make sure no one else in the industry ever trusted me again. They'd destroy my career. Maybe more than my career.
"I know." Greyson's voice was thick with regret, with self-recrimination. "I wasn't thinking clearly. I was angry about the promotion, about feeling like you'd lied to me, about feeling like I was less important than I'd thought I was. And when Dante pitched this idea, it felt like a way to take back some control. To prove I was still... I don't know. Relevant. Important. Someone who mattered." He laughed bitterly. "God, it sounds so pathetic now. So small and stupid and selfish."
"It is stupid," I said bluntly, turning to face him. "And it's dangerous. You have no idea what you're playing with. The Massas aren't just a shipping company, Greyson. They have connections, power, resources that span the globe. They have relationships with organizations that would make your blood run cold. And if they thought I was involved in a move against them..." I shook my head, feeling a chill run down my spine. "You could have gotten me killed. You could have started a war that would have ended with bodies in the river and my family's empire in ruins.I'm not Ella I fight back strategically."
The color drained completely from Greyson's face. His legs seemed to give out and he sank onto the arm of the couch, looking like he might be sick.
"Cassie, I swear I didn't know. I didn't understand the scope of what you do. The stakes you're playing for. I thought it was just business. Corporate maneuvering. I didn't realize..."
"No, you didn't.You were too busy being offended by my success to actually listen to what I do. Too busy feeling emasculated to see that I was protecting you by keeping certain things quiet."
I could feel my anger building again, hot and righteous and clean. "Do you have any idea how many enemies my family has? How many people would love to use someone close to me as leverage? How many times I've had to be careful about who I date, who I'm seen with, who I trust with any real information?"
"I thought you didn't trust me because you didn't think I was good enough," he said quietly. "Because I was just some lawyer and you were Richard Hunter's daughter. I thought you were ashamed of me."
"I was protecting you, you idiot!" The words exploded out of me. "I didn't tell you about the promotion because I was trying to keep you saf, the less you knew about the real scope of my work, the less danger you'd be in. The less you could be used against me or targeted by people who want to hurt my family. I was trying to keep you out of it so you could just be... normal. So our relationship could be something separate from all the corporate warfare and family politics and dangerous alliances."
Greyson looked up at me, and I saw understanding dawning in his eyes. Understanding and a fresh wave of self-loathing. "You were protecting me I repaid you by planning to destroy your work and then assaulting you , I'm an idiot."
"Yes," I said simply. "You are. Or at least, you were yesterday. I don't know what you are today."
He stood up slowly, took a tentative step toward me. "I called Dante this morning. Before you got here. Told him I was out. That if he moved forward with any plan against the Massas, he'd be doing it without me. I suggested strongly that he reconsider entirely. That the partnership you built is bigger than any of us, bigger than his ambition or his ego, and that it would be insane to jeopardize it."
"And what did he say?"
"He called me whipped. Said I was letting you control me. That I was being weak." Greyson's jaw tightened.
"I told him that protecting someone you love isn't weakness. That understanding when you're in over your head isn't cowardice,if he couldn't see that, then he was the one who needed to reconsider his priorities."
Despite everything,the bruises on my arm, the broken trust, the violation—I felt something warm flicker in my chest. Something that might have been hope. Or might have been foolishness.
"Did he listen?" I asked.
"I don't know. I hope so. if he doesn't..." Greyson met my eyes directly. "If he moves against the Massas, I'll testify against him if you need me to. I'll tell Aiden everything. I'll do whatever it takes to protect what you built and to make sure he knows you weren't involved."
I studied him, looking for any hint of manipulation or calculation. But all I saw was sincerity. Raw, desperate sincerity.
"Why?" I asked quietly. "Why would you do that? ."
"You're more important." The words were simple, unadorned. " I love you.I fucked up so badly that I need to spend the rest of my life trying to make it right, even though I know I can't. Even though I know that nothing I do will undo what I did to you."
We stood there in silence, the weight of everything unsaid hanging between us. The air felt charged, electric with possibility and danger and the ghost of what we'd been before everything fell apart.
"I loved you," I said quietly, using the past tense deliberately. "I loved who I thought you were. The man who made me laugh, who challenged me, who seemed to see me as more than just Logan Hunter's daughter or the Hunter Maritime executive ,that man... I don't think he exists anymore. Or maybe he never did."
"He did," Greyson said, his voice desperate now. "He does. Cassie, I know I destroyed everything yesterday, I know I broke something that can't be fixed, but I swear to you the man you fell in love with is still here. He just made the worst mistake of his life. A mistake I will spend every day trying to atone for, even if you never forgive me. Even if you never speak to me again."
"Atonement isn't the same as forgiveness," I said, echoing the words I'd used before.
"I know. I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'm not even asking you to give me another chance. I'm just asking... I'm asking you to believe that I know how badly I fucked up. That I know I hurt you in a way that can't be undone, that if you never want to see me again, I'll respect that. I'll stay away. I'll leave you alone. I'll disappear from your life completely if that's what you need to heal."
I wanted to stay angry. Wanted to hold onto the cold fury that had sustained me through the night, that had gotten me out of bed and into that car and to this house. But looking at him—really looking at him.I saw a man who'd hit rock bottom. Who'd done something unforgivable and was genuinely grappling with what that meant about who he was.
Despite everything, despite the bruises and the broken trust and the violation, I still felt something for him. Something that wouldn't die no matter how much I wanted it to.
"I need time," I said finally, the words feeling both like a concession and a reprieve. "I need to figure out what I want. What I can live with. What I can forgive, if anything. Right now, I don't know if that includes you or not. I don't know if it ever will."
"Okay." He nodded, relief and despair warring on his face. "Okay. Whatever you need. Take all the time you need. Years, if that's what it takes. I'll wait. Or I won't wait, if you don't want me to. I'll do whatever you ask."
We stood there, three feet apart, and for a moment I thought about closing that distance. About letting him hold me, about forgiving him because it would be easier than staying angry, easier than sitting with all this pain and confusion and broken trust. About kissing him and pretending yesterday never happened, pretending the bruises on my arm were just shadows.
I took a step toward him. He took a step toward me. Our eyes locked, and I saw hope bloom in his expression fragile and desperate and almost painful to witness. Hope that maybe we could salvage this, that maybe love was enough.
" I love you Grey."
The window behind me exploded.