Juliet’s heart jumped so hard it hurt.
She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe too loudly. Didn’t let her face change even a fraction. But inside, everything tightened.
A second passed. Then Cassian looked away again.
Elias crossed his arms now, his voice changing.
“You know what I can’t believe?” he said.
Cassian didn’t answer.
“The woman has spent years fighting you over deals,” Elias continued. “She has ruined so many of your projects I’ve stopped counting.”
Juliet’s lashes trembled faintly.
“She steals your clients,” Elias went on. “She steals your deals. And half of them end up in Vincent’s hands.”
Cassian stayed silent.
“And after all that,” Elias said slowly, “you’re still hopelessly in love with her.”
Juliet went completely still.
Her entire body froze under the blanket, as if even her heartbeat had forgotten how to continue properly.
In love?
The Cassian Han?
Withher?
Her thoughts scrambled, refusing to settle.
Cassian was her rival. Her enemy. The man she had fought, stolen from, outplayed, humiliated in business and walked away from too many times to count.
And yet—
Memories began to surface without permission.
Deals she had taken too easily. Moments where victory had felt… unearned. Times when Cassian could have destroyed her completely but hadn’t even tried.
Back then, she had thought she was just smarter. Luckier.
Now those same memories felt like something else entirely.
Something she had misunderstood all along.
Cassian’s voice cut through it.
“It’s my choice.”
It was defensive in a way that didn’t quite match his usual control.
“If she wants something from me, I’ll let her have it.”
Elias stared at him like he had finally run out of patience for the concept of reason.
“Let her have it?” he repeated.
