Chapter 126 Forty-Eight Hours
Chapter 126 Forty-Eight Hours
Kenna
Cassian stood across from me, watching every emotion flicker across my face.
Instinctively I took a step backward. My mind struggled to process what I had just heard, but the words refused to make sense.
Jayden.
Cassian’s son.
How did he know?
“No…” The word barely left my mouth. “You're lying.”
Cassian’s lips curved into a humorless smile.
“Am I?”
“Yes!” My voice echoed through the tiny room. “What proof do you have that Jayden is your son?”
“Proof?” He took one slow step toward me. “Maybe you’ve forgotten that we were intimate countless times while you were staying with Varkos.”
My throat tightened.
“That doesn't prove anything.”
“It proves more than you want to admit.”
“No.” I shook my head, even though my heartbeat had already begun pounding against my ribs. “You don’t know when I got pregnant.”
Cassian’s eyes darkened.
“I knew when you became pregnant, Kenna.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I secretly watched you stand there with that smile on your face, touching your stomach like you couldn't believe there was a life growing inside you.”
For a moment, I thought I had misheard him. My entire body froze as I stared at Cassian.
“I…” The words caught in my throat. “I was going to tell you.”
Cassian’s eyebrows pulled together.
“Were you?” He stepped closer until there was barely any space between us. “You dared to carry my son into another man's home and allowed him to call that man father.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice!” His voice shook the walls of the tiny room. “So don’t you dare stand there and tell me you had no choice.”
“Cassian!”
“You chose Varkos over me!” The words crashed into me. “You chose to let my son grow up believing another man was his father.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but the words wouldn’t come. Before I could think twice, I dropped to the floor, my knees hitting the cold ground.
I clasped my trembling hands together and looked up at me.
Cassian stared down at me.
“Please…” My fingers tightened around his hand. “Don’t tell Varkos the truth. I'll give you anything. Money. Whatever you want. Just leave Bleeding Rose. Leave and never come back.”
For a moment, Cassian simply stared at me. Then a laugh burst out of him, echoing through the tiny room.
“I don't want your money.” His eyes locked onto mine. “I want my son.”
My eyes widened.
Slowly, I pushed myself back to my feet.
“You must be joking.”
“Do I look like I'm joking?”
“Cassian—”
“He deserves to know his father.”
“He has a father!”
Cassian's expression hardened.
“No,” his voice was frighteningly calm. “He has a man who thinks he's his father.”
The words hit me harder than they should have.
Varkos had been there for Jayden all through these years.
Through every nightmare.
Every birthday.
Every moment Jayden had reached for someone to protect him.
I closed my eyes, already picturing the rage in Varkos’s face when he finally discovered the truth.
The moment he looked at Jayden and realized that the child he had loved for five years wasn't biologically his.
How would he look at me after that?
How could he possibly forgive me for keeping something so important from him?
My chest tightened at the thought.
“You can't do this,” I whispered. “Varkos will never allow you to take Jayden from him.”
“I don't care.”
“He'll fight you.”
“Then let him.”
The certainty in his voice frightened me. For several seconds, I simply stared at him.
From the look on his face, it was clear that he wasn't bluffing. This wasn't a threat meant only to frighten me.
He had already made his decision.
“I'm not giving you Jayden.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Cassian stared at me for a long moment. His jaw clenched so tightly that I feared his teeth might shatter.
“You still don't understand.” He leaned closer. He reached down and lifted my chin between his fingers. “I’m not leaving Bleeding Rose without my son.”
I stared into his eyes.
For the first time since I’d known Cassian, a terrifying realization slowly settled inside me.
Whatever love he had once carried for me had been buried beneath five years of anger and hatred.
He looked at me and saw the person who had stolen five years of his son’s life from him.
And he wanted revenge.
Cassian released my chin.
“You have forty-eight hours to give me Jayden.”
My heart stopped.
“Cassian—”
“Or I go to Varkos.” His voice cut through mine before I could finish. “And tell him about your little secret.”
“Please. Just give me more time.” I followed him desperately. “You can't expect me to just hand over a five-year-old child!”
Cassian didn’t answer.
Instead, he walked toward the door and pulled it open.
“Get out.”
I froze.
“Please.”
“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!”
His voice cracked through the tiny room. I flinched violently, and instinctively took a step back.
For several seconds I stood there. Then I turned away. My legs felt numb as I walked toward the door.
The moment I stepped into the hallway, the door slammed shut behind me. The sound echoed through the corridor.
For a long moment, I couldn't move.
Jayden.
Cassian wanted Jayden.
And if I didn't give him my son, he would tell Varkos everything.
By the time I reached my car, my hands were trembling so badly that I struggled to unlock the door.
Finally, the door unlocked.
I quickly slipped inside and slammed the door shut. For several seconds, I simply sat there, my hand resting uselessly in my lap.
For the first time in years, I felt something I hated with every ounce of me.
Fear.
Not of Cassian.
Not even of losing my marriage.
I was afraid of losing everything.
My fingers slowly tightened around the steering wheel.
There was no way in hell I could give Jayden to Cassian. But there was also no way I could allow Varkos to learn the truth.
I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes. My mind raced through every possible option.
Cassian thought he had cornered me.
He thought forty-eight hours was enough to force me into surrender.
He was wrong.
A small, dangerous smile spread across my lips as I started the engine. The car pulled away from the curb, disappearing into the darkness that swallowed the road ahead.
“I know what I have to do.”