The silence stretched painfully between them. Cassie’s heart pounded so loudly she could hear it in her ears.
Her father’s face flushed an angry red. “Cassie, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Charles Blackwood’s lips curled in disgust. “This is foolishness. You're risking everything for what? A fling?”
Cassie stood tall, her fingers tightening around Damon’s hand. She wouldn’t let them intimidate her anymore.
“This isn’t a fling,” she said, her voice calm but firm. “I love Damon. And he loves me.”
Damon nodded without hesitation, his thumb brushing reassuringly across her knuckles.
“We’re not asking for your blessing,” Damon added, his voice hard. “We’re informing you.”
Richard Langston stepped forward, lowering his voice in a way that was far more threatening than if he had shout
