CASSIA
"It's either you accept my terms and do as I say, or I send you back to the blood ring," Kairos said without mincing his words.
I flushed as his gaze slowly traveled up and down my body, looking at me in that dirty way. A look I now hated.
"Paolo will be happy to buy you, fuck you, and put his hundredth bastard inside you."
I swallowed hard, staring at him.
He only shrugged indifferently, as if whatever choice I made didn't matter to him. He didn't even spare me from those harsh words in front of the slut clinging to him now, kissing along his jawline as if it were the only interesting part of the conversation.
"She's not your type of girl, Kairos," Lily whined. "She's all bones and too pale. She looks like a servant. I can give you whatever you want."
Kairos said nothing at the insult. He only stared at me intently.
I saw the challenge in his dark eyes, daring me to contradict him. But when I said nothing, he turned away, leaving with Lily.
My fingers tightened around the document as I watched their retreating figures, a bitter taste spreading in my mouth.
I drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out before turning back toward the building.
I didn't know what had happened to Kairos in the last five years or why it seemed like he was directing all that anger toward me. I assumed it had something to do with him and my father.
Yet I was the one paying the price.
I was the one being humiliated by someone I had believed shared the same feelings I had held onto all those years.
I stepped back into the living room to see Mrs. Moore humming happily. The moment she noticed me, she straightened from where she had been leaning over the TV console.
"My daughter has a good upbringing," she began proudly. "She's twenty-six, beautiful, a medical doctor, and she's helped Kairos in more ways than anyone else could. She's tech-savvy and not desperate for a man's attention. She'll make a wonderful wife."
She spoke as though I had asked for a full introduction, like I was some employer searching for the perfect candidate to hire.
I wondered if she was aware Kairos had a fiancée.
I paused at the foot of the staircase and glanced back at her. Mrs. Moore's smile widened.
"She has never harbored inappropriate feelings for her brothers," she continued, her lips curling with disdain. "That kind of thing is disturbing and disgusting."
Her words barely stung.
Living with Francesca and her daughters had hardened me long ago. After years of listening to their constant insults, I had developed a thick skin. Compared to Francesca's cruelty, Mrs. Moore's words were almost mild.
"What?" Mrs. Moore snapped when I didn't respond. "Are you going to deny you have feelings for him? I'm not stupid. I can see that look in your eyes, and I know exactly what it means. I can't even imagine what your parents must have gone through raising a daughter like you."
Perhaps in that moment I was almost grateful for being the least known daughter of Leonardo Marcelli.
Francesca's children were always the ones proudly paraded around. Anyone who happened to learn about me usually did so by accident.
And the moment they did, they hated me.
For reasons only God knew.
Still, I believed it had everything to do with Francesca, who had spent years painting me as the evil child trying to ruin her marriage.
I drew in a deep breath, pushing those thoughts aside and focusing on Mrs. Moore.
"Your daughter has a good upbringing?" I murmured, repeating her earlier words. A mocking laugh slipped from my lips. "If that were true, then unicorns must exist in this world and not just in fantasy."
Mrs. Moore's face twisted with fury. She slammed the towel in her hand onto the console and stalked toward me. "What the hell are you implying?"
I tilted my head slightly, gripping the staircase railing.
"I'm saying your daughter is a slut," I replied coolly. "She was bent over a few minutes ago in my so-called brother's office. And no woman—no modest woman—would ever allow herself to be treated like that."
The moment the words left my mouth, I turned and began climbing the stairs.
"Come back here!" Mrs. Moore shrieked. "How dare you speak about my Lily that way!"
"Your Lily is a cheap whore," I muttered under my breath. And she knew damn well it was true.
I ignored Mrs. Moore's shouting, kicked my bedroom door open, and walked straight to the bed.
The document landed on the mattress with a dull thud. I stared at it for a moment.
Then I started pacing the room, shoving my fingers through my hair and grinding my teeth as Kairos's words echoed again and again in my head.
"Mistress."
"It's either you accept my terms, and do as I or I send you back to the blood ring."
It was either him or those savages in the blood ring.
My stomach churned as I remembered the men who had tried to buy me. I shuddered at the thought of what my life would look like now if that had happened.
Maybe even worse than what Kairos had described.
Yet the thought of belonging to him… no. The thought of being his mistress made me feel sick.
"It's either him or them, Cassia," I whispered to myself.
What other choice did I have?
None.
I stopped by the window, gulping hard as nausea rose in my throat at the thought of Paolo. The ugly, pudgy bastard.
Gripping the window sill tightly, I leaned my head outside and took two deep breaths.
"It's either Paolo breeding you or Kairos… your childhood sweetheart," I muttered for the third time, as if repeating it might somehow make it easier to accept.
But it didn't.
I still couldn't understand why he had given me that contract in the first place.
Maybe reading it, like he suggested, would give me some answers. Maybe it would even give me some kind of leverage over him.
I began to pull back from the window when movement caught my eye.
Kairos and Lily. They were lying on the sun loungers.
Naked.
My gaze lingered on them as a slow, burning anger rose inside me. My jaw tightened.
"Fine, Kairos," I clenched my teeth. "I'll agree to your terms." My fingers curled against the window frame. "But on one condition."