Page 103 of A Sinful Gravity

I squeezed my eyes shut, shoulders hunching instinctively, bracing for that familiar, stinging pain.

But the slap never landed.

A solid, warm chest blocked everything, shielding me from the cold.

Cassian. His face was dark. Fury burned in his eyes. He held Katherine's wrist—not hard, but enough to stop her.

He'd hung up and gotten here somehow. Now he had me locked against him, his posture radiating absolute possession and protection.

Katherine's sharp gaze flinched under Cassian's cold stare. She pulled her hand back, straightening her disheveled shawl.

"Good evening, Cassian. I was only teaching her how to be a proper wife."

"She's already perfect as she is." Cassian had zero interest in hearing her out. He looked down at her, his disgust thick and unmistakable. "If your teaching means making her beg and compromise, then you can leave."

"That's not—"

"I love her. I love everything she is." Cassian glanced at me gently. "So I won't let anyone hurt her. Not even you, Mrs. Crawford."

Katherine opened her mouth, trying to say something.

But Cassian stepped forward, blocking me completely.

"Now leave. Before you regret it."

She stood there, looking at us. Her expression cycled from anger to shock to something complicated.

"But I only want what's best for her." She murmured, voice dropping low, almost talking to herself. "Everything I did was for her own good..."

She opened her mouth again, trying to salvage some last shred of fake dignity. But when she met Cassian's ice-cold eyes, she shut it.

Her gaze still held anger, resentment, and something I'd never seen before—confusion, maybe. Or bewilderment.

Then she turned and walked away slowly, her pace quickening.

Those frantic, chaotic heel-clicks finally disappeared around the corner.

The silence returned, heavy as stagnant water. I stood frozen in Cassian's arms. All the strength and composure I'd forced myself to show crumbled to nothing.

The hurt of being degraded like trash by my own mother—that time bomb buried for years—detonated in my chest.

My body shook. Starting in my fingertips, spreading to my arms, shoulders, everywhere.

Cassian turned, looking at me.

"Luna. Don't think about it."

His palm stroked the back of my head gently, pressing my face to his shoulder. His voice was soft. "It's over. I'm here. No one can hurt you again."

I looked up at him. The tears finally broke free.

"Why... Cassian, why doesn't she love me?" Tears poured down my face, like I was crying out twenty-plus years of buried pain.

This was the first time I'd stood up to Katherine. I'd succeeded. So why did it hurt so much?

I buried my face in his chest, clutching his shirt.

"Why am I only ever a bargaining chip to her? She didn't even ask how I survived in London all those years. She only cared if I embarrassed her!"