Chapter 9
1071 Words
CHAPTER NINE
CASSIAN POV
The sky over Sicily bled crimson as the jet touched down.
Cassian hadn’t spoken much since takeoff. Neither had Luna. Silence clung to them — not awkward, not hostile — but loaded. Like the air before a storm breaks open.
She sat across from him in black slacks and a blazer sharp enough to cut. Her hair was braided back, her expression unreadable. If she was afraid to meet the man who tried to write her fate in blood, she didn’t show it.
He watched her the way he always did — carefully, quietly, like if he looked too long, he might lose himself.
Because she wasn’t just beautiful.
She was terrifyingly real.
And Cassian Laurel wasn’t used to real. He was used to masks. To sleek lies. To glossy things that shattered the second he touched them.
But Luna didn’t break.
She burned.
And he knew — without question — she would set fire to Laurent Knight before she let him control her again.
He admired that.
He feared it, too.
Because there was a part of him that wondered if she'd still choose him once the fire settled.
The villa stood high above the cliffs, old and white and quietly watching the sea. The coordinates came from a shell company linked to LaurelTech’s off-the-record satellite trails — quietly monitored but never directly tracked.
Steven had known about this place.
And like always, said nothing.
Cassian’s jaw tightened as he stepped from the car. The villa door was open, as if Laurent had been expecting them.
Luna didn’t hesitate.
She climbed the stairs like they were her birthright, shoulders squared, heels echoing with precision. Cassian followed, every inch of his body ready for violence if needed.
Inside, the space was polished. Modern. Cold. A curated life with no real fingerprints — until they reached the study.
There he was.
Laurent Knight.
Not a ghost. Not a rumor.
Alive.
Mid-sixties. Salt-and-pepper hair, tailored suit, eyes like polished steel. He sat behind a marble desk, sipping espresso like this was a family reunion.
“Luna,” he said, smiling like he was proud. “You’re earlier than I expected.”
She didn’t sit. Didn’t smile.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I was,” he replied simply. “But you know how the Knights are. We prefer strategic exits.”
Cassian stepped beside her. “Strategic? You mean cowardly.”
Laurent raised a brow. “Ah. The Laurel boy. You’ve grown into your father’s anger, I see.”
Cassian stepped forward, but Luna stopped him with a slight lift of her hand — a silent command.
She was the one who came for answers.
He’d follow her lead.
Luna’s voice was calm. Too calm. “You used me.”
Laurent set down his cup. “I created you.”
“You made me a weapon.”
“No. I made you valuable.”
Her eyes didn’t flinch. “You tied me to a man I’d never met. You bargained my life before I was even born.”
“And look how well it turned out,” Laurent said smoothly, gesturing toward Cassian. “You’re beautiful. Brilliant. In power. In love. I gave you a life that mattered.”
“You gave me a script.”
Cassian could see the tension building in her fists.
Laurent leaned back, smile fading. “The world isn’t kind to women, Luna. Especially not women born into power. You would have been devoured without me. This way, you were protected. You and Cassian—”
“Don’t say his name like you had anything to do with it,” she snapped.
That was the crack.
The first.
Laurent sighed, almost bored. “You think you’re here to punish me. To reclaim something stolen. But the truth is — everything you are today is because I disappeared. Your father didn’t have the vision to carry our name into the future. I did. And the Laurel alliance—”
“—wasn’t an alliance. It was a leash.”
Luna stepped closer now, voice quiet and venomous.
“You disappeared and played god with my life from the shadows. You think I owe you for being strong? For surviving? I would’ve earned this life without you. The only thing you built was a legacy of control.”
Laurent studied her like a sculptor admiring his own statue. “So what happens now?”
Cassian spoke for the first time since they entered. “Now you disappear. For real this time.”
Laurent smirked. “You think you can threaten me?”
“I think we already did.” Cassian pulled a slim device from his coat pocket. “This entire conversation’s been recorded. Satellite-backed, cloud-synced, and pre-programmed for a global media dump in ten hours. Unless we cancel it.”
Luna folded her arms. “Your name will be dragged. Every shell company. Every secret file. The deal with LaurelTech. The offshore accounts. You’ll be ruined in three continents.”
Laurent’s lips twitched.
“Even your father didn’t dare destroy me,” he said softly.
“I’m not my father,” Luna whispered. “And neither is Cassian.”
For a long moment, silence held.
Then Laurent smiled, slow and sharp.
“I underestimated you.”
“No,” she said, stepping back. “You created me. And now you get to live with what you made.”
---
Outside, the sun was beginning to fall into the ocean.
Cassian watched her as they walked back to the car, her posture strong but distant.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
She didn’t answer right away.
Then—
“I don’t know.”
“That’s fair.”
She turned to face him, wind catching the strands of her hair.
“I hated him. But he believed in me more than my father ever did. That shouldn’t matter. But it does.”
Cassian nodded. “Because hate and grief look the same from a distance.”
She smiled bitterly. “Spoken like someone who knows.”
“I do.”
She stared at him for a long beat. “Are you still with me in this?”
He stepped closer. No hesitation.
“Every step, Luna. Even if we end up alone in the fire.”
She exhaled, some of the tension breaking.
Then she whispered, “Then let’s burn it all together ”
- Writer
