Cassian’s POV
I didn’t sleep.
Not even a little.
My body lay still under the covers, eyes fixed on the dark ceiling as if the answers were carved in its shadows. But there was no relief to be found. Only guilt. Only my father’s voice echoing again and again in the quiet:
“You’re wasting time. I need results, not puppy love.”
I had told him a version of the truth. Not the truth-truth, because that would’ve gotten me into trouble, more trouble than I could dig myself out of. I told him Drasa had opened up about me to Elena. That she believed I liked her. Which was true. But he didn’t want truths that made me feel good. He wanted the kind that cracked her open like a vault.
He didn’t know that the lie had grown legs. That it had started walking into parts of my heart it had no business
