Chapter 7 - CASSIUS ASKED ME TO STAY FOR THE WRONG REASON
Six months passed.
Laya recovered.
Marin’s legal dispute with Mrs. Prescott settled.
Dorian’s case moved through court.
Matteo disappeared from public life.
Edith had good days and bad days.
Memory did not become a miracle.
But she recognized Marin more often.
Sometimes as Marin.
Sometimes as Celia.
Both were okay.
Then Marin received a job offer.
St. Agnes.
Patient-family services.
Stable hours.
Excellent benefits.
A path toward hospital administration.
She had applied months earlier without telling anyone.
When she told Cassius, he became completely still.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six weeks.”
“No.”
Marin stared.
“No?”
Wrong word.
He knew immediately.
His jaw tightened.
“I mean—”
“You mean what?”
His expression hardened because vulnerability still felt like an enemy.
“My mother needs you.”
There.
Wrong reason.
Marin’s face changed.
“She has a full care team.”
“She trusts you.”
“She trusts Sylvio.”
“Not the same.”
“I am not staying because your mother needs me.”
Cassius looked away.
He was losing.
Not her.
The argument inside himself.
Then:
“I’ll double your salary.”
Marin laughed.
Actually laughed.
His face darkened.
“That was insulting.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
Good.
He tried again.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“Why?”
Silence.
“Cassius.”
He hated the question.
Then finally:
“Because when you are here, this house feels like somewhere people live.”
Marin said nothing.
“And because I look for you when you are not in a room.”
There.
No money.
No mother.
No obligation.
“And?”
He stared directly at her.
“And I am in love with you.”
Marin stopped breathing.
Cassius looked almost angry at having said it.
She sat opposite him.
“You’re my employer.”
“I know.”
“You control my housing.”
“Not anymore. You moved into your apartment two months ago.”
True.
“My salary.”
“For six weeks.”
True.
“Your family is—”
“Complicated?”
“Terrifying.”
“Fair.”
She almost smiled.
Then:
“I care about you.”
His eyes changed.
“But I am taking the job.”
Pain.
He hid it poorly.
“Why?”
“Because if there is ever anything between us, I need to know I chose it while I had somewhere else to go.”
Cassius sat very still.
Then nodded.
That response made her love him more.
Which was inconvenient.
Marin left the Vain household six weeks later.
Edith cried.
Sylvio pretended dust had entered both eyes.
Anton gave her three knives and lectured her about sharpening.
Laya brought the car.
Cassius stayed in the library.
Marin found him before leaving.
“So this is goodbye?”
“No.”
His eyes lifted.
“Dinner Friday?”
Cassius stared.
Then smiled slowly.
“Are you asking me out?”
“Don’t make it unbearable.”
“Friday.”
“No bodyguards at the table.”
“Nearby.”
“Cassius.”
“Chicago.”
She rolled her eyes.
Compromise.
That first dinner was terrible.
They were both too aware of it being a date.
The second was better.
By the fifth, Marin discovered Cassius had no idea how to order inexpensive Chinese takeout.
By the seventh, he discovered she became irrationally competitive at Scrabble.
Their relationship developed outside payroll.
Outside the mansion.
Outside debt.
Exactly as Marin needed.
Then a letter arrived.
From a prison attorney representing Dorian.
One sentence mattered.
My father did not start the fire. Dominic did.
Cassius read it twice.
The old wound opened again.
Was Dorian telling the truth?
Or trying to destroy Cassius’s memory of his father?
There was one person still alive who might know.
Edith.
And asking her could break whatever peace they had rebuilt.
Cassius folded the letter.
“I’m not asking.”
Marin looked at him.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the garden where Edith sat in sunlight.
“Because I finally understand she is my mother before she is evidence.”
Marin smiled.
May you like
That was how she knew he had changed.
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