Chapter 51
Gemma
The driver, probably startled, actually does pull over to the curb.
“What are you doing?” Cassian barks.
I open the door before he can command the driver to get moving again and climb out. I bend down and speak to Cassian through the open door. “Leaving. I’m not your little rabbit. I said I can handle this, and I can. I don’t need you.”
He laughs. Outright laughs, right in my face. “Yes, you do.”
I’m so livid it feels like steam could shoot out of my ears. “No. I don’t. Fuck you, Cassian. Fuck your help, your power, and your money. I. Don’t. Need. You!“,
His expression darkens. “You think you can make your way in the world without me? Without everything I’ve given you?”
“I already am!” I shout,
He gives me a look filled with dark promise. “All right. If that’s what you think, so be it. I won’t help. You won’t have anything from me at all.”
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“Perfect,” I say.
14 min1
And then I slam the car door, turn, and march away. It’s extremely
satisfying.
Gemma
My satisfaction lasts that day and until the next afternoon when my phone buzzes with a text. It’s from a custom leatherworking
company.
My payment failed to go through.
I frown at the phone. I know exactly what this is for.
Months ago, when I was trying to figure out a nice gift for Cassian, I came across a place that did custom work. I ordered him a gorgeous hand–tooled leather wallet.
The order took months to come in, but apparently now it’s here… and the card I had ordered it on didn’t work.
That card is one that Cassian gave me. It’s connected to his accounts.
He’s never been stingy. Since getting married, I’ve had free
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access to all of Cassian’s money. In fact, he expected me to spend
- it. So that I could appear to “maintain a certain standard” of life.
That’s when I call the bank and find out that Cassian has cancelled all of my cards and taken me off all of his accounts.
The company I ordered the wallet from calls after that. The woman on the phone sounds polite, but in that condescending way people have when they think you’re too poor to afford what they make.
“Hello, ma’am. The wallet you ordered is finished. Would you like to pick it up and pay in person? Or would you like to have it delivered after an online payment?”
“Neither,” I say sweetly back to her. “Go ahead and sell it to someone else. I don’t need it anymore.”
I hang up the phone and sit at Zina’s kitchen table, tapping my lips with my fingers as I think.
I don’t need Cassian’s money…technically.
So far, payments for my hacking projects haven’t come in yet. In the past, I gave every penny of my personal money from my warehouse job to my mom’s medical bills.
Even though Grandpa Donovan pays for almost all of it, I want to
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help any way I can. Before, it always made me feel better.
Now, though, it means I have no savings.
I sigh and pace Zina’s place. She’s out, so I’m here alone, just
working.
I don’t give a crap about Cassian’s money, but if he cancelled my cards…will he cancel the payments for my mom’s doctors? Her medications?
Nausea forms a pit in my stomach, and I feel a sudden panic. My anger felt so good before, but I might have acted too hastily with Cassian the other night.
I might not need his money, but my mom does.
I walk into my room and spot the beat–up cardboard box I used to bring my few worldly possessions here. There isn’t much inside. A few T–shirts and some papers.
But at the bottom, shoved in a corner, is the one thing of value I have left from Cassian.
My wedding ring. My gorgeous, custom, insanely expensive wedding ring.
Besides the diamond necklace I donated the other night, the ring
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is the one really expensive piece of jewelry I have.
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I don’t want to lose it, but maybe that’s part of my problem. I need
cash. Just in case.
Decision made, I leave the apartment and find an upscale shop that sells secondhand luxury items. I walk inside, greet the woman behind the counter, then set the ring box down and open it.
She gasps as she sees the size of the stone and the quality of the workmanship.
“I’d like to sell this,” I say.
Her eyes are wide and almost scared. She says, “A–are you sure? This piece…it has to be worth…”
“I want 200 thousand dollars for it,” I say.
The shop sells on consignment. I won’t get my money until someone buys the ring, but it’s something.
I leave. I meet Zina for lunch. I sit down and say, “It’s just going to be water for me.”
She frowns. “Aren’t you hungry?”
My stomach growls loud enough that I know she hears it.
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I sigh and say, “Cassian froze all my cards. I just bought the apartment over by Jace. The money hasn’t come through for our other jobs. But I am selling my wedding ring, so hopefully I’ll get something from that soon.”
Zina lets out a low whistle, then says, “No worries, friend. I’ve got lunch, and I think we have a few more jobs coming our way. Do you think the ring will sell soon?”
I shrug. It’s a lot of money. Only a few people in the city might be willing to buy it.
I don’t expect the call I get from the shop the very next day.
And I never would have expected the person who wants to buy it
from me.
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