Chapter 7
Normally, Jocelyn would’ve picked up his calls in a heartbeat. She even had his number marked as a priority contact.
Watching him pace in a panic, Emily bit her lip and tried to reason with him. “She’s already blocked you. Why are you still chasing after a woman who throws you away like you’re nothing? Wouldn’t marrying me be so much easier?”
Cassian turned and shot her a vicious glare, pointing toward the villa
entrance.
“Get out. Now. I don’t want to see you, and I sure as hell don’t want to hear your voice.”
Before Emily could react, the housekeeper stepped forward, helped her up, and began nudging her toward the door.
Just then, both Cassian and Emily received a text at the same time.
“The wedding is already arranged. Just go through with it and spare the Vroman family any more embarrassment. The last thing we need is more.
rumors.”
Cassian quickly began typing a reply, desperate to ask where Jocelyn was.
But the moment he hit send, the message bounced back. Sophia had blocked him, too.
His grip tightened around the phone. With a blank stare, he snapped it shut and headed upstairs. He didn’t say another word; he simply slammed the bedroom door and locked it behind him.
He spotted the surveillance camera in the corner and stormed toward it. smashing it to pieces.
Cassian stood before the floor–to–ceiling window, his chest rising and falling sharply.
He couldn’t believe it. Jocelyn had really left–without saying a word. She had even signed the divorce agreement.
J
She’d always been the obedient one. During their five years of marriage, she had never once defied him.
When he told her to keep her distance, she walked on eggshells around him, never daring to cross the line.
When he made her sit in a disinfectant bath, memorizing the Vroman family’s code of feminine virtue, she soaked for two hours without a single complaint.
And now, everything had suddenly fallen apart.
Cassian’s heart clenched. This time, he had really gone too far.
Without thinking, he picked up his phone and called the private investigator, pacing as the call rang.
“Find Jocelyn. I don’t care how you do it–just find her. As soon as possible.”
On the way to the airport, Sophia’s bodyguard asked where I wanted to
- go.
I answered in a daze, “London.”
Before I married Cassian, I had fallen deeply for someone I met while studying abroad–Liam Castellan.
If it hadn’t been for that arranged marriage, he probably would’ve been my boyfriend long ago.
But I had realized it too late. And in my moment of despair, he was the first person who came to mind.
I boarded the plane with a fogged mind. When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in an unfamiliar apartment.
“Jocelyn, you’re finally awake.”
That familiar face that came into view was Liam’s.
And in that split second, all the strength I had held onto collapsed. I threw my arms around him and sobbed uncontrollably.
I remembered how Cassian and the others had stripped me bare and locked me in that crystal box–a prison of shame and pain that broke me from the inside out.
I never wanted to go back to that life.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m here…”
Liam held me tightly in his arms, giving me the kind of warmth I hadn’t felt in five long years.
Cassian always accused me of having ulterior motives with him. But sometimes, all I wanted was a strong, steady embrace.
But it didn’t matter anymore. Everything was in the past now.
That suffocating life was finally over.
I leaned against the headboard and talked to Liam for a long time.
I told him why I had to leave him back then, as well as the quiet,
Chapter)
struggling years I’d lived since.
17
I did most of the talking–rambling like a machine that had finally been switched on.
When I finally stopped, Liam looked me in the eyes and said quietly, with complete sincerity, “Jocelyn, if I told you I’ve been waiting for you this whole time, would that make you feel any better?”
I froze.
I wanted to tell him that it would, that those words would make me happy like a kid. But I also asked myself—was it fair to let him wait for me all these years?
For the next few days, I stayed at Liam’s place, slowly settling into the rhythm of his life. I automatically started cleaning–doing the laundry by hand and changing the sheets.
But one day, Liam stopped me. He looked at my hands, battered and covered in wounds, and his eyes reddened with emotion.
“Just throw them in the washing machine. You don’t need to live like this
anymore…”
Under his quiet guidance, I gradually changed how I lived. I began to
relax.
However, the peaceful life didn’t last long. When we were out buying groceries one night, I ran into the one person I never wanted to see again.
