The Don Tore Up Our Divorce (Gemma and Cassian) novel Chapter 486

Chapter 486

Cassian’s POV

The fact that she doesn’t immediately reject my offer to stay, to celebrate day I ignored for three years sends a rare, fragile flicker of happiness through me.

It’s not permission, but it’s not a door slammed in my face, either.

At least, it’s a crack of light. I put my phone down after firing off a terse reply to Adam: [Acknowledged. Handling it.]

At that moment, the phone vibrates again, a different, more persistent rhythm. The screen flashes: Rhett. My jaw tightens.

Rhett has been calling for days, and I’ve let each one go to voicemail.

Gemma sees the name, sees my hesitation. Her voice is quiet, nudging me toward a decency I no longer feel. “You might as well answer it. He’s been calling you for days She’s

right I’ve seen the missed natificatia ve

Thesitate a second longer, then step away from the table for

a semblance of privacy. 1 press answer, but my thumb hovers over the speakerphone icon if this is about Reyna, Ger

will hear everything. No mos shadows, no more room for her to imagine worse. I top the icon.

“Cassian, where are you?” Rhett’s voice is trained, frayed at the edges.

Reyna has been trying to reach me. Rhett, as her faithful lieutenant, must have promised he could reel me in. “What’s the matter?” I don’t answer his question. I won’t give him a location.

“Cassian, can you come to the hospital? Visit Reyna? !… I can’t control her”

The sound of her name makes my frown deepen, a visceral reaction. “Rhett” I say, my voice flat and cold, meant to freeze any further plea. “I let things go for the sake of our post friendship. I’ve been lenient. If Reyna takes one more step out of line, I won’t be merciful. Don’t contact me about her again. I don’t want to know.”

I don’t know how I ended up with such friends in college. Aside from Liam, the other two have been a source of

bihing but headaches.

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< Chapter 486

+14 Bonus!

“Cassian, I know we’ve done terrible things to you and

Gemma, But it’s different

1. w. Reyna is out of control. Truly, I

can’t stop her!”

The desperation in his voice is real. He would never come to

or rival, if he had any other

me, his for

ice.

He spills it then, the sordid details. Reyna, pregnant by god–knows–who, is still clinging to Abel for his promised

payout.

She’s supposed to be recovering in the hospital, but Abel snaps his fingers and she runs out to drink with clients, the man is treating her like a disposable party favor.

And she’s leaning into it, saying she’ll do anything… anything… to secure that money for the baby. Now, Rhett says, she’s talking about touching “something like that.” Drugs, probably. The edge of the abyss.

“The only person who can talk her down now is you,” Rhett

pleads, his voice shaking. “One call from you, and she’ll

listen. She’ll come back.

I glance at Gemma. She’s heard it all, every pathetic, chaotic word. Her expression is one of stark disbelief. Reyna is really Brazy, the thought is clear in her eyes.

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Chapter 486

shards. “That has nothing to do with me.”

“Cassian, we have been friends since college!” Rhett’s cry

is row. “Can you really stand by and watch her destroy herself?” I can picture him, phone gripped in a trembling hand.

I correct him, the finality in my tone absolute.

“We haven’t been friends since you and she left Blackwell Industries. Not since she went after Gemma, over and over again.”

“But-”

“She can have whatever baby she wants, with whomever she wants to. She doesn’t treat herself like a person worthy of my respect or even decency. I have no obligation to save her.”

I don’t wait for his reply, there is nothing left to say. I end the call, the silence that follows feeling cleaner, sharper than the messy, desperate noise that came through the speaker. I look at Gemma, needing her to understand that chapter is closed. My loyalty, my corn, my battles–they are here

with a woman who chose her now. Not in a hospital

own destruction.

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If Abel wanted the child Reyna is carrying so badly, enough to promise her a future of ealth for it, why would he trec

her like this?

Letting her drink with clients, risking the fetus’s health… it contradicts the supposed value of the bo A cold suspicion threads through my thoughts.

“Did Abel’s son get cancer?” I ask aloud, the pieces starting

to align.

Cassian looks at me, his anger from the call shifting into

focus. “It seems so,” he confirms. “A couple of years ago. He’s

been in and out of the hospital.”

He remembers, as I do, Reyna’s vicious words at the party:

that they were likely to ‘die together,’ and that the Lovato family fortune would be hers.

“What kind of cancer?” I press, needing the specificity.

My serious tone makes him pause. He shakes his head

slightly. “I don’t know. Blackwell Heavy Industries doesn’t

have much to do with the Lovato family outside of the bank. I

never paid attention.”

Ragging sense of wrongness settles in my gut. It feels like

<Chapter 486

puzzle where the edges don’t meet, But without the right piece–the specific diagn the picture remains blurg frustratingly out of reach, I have to let it go for now, but I file the discrepancy away,

*****

Mikhail is finally being discharged today.

After days in the hospital room, his restlessness has reached a peak even his charming laziness can’t mask. The news, predictably, draws his twin shadows: Vicky and Lindo arrive, ready to flank him. He can’t easily shoo them away, not with his mobility still limited.

I finish my work early and go to help him pack, a small act of solidarity. He catches my eye the moment I walk in, signaling frantically with a desperate tilt of his head toward the two women hovering by the door. Help. Get rid of them.

I know what he means. I deliberately look away,

busying myself with folding a sweater. “Are your eyes uncomfortable?” I ask innocently, not looking up.

“Gemma, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he hisses, irritation cutting through his usual laid–back demeanor. 6/8

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