Page 131 of A Sinful Gravity

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Cassian

The car idled by the curb. I didn't kill the engine. The wipers swept across the windshield in monotonous rhythm. Rain hammered the roof like drumbeats.

I gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white. I stared at the warm glow spilling from the restaurant across the street.

In the glove box lay a legal document, already signed—drafted overnight by my lawyers and notarized. I wasn't just giving up custody of Laila. I'd set up a charitable foundation in her name.

I rehearsed the words over and over.

"Luna, I wanted too much. But now I want you to be free."

"Even if you take Laila, as long as you let me see her sometimes, I'll accept it."

The words tasted bitter on my tongue.

But I knew if I caged her again like I did six years ago, with that sick need for control, I'd end up with nothing but an empty shell and a dead relationship.

Chloe was right. A man like me didn't deserve to talk about love if he couldn't learn to let go.

I'd even planned it out. When she left for the Chicago tour, I'd shift headquarters operations that way too.

I wouldn't crowd her. That would make her uncomfortable. Even if I could only be a nobody in the audience, breathing the same air as her, I could endure that bone-deep loneliness.

Time passed. I don't know how long. Then across the street, that shock of red appeared. Luna.

She looked breathtaking today, that red dress swaying in the cold autumn wind. She held an umbrella, face hidden. Her gaze was fixed on her feet, like she was building up courage.

I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Then my peripheral vision caught something wrong.

A black SUV tore around the corner from behind, engine roaring through the quiet street. It didn't turn. It accelerated, straight toward Luna's fragile silhouette.

In that instant, my brain went blank. But my body reacted.

No thinking. No weighing options.

In those split seconds, every cell in my body issued one command. Save her.

I moved faster than I knew I could.

"Luna! Move!"

I screamed, and just as the hood was about to hit that red dress, I threw all my strength into pulling her shoulder, barely dodging the most lethal angle of impact myself.

I saw her flung toward the flowerbed like a startled butterfly. My vision was filled with two blinding white headlights.

"CRASH!"

The world shattered with deafening force.

First came the crisp snap of breaking bones. Then pain—soul-ripping, tearing pain from the violent impact. I felt myself airborne, slamming hard into the metal railing by the bushes. My organs felt like shattered stones shifting inside me.

Cold air mixed with thick blood flooded my lungs. Every breath was agony.

I heard piercing screams. Luna. Her cries broke my heart. I wanted to tell her not to cry, wanted to touch her face, but my body had completely disconnected from my brain.

I followed raw instinct, said a few words to her. But her responses sounded far away.