Page 80 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
“I… I don’t think that in your original state I could be used against you.”
“You could be. Believe me. I did not come after you with the intent to let you stay away from me.”
Her eyes narrow. “Did you remember something?”
“No. I feel it. I feel it burning inside of my chest. I would never have let you go. I would never have let you stay away from me.” Suddenly, the fire in my blood is too hot to control. I reach out and wrap my hands around her wrists. I pull her toward me. “Do you have any idea what it felt like to return and have you be gone? You were nowhere. Nowhere in the whole house, I turned everything upside down. My security said you’d gone out shopping—something you never do—but they didn’t know where you went. I told them what fools they were for not tracking you. And then… Then I began to find your trail. You sold the car. I was able to trace your phone. And then I began to make a plan.”
I wasn’t conscious of remembering those things. But they’re coming out of my mouth, and I have to pause and see if they’re true. Are they memories?
Yes. I’m almost certain they are. I can see myself clearly in the house now, running barefoot up and down the halls, calling for her.
My first instinct was to be afraid. Afraid that something happened to her.
Yes. There has always been an aura of danger. A certainty that she would be taken from me.
I release my hold on her and I sit there, letting the feelings wash over me.
“What?”
“I thought they had done something to you.”
“Who?”
“I don’t… I don’t know, Cassandra. I don’t. I only know that I… I only know that I fear for your life. And then when I found out that you were safe I was angry. So angry. You left the safety of my care. I went to Paris and I was watching you. I had to keep you safe. But then you started talking to that boy.”
“You were watching me?”
“Yes. You’re my wife. You’re mine. You decided to leave the marriage, I did not decide to let you.”
This violence rising up inside of me…
This is what I lead with. This is the man that greets the world. This is the one that I know. The one that makes my decisions. The one who married Cassandra. This is the man that she knows. This man who is so dead set in his ways, and so certain of what he wants that there is no room for discussion.
And I know that he exists because without him he wouldn’t be alive. And Cassandra certainly wouldn’t be safe.
Whatever she thinks.
I let him take over me then. This man who knows things I don’t. It’s the only way I can think of him. It is not two personalities. But there is an instinct there I have not earned.
“You’re my wife,” I say. “Till death do us part, Cassandra. And not a moment before.”
“You were killing me,” she says.
She gets up, pulls away from me and storms out of the room, but I follow her. “Stop,” I say.
“No. Is this…? This is who you are. Even without your memories, this is who you are.”
“You don’t understand. I’m remembering things. I remember… I remember that day, and I remember how I felt. I was so afraid for you.”
“That’s what you say. But the truth is that you just don’t want me to leave you. You don’t know how to lose, Dragos. I do expect that everyone is going to fall in line, especially me. Because you put a spell on me the first time we met.”
I close the distance between us, and I grab her wrists and pull her up against me. “The spell was mutual. You wrecked my life the first time I saw you. I knew that I would do anything to have you.Anything.There has never been another woman…”
I stop, because I don’t know what to say next. Because suddenly, everything I think I know ends. Like a cliff. There’s nothing. It’s just her. Her, her, her. I don’t have facts anymore. I only have my beating heart, the way that it hurts to breathe. I only see her.
So I do the only thing I know to do.
I kiss her.
