Page 26 of Vows of Deceit
Damien didn’t answer so Leo left and he didn’t come back.
The next time Leo saw Cassie, it was at the Legacy Gala planning session. She was poised, focused, but her eyes were tired. He waited until everyone left, then approached.
“Cassie,” he said gently. “You got a moment?”
She looked up, surprised. “Leo?”
“I need to talk to you.”
They moved to the balcony, away from curious ears.
“I know about Damien,” he said.
She stiffened.
“I’m not here to judge. Or to defend him.” He hesitated. “I want to help.”
Cassie studied him for a long moment. “Why?”
“Because I see you. I see what you’re doing and what it’s costing you and because if anyone deserves allies right now, it’s you.”
She didn’t speak.
“I’m not asking for anything. Just… let me be someone you don’t have to lie to.”
Cassie’s voice was quiet. “How do I know I can trust you?”
Leo looked her straight in the eye. “Because I’m tired of pretending, too.”
A long pause stretched between them. Then, slowly, she nodded.
“Alright,” she said. “Then you’d better catch up.”
And so, the first defection began. Damien’s closest friend was now Cassie’s quietest weapon. The game had changed and the queen was no longer alone.
Chapter Nineteen
The Guest List
Cassie sat at the sleek glass conference table inside the event planning suite of the Kings Grand Hotel. A long list of names blinked back at her from the tablet screen, each one a carefully selected chess piece on the board she was preparing to flip. She tapped the stylus against her lip, scrolling. Elaine Sterling. Charles King. Damien’s entire executive board. The press.
Not just any press but two national lifestyle journalists, the editor-in-chief of Elite Affairs magazine, and a select team from Regal Vision, the city’s most watched social broadcast outlet. She added their names and smiled.
The renewal ceremony was being billed as a “legacy celebration.” The wording was perfect, grand, indulgent, cloaked in love. No one suspected what she had planned. Not even Damien.
Especially not Kelly.
“Looks good,” Jared said, walking over with a printed mock-up of the guest badges. “Overkill, maybe.”
“That’s the point,” Cassie murmured. “It has to feel like the most important night of our lives.”
Jared arched a brow. “So when it crashes…”
“No one forgets.”
Kelly lounged in the Sterling sunroom later that day, sunlight falling across her tanned legs as she sipped citrus-infused champagne.
Damien stood by the window, watching the garden.
