Page 21 of Crushed Vow

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 youwere 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...”