He Broke My Heart, I’ll Break His

Chapter 7

Vespera had imagined a hundred different ways her past relationship with Cassian might go public.

Not a single one of those scenarios ever came close to this nightmare.

She snatched the phone right out of Seraphina's hand, her eyes locking onto the trending tabloid photos of her and Cassian walking in and out of a luxury hotel together two years prior.

Her legs turned to jelly, every last bit of strength draining from her body.

Just as her knees buckled, and she was about to collapse, a pair of steady hands caught her from behind.

The Thorne family butler spoke softly, "Miss Vespera, Mr. Thorne is requesting your presence."

So Cassian already knew.

A jolt of sharp panic shot through Vespera.

Of course, he knew. A leak of this scale was impossible for Thorne Enterprise to miss.

She didn't have time to process the chaos. She followed the butler toward the Thorne manor, her footing unsteady with every step.

*****

Inside the main drawing room of the Thorne estate, Cassian sat motionless on the sofa.

The marble coffee table in front of him was covered with high-resolution surveillance stills and candid photos of the two of them from two years ago.

Shots of them entering private hotel suites, kissing in dimly lit corridors, holding hands... there was even a shot of his armored limousine.

Nothing explicit showed through the heavily tinted windows, but anyone in high society could easily deduce what had taken place inside.

Vespera froze, her throat locking before she could get a single syllable out.

Cassian's icy voice cut through the silence before she could breathe. "Was it you?"

Vespera's mind went completely blank, certain she had misheard him. "What?"

He didn't repeat the question. He simply pinned her with that sharp, unblinking glare, as if analyzing her micro-expressions to determine if she was lying.

After a few heavy seconds, the horrific weight of his accusation finally clicked. Her stomach plummeted, and her heart turned cold, piece by agonizing piece.

"You think... I leaked these?" She stared at him, stunned and disbelieving, her hands trembling so violently with rage that she could barely ball them into fists.

"Why would I do something like this? What possible benefit would this give me?!"

Cassian leaned back against the dark leather cushions, his fingers loosely interlaced over his lap, his expression as cold and unyielding as granite.

"You wanted public acknowledgment of our past, and you refused to return to Iceland. Two birds with one stone."

'Two birds with one stone,' the ruthless phrase echoed in her mind.

Faced with Cassian's complete conviction, Vespera couldn't force another word of defense past her tight throat.

He didn't believe her.

No matter what proof she brought forward, no matter how desperately she pleaded her innocence, even if she dragged the true culprit in front of him, he would never trust her word over his own cynical assumptions.

At that moment, a brutal clarity washed over Vespera: returning to Capital City had been a catastrophic mistake from the very beginning.

If she had stayed in Iceland, at least she could have clung to the fragile illusion that Cassian hadn't turned completely cruel.

That perhaps a part of him had genuinely loved her.

Her chest felt as if it were being torn open, raw and bleeding.

"Fine. Let's say I did it..."

She fought back the burning tears blurring her vision, her voice trembling as she asked, "What are you going to do about it?"

Cassian only gave her a long, unreadable look. "Go back to your family."

With that, he turned his wheelchair and retreated into his private quarters.

Vespera stood alone in the vast, silent drawing room, watching his silhouette fade until the heavy double doors clicked shut...

Her tear-filled gaze drifted back down to the glossy photos scattered across the coffee table.

She knelt down, her fingertips tracing the edges of the pictures one by one, before finally taking the single snapshot where they were standing closest together and tucking it into her pocket.

How tragic that after three years of intimacy, they didn't share a single official portrait together.

All because Cassian had demanded absolute secrecy.

Old memories surged to the surface, and her throat tightened with suffocating grief.

As she stepped through the grand foyer, the head butler tried to intervene. "Miss Vespera, it is late. You should stay here tonight."

Vespera shook her head.

Remaining under this roof would only give whoever orchestrated this smear campaign more ammunition to destroy her.

Yet as she stepped beyond the iron estate gates, she realized she had nowhere left to go.

The Kane residence?

She would rather die than set foot in that house again.

Vespera stood on the curb, gazing up at the gray expanse of the evening sky. A hollow ache for the barren solitude of Iceland swept over her.

Her life there had been isolated, but at least the freezing winds were honest...

Mind made up, she pulled out her phone and booked a one-way international ticket to Iceland.

When prompted to confirm the payment, her finger hovered over the glass screen. She looked back over her shoulder at the Thorne estate one last time, then tapped the authorization button.

Everything between them should have ended two years ago.

She had been the foolish one, refusing to let go, dragging herself back into his orbit.

It was time to sever the connection permanently.

Besides, her vanishing from Capital City was undoubtedly what everyone wanted anyway.

She let out a bitter, self-deprecating breath, pocketed her phone, and hailed a taxi straight to Capital City International Airport.

With no direct flights to Reykjavík, she booked a route connecting through Moscow.

The departure was five hours away. She sat on a cold metal bench in the bustling terminal, watching endless streams of travelers, wondering if she would ever set foot in Capital City again... or if this departure was final.

Right then, her phone vibrated aggressively.

To her disbelief, the caller ID showed her mother's name.

She hesitated, then swiped the screen to connect.

Before she could speak, Helena's shrill, venomous voice tore through the speaker, "Vespera, what did this family ever do to deserve you?! Why must you destroy everything we've built?!"

Her already battered heart sank like a stone.

Her voice came out hoarse and exhausted. "What did I do now?"

"You have the audacity to ask me that?!" Helena's fury reached a fever pitch. "Of all the powerful men in this city to seduce, you had to target Cassian Thorne?! Getting discarded by him wasn't disgraceful enough?! Now he is launching a hostile takeover to buy out the entire Kane Corporation! Are you satisfied now?!"