Cassian's POV – Virelux Boardroom
The second summons didn't come with yelling.
Just signatures.
He stood before the board again, this time without a voice. Without choice.
Gregory Slant sat at the head of the table with the kind of calm that only came from bureaucracy and age. Sixty-five years old, slow-moving, with eyes that barely blinked.
"This is not about personal failure," Gregory said smoothly. "This is about perception. About liability. We need to regain the trust of our stakeholders."
"By removing the person who built it?" Letizia asked.
Gregory smiled in a way that wasn't quite human. "By preserving what remains."
Letizia leaned forward. "You think this will end scandal? Slant, you couldn't even handle email filters without crying in Q4 of '21."
A board member cleared her throat. "Letizia—"
"No. Let's be honest. This is a public decapitation. The difference is, this time the blade's dull."
Cassian stayed silent.
When the vote passed by one voice, he didn't speak.
Gregory stood and extended a hand. Cassian didn't take it.
Letizia rose with him, quiet fury in her posture. "You'll regret this," she said, not to Gregory, but to the room. "Because you're replacing fire with embers."
They left without another word.
---
Lyra's POV – Apartment
The email came at 1:12 p.m.
> From: Gregory Slant, CEO
Subject: Executive Office Transition
Effective today, I am honored to assume leadership at Virelux following Mr. Dorne's leave. His contributions will remain foundational as we move forward in a new phase of strategic alignment.
She didn't read the rest.
Her fingers trembled.
She opened her messages.
>Lyra: Are you okay?
>Lyra: Please let me know where you are.
>Lyra: Cassian. Just… say something.
No response.
She called. It rang. Straight to voicemail the second time.
She tried again later. Again. Then stopped.
She typed an email instead:
> I saw the transition memo.
I know you didn't want to leave like that.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do, except wait.
But if you're waiting for me to say something… I would have. I just needed a moment to breathe.
Don't mistake quiet for absence.
—L
She saved it. Didn't send it.
Just like the others.
---
Cassian's POV – Temporary Apartment
He read every text.
Listened to every voicemail.
Then turned off his phone.
He stared at the ceiling that night with nothing but the hum of the air vent and the click of a loose pipe under the kitchen sink. A far cry from the city skyline and custom espresso machines.
Her voice echoed in his memory, soft, warm, too good.
But she hadn't said anything.
When he'd laid everything down in front of her.
His role, his name, his pride.
She'd just looked at him.
She didn't run.
But she didn't choose him, either.
Not fully.
Maybe she loved the idea of him. The CEO. The control. The safety.
Not the man who was now just… Cassian.
He gripped the edge of the sink until his knuckles hurt.
He missed her.
But he didn't want to crawl back into her life if she wasn't sure she wanted him.
---
Lyra's POV – Apartment
She curled around a pillow that still smelled like laundry soap and faint cologne. His cologne.
The space beside her was cold.
Talia came by the day before. Brought soup. Made sarcastic comments about the new CEO's tie collection. But Lyra barely smiled.
She didn't want soup.
She wanted answers.
She wanted to know where Cassian had gone, and why he was letting silence stand in for explanation.
"I said I missed you," she whispered into the pillow.
"I would've told you I love you, too. If you'd stayed long enough to hear it