Page 13 of One of Those Amnesia Stories

Cassian was working.

He was struggling to keep Velaré afloat, sacrificing his own birthday because the company needed him.

While I spent hours polishing his image for a room full of strangers, he had been somewhere else.

With her.

My stomach lurched, and every excuse I had made for him turned sour.

I had spent so much time convincing myself that Cassian was drowning beneath the weight of everything he carried. Every late night had a reason. Every missed dinner had an explanation. Every unanswered call fit neatly into the story I needed to believe.

Until a question slipped through the cracks.

What if he could have come home all along?

What if those late nights, those dinners I’d eaten alone, those calls left unanswered had never been because he was too busy, too tired, or too far away?

What if he’d simply been somewhere he wanted to be more than he wanted to be with me?

The breath caught in my throat. I drew in another, but it barely reached my lungs before my chest seized again.

Because if that was the truth, then somewhere along the way, Cassian had stopped choosing me.

Chapter 2

The sound of their laughter cut through me, twisting something deep inside my stomach. I couldn’t move. I stood in the shadows of the hallway, staring into our foyer, every muscle locked as I watched them.

Cassian looked up, his eyes crashing into mine. Surprise flashed across his face, followed by a flicker of guilt that disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

“Alessia,” he said, his voice calm enough to make my skin prickle. “You’re still up.”

I tore my eyes away from him and settled on her.

Up close, I could see the faint flush across Cassandra’s cheeks, the loosened strands of hair framing her face, the lazy curve of her smile. But it was the way she looked at Cassian that made my jaw tighten. Her eyes lingered over him with open admiration, warm and unguarded, holding on to every second beside him. She looked entirely too pleased to be there.

Cassian followed my gaze, his eyes dropping to Cassandra before returning to me. “Work ran late. We closed the Aethelstan deal, and the team went out to celebrate. She had too much to drink to drive home, so I brought her with me.”

My eyes remained on her. She was still watching him, that soft, drunken smile lingering on her lips. The sight scraped against every ounce of patience I had left.

“Liam?”

His name came out clipped, carrying enough accusation to make the question beneath it obvious.

Why isn’t her own brother dealing with this?

Cassian’s answer was immediate. “He’d left already.”

And you didn’t.

The words turned bitter on my tongue. My shoulders tightened as I held his gaze, letting him read the question I refused to ask aloud.

“One of us,” he said, his voice taking on the calm, controlled tone he used when defending a difficult business decision, “had to stay. After everything we’ve been through, they deserved a night to celebrate. I couldn’t just leave, Alessia.”

Did he really just use that tone with me?

With me?

The cool, analytical, conference room dismissal tone. I stared at him, and suddenly I could hear it in other conversations too. Other moments I had brushed aside, other times he’d spoken to me with the same polished detachment.