WRITER'S POV:
Ivy lay on her guest bed, fully dressed, arms folded, eyes wide open.Sleep wasn't coming.
Not because the bed wasn't comfortable—it was luxury incarnate—but because her thoughts were rabid. Screaming. Looping through every glance, every silence, every touch.Cassius.
Cassius in the jet. Cassius at the table. Cassius ignoring her. Cassius keeping her trapped in this fortress of glass and tension while his ex-girlfriend plotted a psychological horror film over dinner.
Her fingers dug into the comforter.
And then—
click.Her bedroom door creaked open and closed again with a soft whisper.
She sat up immediately and flicked the bedside lamp on.Cassius stood by the door.
He looked... destroyed.Cassius blinked Like someone had taken the sharp, powerful man she knew and replaced him with a statue half-cracked by time and exhaustion.
They stared at each other.
"Ivy," he said quietly, like the word itself hurt. She stood.She was shaking.
She brushed past him without a word, walked to the door, and slammed it shut, locking it with an angry click.Behind her, Cassius flinched.
"Why did you do that?" he asked softly.
She turned."Why am I here, Cassius?"
His jaw clenched, but he didn't speak.Cassius leaned back.
"Why won't you let me leave? Why can't I go back to Marcie? She's my best friend, she deserves to know where I am! If I'm really in danger, relocate her, do something, but stop holding me hostage in this castle full of your problems!"
He looked away.
"You say you want to protect me," she continued, her voice rising, breath quickening. "But all you've done is throw me into more danger. Your mother hates me. Gina wants to skin me alive. I don't even know who you are half the time!"
Cassius didn't speak.
Instead, he sat down heavily at the edge of her bed.
His elbows rested on his knees.His head hung low.
He closed his eyes,Still.
Ivy's heart pounded in her throat.
This was not the man she'd seen glaring over business deals or hurling silent threats with a glance.This man was something else.She stopped pacing.The room went still.He didn't move.Didn't speak.And Ivy, for the first time, didn't know what to say either.They just stood there.One sitting.One standing.The space between them filled with silence that said more than words ever could.