Jordyn’s POVI was shocked. Shocked and embarrassed.What had she just said?I couldn’t believe it. Cassandra had just told everyone that we were getting a divorce!How dare she?I was caught between my anger and utter humiliation.I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. My parents were staring at me, a scrupulous look on their faces. And my grandfather? His jaw was hanging wide open.Not cool, Cassandra, I thought to myself. Not cool at all.I had to say something. I had to regain my composure. Everyone was gawking. This was awful.I put down my fork and cleared my throat. My cheeks were flushed from humiliation.“Is this true?” my mother asked.“Not entirely. I haven’t agreed to the divorce,” I said, my eyes focused on my plate. I felt Cassandra’s eyes boring into me. She was clearly very, very angry at my mother. But this? This was crossing the line.I looked up and locked eyes with Cassandra. “This is a personal matter, Cassandra,” I said, each word slow and enunciated. “Plea
Cassandra’s POVI said good-bye to Stanley and thanked him for our talk. But when I left the study, I was surprised to see Jordyn standing up against the wall, right outside the study door!Our eyes met and I looked at him suspiciously.“Were you eavesdropping?” I asked.Had he been standing outside the door the entire time? And if so, how much had he heard? It was supposed to be a private conversation between me and Stanley!Jordyn stared at me, his gaze intense.“Did you just tell Grandpa about the divorce? Why? It’s our personal business,” he said, ignoring my question.I was flummoxed. Jordyn continued to stare at me. He had a strange look on his face. Surprise? Concern? Hurt? And I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard a touch of desperation in his voice.“What do you care? I asked. “It’s not a secret, Jordyn.” I kept my voice calm and controlled. “At least, it shouldn’t be. Your family has a right to know. The divorce is already decided. All you have to do is sign the papers an
Cassandra’s POV“Cassandra!” Jordyn called out. He rushed to my side and knelt beside me. This surprised me. I thought for sure he’d go to Ellie first. “What happened? Are you okay?”No. Not really. My body hurt in places I didn’t even know could hurt. But before I could reply…“Arghhhhh.” Ellie moaned loudly.His gaze turned from me to Ellie and he quickly stood up and went to her.We had both screamed as we fell down the stairs. Luckily, though, most of the guests had already left. So it was only a small group that assembled in the foyer at the foot of the stairs.Stanley came down the stairs, and Velma rushed in alongside her sister, Victoria, Jordyn’s aunt.The shock of the fall had worn off, and I was able to sit up. In my peripheral vision, I saw Jordyn help Ellie up to a sitting position.“Ladies,” Velma gasped. “How did this happen?”“Can you stand?” Jordyn asked. She had her arm around his shoulder for support.“Ow. No. Stop. I can’t. It hurts too much,” Ellie whined.“Oh hone
Cassandra’s POVJordyn’s face darkened. He pressed his lips together.“You sent your sugar daddy to pick you up?” he asked angrily. “From a party at my family's estate?”Wait. What?My who?Jordyn reached out and forcefully grabbed my arm.“That’s in really poor taste, Cassandra, even for you,” he seethed.But he had it all wrong.“It’s not my sugar daddy,” I explained. “I’ve already told you. I don’t have a sugar daddy.”“Then who the fuck is in that limo?” There was danger in his eyes.“Sir, remove your hands from the lady.” We both looked up to see the limo driver standing by the passenger door. He must have heard Jordyn and saw him aggressively grab my arm. Now he was trying to intervene.Still worried that Jordyn would find out who I was, the extremely successful co-owner of one of the hottest fashion design firms in the world, I waved off the driver.“It’s okay,” I reassured the driver. “I won’t be needing your services tonight after all.”If Jordyn wanted to think that some rich
Cassandra’s POVI walked into the studio and was surprised to bump into Stella. She had a roll of fabric under her arm.“Stella?” I asked. “What are you still doing here? Why haven’t you gone home yet?”“You know me,” she said in a joking tone. “There’s nothing to go home to. Work’s my only lover.”I chuckled. Stella had no shortage of male admirers. In fact, I was pretty sure she got asked out at least once a day. But she refused them. She wanted to focus on her career and she believed that men were all just distractions.“What about you? I thought you had that thing tonight at Jordyn’s grandfather’s?”I nodded. “I did. But it ended early. So I decided to come here to get a jump start on that difficult dress order.”Of course, I neglected to mention that by ‘ended early’, I really meant ‘I was pushed down a flight of stairs by Jordyn’s lover’. But she didn’t need to know the details of that ordeal.Yet.And I also neglected to mention that I’d made an ominous deal with Jordyn that put
Cassandra’s POVHe was holding my arm very firmly. His breath reeked of whiskey, hot on my cheek.“Let go of me,” I demanded.“Not until you pay me back for that drink,” he hissed. “And I only accept ONE form of payment.” He chuckled at his own joke. But I didn’t find any of this the least bit amusing.“I mean it,” I warned. “Let go of me immediately. Or I’ll call the bouncer and get you kicked out of here.”“Oh come on, honey. All I want is a little action.” He slurred his words. He was drunk. Much drunker than I’d initially realized. And before I knew it, he was grabbing the back of my head and trying to force his lips on mine.“You creep!” I cried out. “Stop it!” I pushed his face away from me. And I was just about to punch him, when I was pulled backward into someone’s arms. It all happened so fast, I was a bit confused at first. But the drunk man was aggressively pushed right off his bar stool.I turned around to see…“Dillon?”“Hey there, Cassandra. Thought you could use a littl
