Madeline remained seated on the plush bed, staring blankly at the silken sheets and the simple elegance of the room she was in. She curiously wondered whose house this was, and most importantly...why did Cassian bring her here?
"Urgh! My head.." she hissed out almost painfully, and like a rushing tsunami, everything that happened at the mansion came flooding her head in an instant. Fear gripped her body and heart as her eyes widened horrifically. The sight of her unmoving body, the numbing pain, the shadowy room, Jeremy, his ill-mannered words and how he planned on stripping her played in her head like she was revisiting a foreboding nightmare.
Her pretty face went pale and she Instinctively hugged her body, shaking her head at the thought of Jeremy’s lips on her exposed skin. It made her rub her neck violently as though she wanted to get rid of whatever sick feeling she felt when he had kissed her, and the tears she barely understood earlier finally dropped from her eyelids after remembering every little detail of his harassment.
"Why did he do that to me??" No matter how hard she tried to think about his reasons, Madeline couldn’t come up with any suitable justifications that could prove him innocent of what he did to her.
At that moment, the door opened and Cassian stepped into the room. Madeline looked up at him with teary eyes, and when he moved closer to sit at the edge of the bed beside her, Madeline didn’t wait for a second as she threw her arms around his neck, hugging him and pulling him down towards her as if she was afraid he’d vanish from her sight if she accidentally let go.
Her body trembled against him, and she wished she hadn’t remembered it. "Cas, are you really....are you really here with me?" It was a stupid question but Madeline wanted to reassure herself that she wasn’t alone, and that she wasn’t dreaming of his presence.
"I don’t remember leaving." Cassian answered softly while patting her back gently, letting her clutch onto him all she wanted. "You should feel proud. I heard no one survives the paralysis when they inhale extreme doses of it, and my little wife was able to stay alive. I guess I should stop underestimating your inner power."
Hearing this, Madeline finally pulled back. She looked into his eyes that showcased his restraint, and she lowered her head dejectedly while holding back more of her tears, shaking her head in disagreement. "I’m just useless. There were so many chances where I could have escaped Cassian, so many....but I could barely move and..."
"And It’s not your fault." He answered while cupping her cheeks tenderly in his palm, making her look directly into his eyes as he shook his head slightly. "Don’t think too much about it. Tell me, are you hungry?"
Madeline said nothing, she stared at him as though she was confused on how straightforwardly he responded to her. It took a few minutes of silence before she nodded her head in response, and he was about to rise to his feet to go get her something when she immediately grabbed hold of his wrist, shaking her head as another round of fear overwhelmed her eyes.
"Don’t leave me here, please."
"You’re safe now, this is my house, no one can harm you from here." He assured her, and Madeline blinked in surprise as her gaze wandered around the room before returning her attention to Cassian, her watery eyes displaying her bafflement to hear the beautiful room she was in belonged to Cassian.
"Your house?"
He nodded. "Our house, and we’ll be staying here from now henceforth, so you have nothing to worry about." There was not a hint of smile on his handsome face as he spoke to her, yet his tone was calm, but then again, the calmness certainly didn’t reach his eyes.
"Cassian..."
"Don’t move, you’re not allowed to stress yourself and I mean it. If you need anything you can always call on Inna. I need to return to the mansion to get our things."
"What...what about Jeremy?" She asked, but what she didn’t expect was to see his gaze darken momentarily as his jaw clenched, and his voice came out hoarse. "I’m holding my anger enough as it is, mentioning his name would only aggravate me and the only way I can gain satisfaction for what he did to you is by having his blood smeared in my hands."
"You want to kill him?!" Madeline’s voice expressed her shock and bewilderment, and she shook her head in disapproval while holding onto his arm, stopping him from leaving. "Don’t do something out of line, just let him be."
"Let him be??" Cassian didn’t bother to hide his rage from Madeline since she had already detected it. "He’s allowed to cross the line but not me? It’s not possible for the two of us to see without me biting his head off his neck. He put you in a life-threatening condition and what if I didn’t show up on time?? No Maddie."
"But I’m scared, stay with me for a few hours."
"Maddie."
"Fine, a minute then." She looked at him with pleading eyes, afraid to watch him leave the house and do something that would get him into trouble all because of her. With his job, his punishment could be extreme since he is supposed to give an example and not act out of emotion.
"Please stay." She begged, holding onto him, and when Cassian noticed that she had no intention of letting him leave, his anger cooled as he released a deep breath, and he brushed his fingers into his messy hair before looking at Madeline.
"Fine." He agreed, and that earned him a faint smile from Madeline who slowly released his arm. Getting his wife back to full recovery was all that mattered to him presently, and of course, he certainly wasn’t done with Jeremy just yet.
"Lay back." He helped her lie down properly as he adjusted the blanket over her body, and Madeline watched as he tended to her needs without complaining. Her heart eased and the terror in her subsided with Cassian staying by her side as promised.
Glancing at the room again and again like she was still surprised, she looked at Cassian and asked. "How come you never told me you had a house of your own?"
"I wanted to surprise you." He touched the tip of her nose with his fingertip. "Why did you think I ever had the intention of working? I was bound to leave that house sooner or later."
Madeline remained quiet at his response and she pressed her lips into a thin line. Surprisingly, she’s never asked Cassian about his main goal in life, but she assumed she’d be prying too much since their relationship was still on an early start and they barely knew one another for her to ask him something like that.
"Cassian..... what do you value most in life?" She asked, finally taking the next step to know more about his expectations and goals, and Cassian’s gaze wavered at her question.
"I value my family." He answered. "By that I mean, I value you, mother, Inna, Amade, Frederick and Adeline." He sighed. "But we can have this discussion another day, didn’t you say you were hungry."
As if in response to his question, he heard her tummy rumble lightly, and that made his lips curve into a slight smile for the first time while Madeline felt like hiding away in embarrassment.
Damn you! stomach!