Page 7 of Crushed Vow (Broken Vows #2)

CHARLOTTE

The moment I stepped into the living room, it didn’t feel like memory—it felt like a trapdoor opened beneath my feet.

The chandelier above gleamed like it hadn’t aged a second. The cold marble tiles whispered of chains and screams.

The stillness of the air—it all felt exactly the same. Exactly like the place where I lost pieces of myself.

Where he’d chained me, leashed me like an animal. Dragged me to the master bedroom and mocked the scars on my body. He called it justice. Said it was punishment—for the things my mother had done.

My breathing turned shallow. My steps faltered. I tried to shove the memories down, to remind myself that I was no longer that girl, no longer his prisoner. But the air thickened, pressing in like a weight.

Then it happened.

The memories solidify, vivid, real.

I’m back in that moment—Cassian’s leash tight, his eyes cold, dragging me across this floor for my mother’s sins.

“ Unleash me! Let go !” I scream, my voice raw, my fists pounding his chest, my nails digging into my palms, blood welling.

“ You monster, let go! I did nothing wrong! ” My sobs choke me, my body shaking, my mind trapped in the past, the leash real, his grip iron.

I kept hitting him—over and over—my fists slamming into solid mass, my knuckles bruising, my screams ricocheting off the walls. But he didn’t react. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t move.

Then I heard footsteps behind me. Heavy. Slow. Each step sent a fresh wave of terror crashing through me. My heart pounded like it wanted out of my chest.

I froze.

No. No, no, no.

Not again.

“Let go!” I screamed, louder this time, my voice ragged, feral from fear. “Let go of me!”

“Charlotte...”

The voice was calm and familiar. Not from in front of me—but behind.

“Charlotte,” he said again, closer now. Gentle. Cautious. Like he was speaking to something fragile, something that might shatter if touched the wrong way.

I turned sharply, eyes swimming with tears, my body shivering, and see Cassian, his bloodshot eyes wide, his blood-streaked face, still raw from the crash—etched with pity.

He’s close, but his hands hover, not touching, his breath heavy with whiskey. “Charlotte, breathe,” he says, his voice soft, a balm against my panic. “You’re safe with me.”

I blink, my hands shaking as I look back—no Cassian in front of me, only a wall, its paint chipped where I’ve been pounding, my blood smearing the plaster.

My heart stops, my mind reeling.

Was I hitting the wall, like Tess in the ward, screaming at nothing?

Fear grips me, my body trembling harder, my voice shook. “Was I... Was I just...?”

“Babe,” he said softly, “You’re perfectly okay. You’re just... overwhelmed.”

The pity in his gaze cuts deeper, telling me something’s wrong, despite his words.

“No,” I whispered, backing away. “No, I’m not. I thought I was hitting you. I—I saw you. I heard you—”

“Let me take care of you,” he says, stepping closer, his hands still hovering. “You’ve been through hell, Charlotte. Let me help.”

“No!” I scream, my voice shrill, my hands pulling at my hair, strands tearing free.

“You’ll make it worse!” I bolt for the door, yanking it open, the cold night air hitting my face as I run, my bare feet pounding the pavement, my heart screaming:

I need to escape.

I need to escape him.

He chained me, leashed me, slaved me .

My mind jumbles—his voice, “ Call me master ” blending with the ward’s darkness and my screams in solitary.

I’m not mad, right? I know my name—Charlotte—but the world blurs.

I ran until I reached the tennis court at the back of the estate—the one Elodie brought me to, her laughter echoing from that day she offered to help me escape.

I see her—blonde hair, bright smile—walking toward me.

“Elodie!” I call, my voice breaking, my heart lifting.

Elodie’s safe, not one of the monsters—Cassian, Grayson—who hurt me.

I step forward, smiling, my hands reaching.

“Miss?” A male voice shatters the vision, my chest collapsing.

It wasn’t Elodie.

It was a man—his smile slick with something wrong, his eyes glinting with something predatory.

My heart races, my hands clutch my ears, my breath ragged. “Stay away,” I say, stumbling back, my voice shaking.

He steps closer, his grin widening. “Stay the fuck away!” I scream, my voice piercing, drawing eyes from the court’s crowd.

And then, suddenly—Cassian was there.

He charged forward like a storm breaking loose.

His fist slammed into the man’s face with a brutal crack.

The man staggered backward, stumbled—and hit the ground hard. Blood poured from his nose, painting his mouth and shirt in thick red streaks.

Cassian stood over him, chest heaving, eyes burning with cold fury.

“Which part of ‘stay away’ didn’t you understand?” Cassian’s voice was steel.

The man staggered to his feet, blood trailing from his nose. He raised both hands in surrender, backing away.

“I—I didn’t mean any harm,” he stammered. “I thought she came to play...”

Cassian turned to me. His voice softened, almost pleading. “Charlotte. I’m not who I used to be. Things have changed.”

But I couldn’t see change. All I saw was chains.

“You sent me to the psych ward,” I whispered, trembling.

He stepped closer. “No. That was your father. You said it yourself—Ethan found you.”

More tears spilled. My body trembled. “We need to see a doctor,” he said gently.

I flinched. “Because I’m mad?”

“No,” he said, voice tight with emotion, eyes glassy. “You’re my wife. It’s my duty to help you heal. They pumped you full of drugs for a year—but you’ll get better, I swear.”

He took a step forward.

I backed away, arms lifting instinctively—like a shield. As if I could physically keep him, and everything he made me feel, at bay.

And suddenly I was there again.

Tied down. Collared. Begging.

“You said you were my master,” I whispered. “I remember. You told me to call you that.”

His voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m your husband.”

He didn’t move closer. Didn’t try to force anything.

“And I love you.”

