Chapter 8
Gemma
I feel Cassian’s eyes on my skin like a heated caress. Then he finally pulls them away to meet mine and he smirks, as if amused by a child’s tantrum.
His eyes drop to his hands, and he pretends to casually examine his nails. Then he says, “You can drop the act any time. I know you don’t want a divorce. Why would you when you worked so
hard to trap me in the first place?”
I grit my teeth. “All I wanted to do was survive.”
We’ve had this argument so many times, and I’m tired of it.
All my debts are paid. The only downside to this is that I’ll be hurting Grandpa Donovan.
Despite the way things started, he’s been genuinely kind to me for
the last three years.
But the terms of my contract only said I had to marry Cassian-
not stay married forever.
I know Donovan wants Cassian and I to make a Blackwell heir
together, which is shocking, since I’m a freak with no wolf. But
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technically, a baby is not in the contract.
9 min
I might be insane, but I swear Donovan thought Cassian and I would take to each other. That this would just…work.
I hoped for that, too.
But we were both wrong.
I gave Cassian three years, and he’s given me nothing. Grandpa
will understand, even with no baby.
Won’t he?
Pushing my fears aside, I say, “I’m not acting, Cassian. You have the papers. They have my signature already. All you have to do is sign and then we can file with the court. You can keep everything that’s yours. All I want are the few things that are mine.”
Cassian frowns at me. “What’s yours? Let me guess. Half of
everything.”
“No!” I say impatiently. “Only the things that were mine and my family’s property before the marriage.”
Cassian thinks of this. The moment of silence stretches. Then he
finally speaks.
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“Seaside Manor is still in my name. It belongs to me.”
His words stab, and I straighten suddenly.
Seaside Manor is my mother’s old house. All that was left to her from her old money, ancient bloodlines wolf family after they disowned her for marrying into the mafia underworld.
It had to be signed over to Cassian and put in the Blackwell name
when we were sorting out all the debts. Grandpa Donovan said
putting it in Cassian’s name meant I wouldn’t lose it.
He promised he would put it back in my name after the marriage.
Apparently, that never happened.
Seaside is on a small cliff, overlooking a lonely, beautiful beach on the Atlantic Ocean. My father refused to ever live there, but my mom used to take me in the summer, just me and her.
When I got older, my father refused to let us go there. He said it was his. I thought both my mother and I would die of sadness. It was like he took all of our happiness away.
I thought I was getting it back with this marriage. I hope, if I can take Mom there again, she might come back to herself a little bit.
“That house is mine,” I growl through gritted teeth.
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“It’s in my name.” His smirk deepens. “I’ll sell it to you, though. That land has gone up quite a bit in value over the last decade. It’s worth at least twenty million. If you have that much, I’ll give it to
you now.”
Twenty million dollars? Apparently, that is the price on my dignity. My happiness. The only positive parts of my childhood.
I thought if I divorced him, Seaside would go to me. But now, with
one sentence, he shatters my anger and defiance and breaks my heart when I thought it couldn’t break anymore.
But Cassian won’t care about that. To him, I’m nothing more than
gold digger, a manipulator, and a seductress.
a
He never even gave me a chance to prove I wasn’t what Reyna
said.
Then again, my father never did either.
Maybe that’s all I should expect from ruthless mafia Alphas. There’s nothing more to them than bloodlust and greed.
“Well?” Cassian says, like he enjoys turning his words into knives
and twisting them into my heart. “Are you worth that much,
Gemma?”
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I let out a bitter laugh, and the tears that were about to fall from my eyes disappear. I thought I had choices about my future, but every time I meet with Cassian, he takes more and more of my choices
away.
“You have no idea what I’m worth,” I say defiantly. I thrust my
finger toward the door. “Now get out.”
Cassian stands. He’s so tall, but for once, he seems to hold back
from looming over me. He looks at me thoughtfully, slowly. Then he says, “If you want it, you have one day to produce the funds.”
Then he turns and walks out the door. He doesn’t storm off or
slam it, he just leaves and shuts it politely behind him, like this was
a business meeting with one of his clients.
Bastard.
I stand there for a long time, fuming, my fists opening and closing. Then I stride toward the back of the apartment and grab my cell phone.
I call Zina.
It’s time to do what I have to do.
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