Page 42 of Legally Yours

I know I have to put those feelings aside. Head over heart. At least for now.

This’ll give me time to talk with my mother. I know she has something to do with Cassandra wanting to leave our marriage. Cassandra is too nice to tell tales out of school. I’ll need to face my mother myself and dig hard for the truth.

After all, my mother threw me into an arranged marriage with Eunice which went south. What’s to say she didn’t force the destruction of this marriage, too? The one I really want to work.

I sigh, pick up the signed papers, and I walk over to Cassandra’s office. It’s the longest, most painful walk I’ve ever made. My heart screams at me the entire way, begging me not to do this, pleading with me not to lose the love of my life. My head refuses to listen. I knock on her door, willing tears not to well.

“Cassandra, do you have a minute?”

“Sure. Come in.”

I walk up to her desk. She can read my expression. I see her swallow hard.

“Here you go. You have the space you need. I just hope that in time you see in me what I see in you, and we can begin again.”

I hand over the document. She takes it. She reads the front cover, and she knows. She blinks her eyes as it registers. She’s free. I watch her remove her fake rings, too, and put them quietly in her desk drawer.

“Liam, I know this is hard, but I think it’s for the best.”

“Yes, well…”

“Thank you.” Cassandra smiles the weakest smile she’s ever given me.

I barely smile back, and I leave the room. There’s nothing more to say.

* * *

As the days go by,I see Cassandra around the building as she’s still a vital employee of the Anderson Modeling Agency. Only when I put eyes on her, she looks beaten down. Her usual top-notch fashionable clothes look worn and wrinkled. Her hair is askew. And if I dare to get close enough, which I try often not to do, Cassandra has bags under her bloodshot eyes.

From a distance, at least at the start of our separation, I observe her doing her work. Nothing seems to be lacking. She’s working with the new models with the same energy as before.

Only her responses, her actions, seem robotic. Like she’s working on autopilot. Her mind knows what to do, and her body obediently follows. I figure out Cassandra’s head is at work, but her heart is nowhere to be found.

Every fiber of my being wants to run up and ask her.Isn’t this what you wanted? And if it is, why do you look so beaten down? I’ve never said no to you, and I’m not about to start now.

Of course, fantasy isn’t reality. I hold back my urge. I don’t run to her side. I say nothing. I don’t approach Cassandra at all. I try my best not to bump into her, for every time I see her around the office the way she is, my heart breaks a bit more. At the excruciating sight, I head to my office, close my door, and pound my desk out of frustration. I talk to myself like somehow that’ll make everything right.

“I want her. I need her. All I want to do is hold her in my arms and kiss her better. Why did she force me away? Why?”

Oh, I know. It’s not good to fight facts.

I have to clean up my act before I can win Cassandra back for real this time. I know she doesn’t trust me, and that’s proof I’ve already failed. I need to work on my character to show her trust in me is possible, so she might give our relationship a second chance.

I twirl my office chair and look out at the Manhattan skyline. And I whisper to myself.

“If Cassandra won’t have me, there will be no one else.”

35

CASSANDRA

It’s all I can do to get out of bed.

The week prior, I did what I had to, to get the new models processed through. And I think I did it with no one at Anderson noticing how tortured I’ve been the entire time. I clear my inbox. I return all my calls.

I ring my PA from my desk. “Pat, I’m taking the next few days off work. Only call me if there’s an emergency.”

“Will do. Stay well.”

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