Cassandra’s POVThe next morning, I was halfway through a double shot of espresso. I’d been out too late last night and now I was tired. But I HAD to make some headway on this difficult dress of Ellie’s.So I did my best to stay focused. But suddenly, I heard a commotion outside my office.“Ma’am? You can’t go in there…”“I DEMAND to see the CEO,” a shrill woman’s voice reverberated down the hallway. There was clearly something happening at the front desk. So I left my office to go and see what the problem was.As soon as I stepped out of my office, though, I noticed that a lot of employees were standing out in the hall. They stared at me as I passed by. I didn’t understand why until I got to the front desk.Velma.She was cursing at the receptionist, her face contorted in anger. The receptionist was keeping her cool, though. She wasn’t letting Velma rattle her.I couldn’t say the same for other people in the office though. They cowered in the hall. Velma was an intimidating person wh
Cassandra’s POV“Well that hardly proves anything, Mother,” Jordyn said. His frown turned into a sly smile.I was surprised by this. I’d expected Jordyn to take his mother’s side. In fact, as I watched Jordyn study the picture of me and Dillon, I’d been fully prepared to ask the security guards to escort them BOTH out of the building.“What do you mean?” Velma balked. “She’s with another man. Clear as day. Right HERE!” She continued to brandish her phone but Jordyn only shook his head.He turned back around to face his mother.“That picture shows nothing. I don’t know why you think that’s proof, but it’s not. You’re making a scene, Mother. And you’re embarrassing both me and yourself.”“She cheated on you,” Velma stared but Jordyn cut her off.“Leave,” he said, his tone tired. “This isn’t the time nor the place. I came here today for work. And you’re spilling out my private life to all these strangers?”Again, I was surprised. In the past, Jordyn had almost always taken his mother’s si
Cassandra’s POV “Crap, Cass. I’m sorry,” Dillon said behind me, scampering away from the screen. I hadn’t even realized he’d come home. I’d wandered upstairs while on the phone to sit outside. I hadn’t heard Dillon come in through the front door.I turned to face him. “It’s okay,” I smiled at him. He was acting like we’d just been caught doing something wrong, which was far from the truth. I had no issues with my parents knowing I was at his house. I just hadn’t told them that yet.“Was it Dillon?” my mother asked. I turned back to my phone. My parents’ faces were smushed up close to the screen, inches away, their eyes squinting.“Yes,” I laughed. “Now back up please. You look ridiculous. Dillon, come say hi.”Dillon saddled up beside me. I could smell his shampoo.“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Stoneworth,” Dillon waved at the phone.“Dillon! So nice to see you. What are you doing at Cassandra’s?”“Actually, I’m at Dillon’s,” I said. “See?” I pointed the camera through the French doors into Di
Cassandra’s POVI decided to Facetime my parents. I was feeling pretty stressed about the meeting and I hadn’t talked to them for a while. They always made me feel better and Dillon was out grocery shopping for dinner ingredients, so I figured it was a good time to call.I dialed and moments later, my mom’s face popped up on the screen.“Cassandra, love! How are you?” my mother asked. She was donning her wide-brimmed gardening hat, which only meant one thing. She was trying to cut roses. We had a professional gardener and groundskeeper, of course. But every so often, my mother got it in her head that she should go and cut some fresh roses herself. It never ended well. She either cut them too short so that they couldn’t really sit in a vase, or she pricked her fingers on the thorns and cursed, or she got bored and gave up.We all tried to convince her to just give up on the whole gardening thing. She clearly didn’t have a green thumb. But she never listened.“Whatcha up to?” I asked, su
Cassandra’s POVShit.‘Bad kittie,” I hissed at the cat the moment I realized my camera had been turned on. Not knowing what else to do, I dove down, my head between my legs, trying to get my face away from the camera. Stoffs, not knowing that she’d done anything wrong, just curled up on the laptop.Everyone started cooing when they saw her.“Oh my, what a pretty little kitty,” I heard someone say.“Look at her. All snuggled up on the keyboard. Oh! She just yawned! I saw her cute little pink tongue. Are we boring you, little kitty?” someone else gushed.But through all the gushing and cooing over the cat, I heard Jordyn’s voice, loud and clear.“Cassandra?” he asked.Damnit. Had he seen me? There had been roughly five seconds before I realized the camera had been turned on, five seconds where my face had flashed right into one of those little Zoom boxes on the screen.I carefully crawled off the chair and onto the ground. When I was sure I was out of the camera’s view, I stood up.“Cas
