Page 68 of Blood Heir

I’m done being anyone’s pawn.

I wipe my tears, my breath shallow but growing steadier as a cold calmness settles into my bones.

I know who I am now.

And I will make them all pay.

Chapter 16 - Cassian

I knock lightly on the door before stepping inside. The room smells like her perfume, sweet and sharp—like she’s trying to cover up something rotten underneath.

Emilia is bent over her suitcase, stuffing clothes in without folding them, her movements frantic. The straps of her tank top slide off her shoulder and she doesn’t bother fixing it. Her baggy jeans hang loose on her frame. She hasn’t eaten properly in days. I can tell.

Her face is blotchy, eyes swollen, streaks of dried tears staining her cheeks. She doesn’t look at me when I enter. She just keeps packing.

“The apartment’s ready,” I say softly, clearing my throat. “I had them stock it up with groceries. Sheets. Everything you’ll need.”

She gives a short nod, never pausing her frantic shoving of clothes.

“I also spoke to a friend at Melbourne Community College.” My voice feels oddly gentle, unfamiliar in my own mouth. “They’ve got some late enrollment spots open. If you want… you know, a fresh start. Take a few classes. Get away from all this.”

She snorts, her back still to me. “You can stop pretending you care, Cassian. We both know you’ve been waiting for the day you’d see the back of me.”

I rub the back of my neck, sighing. She’s not wrong. I have despised her manipulations, her petty schemes. But something about seeing her like this—stripped of all the venom, shaking with humiliation and heartbreak—hits differently.

“I know you took Fee to the hospital,” I say, voice lower now. “You didn’t have to. You could’ve left her there with those animals. But you didn’t. That counts for something.”

Her hands freeze over the half-filled suitcase. She stares at the fabric like it’s suddenly foreign.

“I am evil, Cassian.” Her voice cracks, softer than before. “And I’m useless.”

She sits heavily on the edge of the bed, clutching a shirt against her chest like armor.

“I spent half my life chasing after a man who never looked at me the way I looked at him,” she whispers. “I hated my cousin just for existing. Just because she married him instead of me. And now look at me—I ended up fucking Monte like some pathetic schoolgirl desperate for attention.”

I shift my weight, biting back my usual sarcasm. It’s easy to hate her when she’s spitting venom—but now, now she just looks like a girl who never stood a chance.

“If it makes you feel any better…” I finally say, my voice gruff. “Serevin set Monte and Gustavo straight. Brutally. It’ll probably stir up more problems later, but… you can take some pleasure in that. Serves their raggedy asses right.”

At that, she actually laughs—bitter, sharp, but still a laugh.

“Oh, I’ll relish in that,” she spits, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “Serves his raggedy ass right.”

She freezes again, her voice trembling as her emotions bubble up like boiling water spilling over.

“No one ever chooses me, Cassian,” she says suddenly, her eyes meeting mine now—red, wet, desperate. “Not him. Not Fioretta. Not my parents. No one!”

Her voice grows louder, higher. Frenzied.

“Serevin belonged to me first!” she screams. “He was mine before she showed up! He was going to ditch Fioretta! He told me once he would!”

Her body shakes as if she might collapse under the weight of it all.

And I can’t mock her this time.

I sit on the chair across from her, elbows on my knees. I stare at her. Not the Emilia I’ve hated, but the broken one beneath all of it.

“You were a kid, Emilia,” I say quietly. “You’ve been trying to win something that was never yours to win. That’s not your fault.”

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