Cassian was sprawled across my bed like a fallen angel, half-conscious, his shirt rumpled and fingers reaching out to me with a drunken slur of my name. 

“Isadora?” he murmured, eyes barely open. “Why are you standing so far away?” 

The sound of his voice—so familiar, so heartbreakingly intimate—made my chest tighten. 

I froze. 

This was it. The moment everything went wrong in my past life. 

Cassian smiled, slow and lazy, as he tugged at the buttons of his shirt. “Come on, Isadora.” 

He looked like sin and temptation and everything I used to want. 

But I knew better now. I didn’t move closer. I took a step back instead. 

In my past life, Damian—my brother—had handed me that glass of whiskey tonight with a knowing smile. He knew I had a crush on Cassian, his dangerous, untouchable mafia friend. 

He’d poured Cassian a drink. Said it was to loosen him up. 

“If he doesn’t love you,” Damian had whispered, “What’s the harm in a one-night stand?” 

Back then, I’d been naïve. I’d believed Cassian and I were the perfect match. 

He was the ruthless king of the mafia world. I was the daughter of Manhattan’s most powerful casino mogul. 

Together, we could’ve ruled New York. 

So I went along with my brother’s plan, got myself overwhelmed by the fantasy that Cassian actually wanted me. I’d let him—when he kissed me, when his hands slid under my clothes. 

One night. That’s all it took. One night led to a pregnancy. And then a rushed proposal from the ever-honorable Cassian. 

I thought love would grow from responsibility. That he’d come to love me the way I loved him. 

But Cassian left the day I gave birth. Vanished for five long years. 

When he finally returned, he wasn’t alone. He brought Alessia—his first love, his forever, the one he’d abandoned us for. 

She hated me. Hated our son, Leo.