Cassandra’s POVI slept better my first night at Dillon’s than I’d slept in a long time. Dillon and I spent the afternoon lounging by his pool. It wasn’t warm enough for bathing suits, which was fine because I didn’t have one there anyway. But it felt nice to relax with the sun on my face.After that, Dillon ordered what felt like a pharmacy’s worth of medicine for me as well as Chinese food.“I didn’t know what flavor you like,” he said, setting down bottle after bottle of cold medicine onto the counter. I was touched. I’d been sick a few times during my marriage to Jordyn, and he hadn’t exactly been the best caregiver. In fact, come to think of it, he’d often seemed annoyed when I was sick, like my being sick was an inconvenience to him.Dillon was the opposite. He bent over backwards to make me feel comfortable. We binge watched some Netflix while we ate Chinese food. It was nice. Dillon didn’t let me lift a finger, literally. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt that at ease,
Cassandra’s POVDillon led me into his foyer.“Well, how about the grand tour?” he asked as we awkwardly stood at the door. Now that we were actually at Dillon’s, I wondered if I’d made a mistake coming there. This was his house, his personal space. Surely, I was putting him out.He seemed casual as ever though as we walked through the house. In fact, he seemed genuinely happy to have me there as he proudly told me all about his house.“I went back and forth between granite and this new, cement-like material for the countertops,” he said as we walked through the kitchen. “I settled on granite, as you can see. I guess I’m a sucker for something tried and true.”His kitchen was stunning. The white granite and the stainless steel appliances gleamed under the numerous pot lights. We walked through the kitchen to the formal dining room, outfitted with a massive mahogany dining room table that could easily seat ten people.“I don’t use this room much,” he told me. “I usually just eat at the
“Well, that went well,” Dillon chuckled as we turned onto the highway. He reached over and gave my thigh a little pat. “Nothing like slapping someone with the threat of a lawsuit to really make them back off. Huh?”He took his eyes off the front windshield for a moment and flashed me a smile.“I guess,” I sighed. At the moment, I’d been pretty impressed about how things had played out in the parking lot. Cocky, even. Dillon had shut Jordyn down in such an intelligent, calm way. But now, as I sat there in that car with the scenery flying by, I felt uncomfortable.The whole thing just felt like such a mess. I didn’t understand how we’d gotten to this point, Jordyn and I. I was angry with him, yes, but I’d loved him at one time. I’d stood before him on our wedding day and said vows, real vows, vows I had intended to keep at the time. I’d been his wife, and I’d thought we’d grow old together.But now we were arguing in parking lots while his pregnant fiancé cast me dirty looks. Hell, I wa
Cassandra’s POV“What the hell do you want?” Jordyn sighed as Dillon approached. Dillon stepped in front of me, shielding me from Jordyn.“I want you to stop harassing my girlfriend,” Dillon said, glaring at Jordyn. Jordyn scoffed and rolled his eyes.“Who the hell are you?” Ellie asked, her hands on her hips.“Apparently,” Jordyn said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “this is Cassandra’s new boyfriend.”The tension between Jordyn and Dillon was palpable. For a brief moment, neither of them said anything. They just stood there, glaring at one another. I stepped out from behind Dillon. I wasn’t used to seeing Dillon like this, all riled up and super protective. I appreciated where he was coming from – he wanted Jordyn out of my life as much as I did at this point. My family had never liked Jordyn and they had made no show of hiding their feelings about him during our marriage. I was certain that Cameron had overheard many scathing remarks about Jordyn over the years.And since Dillon a
Cassandra’s POV“You don’t mean that,” Jordyn said, his eyes wide and serious.I did mean it though. I’d had enough of Jordyn and his constant interference in my life. When we agreed to the collaboration with Jordyn’s company, I knew it would come with its own unique set of challenges. But I’d honestly thought that Jordyn and I could maintain a professional relationship. I never, in a million years, thought he’d keep trying to barge into my personal life like this.What was he doing? Why was he even talking to me at all? His fiancé, and the mother of his child was currently waiting for him in the gynecology department. Why was he out here, arguing with me in the parking lot? He should be inside, with Ellie!“I mean it,” I told him, my voice firm with steely resolve. I’d tried multiple times to make it clear to Jordyn that I wanted nothing to do with any of his personal affairs. I’d done my best to be polite and cordial. But this was the last straw! I’d just been discharged from the hos
Cassandra’s POVJordyn walked fast, back through the parking lot towards his car. For a moment, my breath hitched in my throat. Why was he coming back? Had he seen me? I watched, frozen in place as he approached his car. He opened the door and grabbed Ellie’s purse.Oh. He’d just come back for Ellie’s purse, I realized with a sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted right now was to see him, let alone to talk to him here, in the parking lot. I didn’t have time for this bullshit. I had to get to Dillon’s so I could start working again. Someone was already submitting our stolen designs to fashion companies. We needed to get some of our designs out to the public ASAP.But as I started getting into the car, I heard a voice call out.“Cassandra?”Shit. It was Jordyn. He must have spotted me across the parking lot. I slowly turned around to see Jordyn marching towards us, his eyes narrowed.“What are you doing here?” Jordyn asked as he approached. “Is everything okay? Why are you at the hospi