We got engaged.
+15 Bonus
I wanted a fall wedding–something golden and crisp, like the air before winter–so that gave us two months. But Kai, ever the
devoted fiancé, had already hired a full team of wedding specialists.
All I had to do was choose my dress. Everything else was already being handled.
I was counting down the days until I became Mrs. Drenner.
So I didn’t expect to run into Cassian the moment I stepped out of the bridal atelier–still flushed from trying on gowns, still glowing from my upcoming future.
But there he was.
He stepped out from the shadows of a nearby liquor store and cornered me in the alley behind it.
The smell hit first–cheap bourbon and something bitter underneath. His clothes were wrinkled, mismatched. His eyes
bloodshot. His jaw unshaven.
Cassian looked like hell.
“Charming,” I muttered, trying to step past him.
He grabbed my wrist and shoved his phone in my face. Photo after photo of me and Kai flashed across the screen–us laughing, arms around each other, Kai kneeling with a ring in his hand.
“Stalking me now?” I said, raising a brow. “Wow, Cassian. Didn’t peg you as the desperate type.”
His face twisted. “How could you do this to me, Izzy?”
I blinked. “Do what to you?”
“You’re really going to stand there and pretend?” he snapped. “He’s your boyfriend now? Seriously?”
“I’ve been with Kai for months, Cassian,” I said flatly. “Not exactly a secret.”
He scoffed, a bitter sound. “Boyfriend. Please. Don’t act like you’re above it all. You had a crush on me for what–fifteen years? And now you’re what, suddenly over me because he’s a better kisser? A better fuck?”
The words hit like a slap–and not at me. At Kai. How could Cassian disrespect so much to my Kai?
So I slapped him. Hard.
The crack echoed through the alley, and for a moment, Cassian froze.
2/3
8
Then, disturbingly, he smiled.
+15 Bonus
“If you break up with him, I’ll agree to be with you,” he said, almost gleeful. “I’ll even marry you. Isn’t that what you always
wanted?”
I held up my hand, flashing the ruby ring that glinted under the alley light.
“I’m already taken, Cassian. And let’s be clear–I don’t want you. Not in this life. Not in the next. Not ever.”
His gaze darkened.
But instead of backing off, he grabbed both my arms and pulled me closer, forcing me to look at him.
“You won’t marry me?” he said, voice low. “Funny. Because you already did.”
