The hospital did not know fear.
Not until Cassian Rhys Vale walked through its doors.
Rain still clung to his hair, dripping onto the white hospital tiles. His shirt was half-soaked, his jaw tight enough to crack, his eyes sharp with something colder than anger and deeper than panic.
Every head turned.
Nurses paused mid-step.
Patients leaned back instinctively.
A security guard big, confident stepped forward.
"Sir, visiting hours are"
Cassian didn't even look at him.
"Move."
The single word wasn't loud.
It wasn't shouted.
It was delivered like a threat wrapped in ice.
The guard stepped back.
Cassian didn't slow down.
He stormed straight to the emergency ward, following the fading trail of EMT voices, the last fragments of the accident report, the smell of antiseptic mixed with blood and rainwater.
His shoes splashed through wet footprints on the floor from her stretcher.
His heart hammered once, painfully.
He reached the counter where a young nurse was typing.
"Where is she?" Cassian demanded.
The nurse startled. "I
I'm sorry, sir, who?"
"Juliette Vale."
His voice sliced through the room.
The nurse blinked, confused. "S–sir, we don't have any patient with that surname"
His chest seized.
He forgot for a moment that he had never signed her into anything as "Vale."
She wasn't documented as his wife.
He had hidden her.
Kept her secret.
Kept distance.
Now the consequences hit him like a blow.
His voice dropped lower, harsher, desperate without showing it:
"Juliette. Small build. Backless dress. Head trauma. Brought in less than ten minutes ago from a cab collision on Westbury Road."
Recognition flickered in the nurse's eyes.
"She's in Trauma Room Three. They're assessing her condition now."
Cassian walked past her before she finished speaking.
But at the door, a doctor stepped in his way.
"Sir, you can't go in yet. We're stabilizing her."
Cassian stared at him.
Not blinking.
Not moving.
Not breathing.
Just staring.
The doctor swallowed.
"Sir, please. We need space"
Cassian leaned in just a fraction, his voice quiet, lethal:
"If anything happens to her because I am not there,
you will answer to me.
Step aside."
The doctor stepped aside.
Cassian pushed the door open.
The world inside stopped.
Juliette lay on the bed, small and frighteningly still, a thin oxygen mask over her face.
Her hair clung to her cheeks.
Blood dried at the corner of her forehead.
Her dress was cut open at one side where they checked for fractures.
A nurse pressed gauze to her temple.
Another inserted an IV.
Machines beeped steadily but weakly.
Cassian's breath stuttered.
This wasn't the girl who avoided him hours ago.
This wasn't the woman who smiled shyly at another man.
This wasn't the stranger he tried to pretend he didn't care about.
This was
Something that hit him so violently
he had to grip the doorframe to stay upright.
Her fingers twitched faintly.
He froze.
Then he stepped closer.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like approaching something fragile he had no right to touch.
Her lips were pale.
Her breathing shallow.
His throat tightened painfully.
"Juliette…"
It came out as a whisper, broken at the edges.
A nurse looked up.
"Sir, are you a relative?"
Cassian's voice was rough. "I'm her"
He stopped.
He didn't know what he was.
Not a husband she loved.
Not a friend.
Not a partner.
Not anything she would claim.
He forced the words out anyway:
"I'm responsible for her."
The nurse nodded, not questioning further.
Cassian reached her bedside and sat, his wet clothes soaking the chair.
He didn't notice.
Didn't care.
His hand hovered over hers
paused
then finally closed around her fingers.
Cold.
Too cold.
His chest squeezed so painfully he clenched his jaw to keep it together.
A doctor approached, holding a chart.
"She has a concussion, possible rib contusion, and mild internal bleeding we're monitoring. We stopped the external bleeding, but her vitals dipped twice. If she stabilizes in the next hour, she'll be out of immediate danger."
Cassian's jaw flexed.
"If?" he repeated quietly.
The doctor nodded carefully.
"Yes. If."
A storm passed behind Cassian's eyes.
"Get the best trauma surgeon in this city," he ordered.
"We already called one."
"Call another," Cassian snapped.
"Then another.
I don't care what it costs.
She doesn't bleed again, do you understand me?"
The doctor hesitated.
Cassian stepped forward, his voice a low, deadly whisper:
"If she dies, this hospital will not survive the sunrise."
The doctor left immediately.
Cassian sat back down.
His fingers tightened around Juliette's hand, his thumb brushing her knuckles unconsciously.
He leaned forward, his forehead almost touching her arm.
For a moment
just one
the powerful Cassian Vale cracked.
"You don't get to do this to me," he whispered, voice shaking beneath the surface.
"Do you hear me?
You don't get to walk out of that house…
and not come back."
A breath shuddered out of him, harsh and painful.
"Stay alive.
Just… stay."
Her heartbeat monitor beeped steadily.
A little too slow.
A little too fragile.
Cassian didn't move from her side.
Not when more doctors entered.
Not when nurses adjusted equipment.
Not when they ran tests and whispered about the dangerous man sitting in silence.
He didn't blink.
He didn't breathe properly.
He didn't let go of her hand.
He sat there like a man holding the last thread of something he never realized he needed.
When the surgeon finally arrived and began preparing her for scans, Cassian stood, looming beside the bed.
One of the nurses gently said,
"Sir, you'll have to wait outside. Only staff
Cassian looked at Juliette.
Unconscious.
Still.
Breathing weakly.
Then he looked at the nurse.
"I'm not leaving her."
The nurse opened her mouth to argue
but the surgeon shook his head.
"Let him stay."
Cassian followed them as they wheeled her out, one hand gripping the rail of the bed.
The storm inside him didn't calm.
It only grew.
Because this was the moment he realized the truth
He wasn't in control anymore.
Not of his emotions.
Not of his thoughts.
Not of what this girl had done to him.
And as they pushed her into the next room for scans…
Cassian Vale a man feared by everyone
was terrified.
Terrified of losing her before he ever had the chance to understand why she mattered.