My breath hitched.

“No... You’re lying. If you loved me...” My throat closed. “you wouldn’t have sent me to that psych ward. You wouldn’t have chained me like a dog.”

My voice cracked. “You wouldn’t have kept my mother from me. You wouldn’t have let her die.”

Something inside me snapped and I screamed.

All the memories tangled. The pain. The confusion. The hospital lights. The sound of his voice in the dark.

I couldn’t tell what was real anymore.

“What have they done to my woman...” Cassian murmured under his breath, gaze drifting away like he might cry but didn’t.

His jaw clenched instead, a storm building behind his eyes.

“Feeling pity for me, master?” I mocked, my voice splintered with bitterness.

He exhaled slowly. “No. I’m just thinking of all the ways I’ll kill the people who did this to you.”

“Did what?” I asked, quietly. “Made me mad?”

His eyes flicked to mine. “Mad people don’t speak the way you do. You’re not insane, Charlotte. You’ve just been hurt. Badly.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m whole.” My voice sharpened. “You think I forgot? You treated me like a slave. You mocked the scars from my breast surgery—said I looked like a man. Took me from behind because ‘the front ruined the illusion.’”

His shoulders sagged, his expression wrecked with guilt.

“I regret it,” he murmured. “Every single day. Every word. Every look. I wish I could take it all back.”

I laughed. A broken, gasping sound that dissolved into tears. “So what now?”

My voice cracked as I stepped back. “You want to chain me again? Leash me like an animal? Mock the scars on my body like you did before?”

Cassian didn’t move or blink.

Instead, he dropped to his knees.

Right there—on concrete, in public, in front of anyone who might be watching.

“I would cut out my own tongue before I ever said those words again,” he said, voice hoarse. “I was a monster. I let hatred blind me. I didn’t see you—I saw a ghost of the past, and I punished you for things you never did.”

I stood frozen. His pain was seeping out of him like blood, staining the space between us.

“I remember what I said. Every word.” His voice cracked. “I remember the way you flinched. The way you tried to hide yourself from me. I live with it. I breathe it.”

He looked up at me. Eyes red. Unblinking.

“I don’t deserve forgiveness. But I swear to you, Charlotte—on my life—I will spend whatever time I have left trying to undo the pain I caused. Even if you never touch me again. Even if you never say my name without hatred.”

He reached out, not to grab—but to offer.

“Not as your captor. Not even as your husband. Just as the man who broke you... begging for a chance to make you whole again.”

He stood—close, but not touching. Respecting the invisible boundary between us.

“I want to love you—with whatever I have left. I want to spend the time I have making you feel safe. Cherished. Like you were always meant to be. Even if it’s too late... even if you never forgive me—you deserve that much.”

“Liar,” I whispered. But something in his voice made my heart falter.

“You really are my husband,” I muttered. “I remember now... the wedding. The vows.”

Cassian’s eyes softened. “Yes. I am.”

I shook my head, stumbling backward. “ I vow to ruin you with every breath you take beside me... to turn our marriage into your reckoning...”

He froze.

My voice shook but I kept going, reciting his vows at the altar from memory, word for word, like a curse I’d been branded with:

“ For the mother who shattered me, I will not forget. I will not forgive. You will not find comfort in my arms. You will not find safety in my name. Only the echo of what I’ve lost—and the weight of everything you owe. You’ll be mine... until I’ve taken back everything your bloodline stole.”

I opened my eyes, breath ragged. “Those were your words. You don’t love me. You loved to see me suffer.”

I turned to run—but he caught me. Arms wrapped around me tightly, pulling me into him.

His hold wasn’t forceful. It was protective. Trembling, I let him. But every nerve in my body screamed confusion. My mind was on fire.

“I hurt you,” he whispered into my ear. “Worse than I’ll ever forgive myself for. But let me make it right, Charlotte. Please.”

I stayed there, trembling in his arms. The crowd at the court staring, their faces flickering—clear, then distorted, like the ward’s endless light.

He lifts me, carrying me, my body limp, my mind a storm. I didn’t fight him.

Why am I getting worse? Why are my memories jumbling? Why can’t I tell what’s real?

I mutter, “I’m not mad. Charlotte, you’re not mad,” my voice desperate, my hands clutching his shirt.

My thoughts started to sharpen as he walked.

My father did this.

Not Cassian.

Cassian triggers it, yes—but he wasn’t the one who had me kidnapped, drugged, locked in that place. That was my father. He’d dragged me from Ethan’s doorstep and paid to erase me.

“They drugged me...” I murmured, the realization dawning like a sunrise. “My father had them pump me with sedatives. Antipsychotics. Maybe worse. He wanted me broken and quiet.”

Cassian didn’t speak. He just held me tighter.

“Being surrounded by madness... it does something to you. One day in the ward, I started screaming—screaming for my mother. I thought I saw her. I clawed at a nurse’s face and they put me in solitary. Four white walls. No light. Just my own breathing and the sound of others screaming in the dark.”

The memory swallowed me whole. “That’s when I started forgetting who I was. What was real. Every time I woke up, Nurse Callahan would be there. With a needle. Like she’d been injecting me while I slept. And I—God, I thought I was hallucinating.”

Cassian set me down gently on the couch inside his penthouse, brushing a trembling strand of hair from my face.

“You’re not mad, Charlotte. What they did to you—what your father arranged—it was meant to break you. But it didn’t.”

I looked at him, eyes wide, afraid. “But I’m... I’m not the same.”

“No,” he said, softly. “You’re stronger now. And I will protect that strength, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

I stared at him. At the man who had once leashed me like an animal and called it justice... and at the man now holding me like something sacred.

I didn’t know which version to trust.

But right now... I was too tired to run again.