Chapter 26
The morning after the kiss was not filled with the soft, cinematic glow of a new romance. Instead, it was draped in the cold, grey reality of a Cumbrian dawn that felt like a physical weight. When Chloe emerged from her room, her eyes swollen and her forehead still tingling from the ghost of Cassius’s lips, the cottage was silent. Cassius was there, sitting in the shadows of the living room, but he was a statue. He didn't look up when she entered the kitchen. The air between them was no longer electric; it was stagnant, thick with the things they were both too afraid to say. The "husband and wife" charade, once a clever tactical shield, now felt like a cruel joke. "I’m leaving for the clinic," Chloe said, her voice sounding thin and brittle in the quiet room. "I took a double shift. I
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