Cassian Rourke
Aiden was despicable. After I had let him fuck me. Fuck my mind and my vulnerable walls.
He had the opportunity that people begged for. And he treats me like this.
I didn't even know which of the feelings was getting me pissed off. Was it my father meddling into my life by bringing that low dirty bimbo and forcing her on me.
Or Aiden and his silly games. All this had me so fucked up. I couldn't concentrate at work.
I regretted last night, instantly. I regretted letting him fuck me the way he did. I hated him but I wanted him.
I wanted last night all over again. Was I just a game to him? One moment he wanted to be with me the next moment he didn't feel like I was good enough for him.
Now I was left with all these memories. I wanted to fuck him so badly. But I wanted to be in his arms as well.
I couldn't take it anymore. I rushed to the bar in my penthouse and drank my soul away.
I couldn't stand this misery. Why was my life at continual crossroads?
Just as I was lamenting I heard a voice. I turned to see and it was her. Charlotte Pine.
She wore a green silky gown, it looked like it was from an expensive designer. She smelt expensive as well.
She was definitely milking the role they had given her to act quite well.
"You don't have to welcome me. I know you don't like me"
She said but it was written all over my face clearly.
"Good, now get out"
I said coldly. I didn't have time to play games with her.
"I'm only here to tell you that we have an appearance to make tomorrow. Your PA said he couldn't reach you so I decided to do the honors. It's best we adapt to our appearances so that there wouldn't be any hitches"
"Fuck you and get out"
I said as I emptied a cup of whiskey down my throat. I ignored her for five minutes then she stood and walked out.
Standing by the elevator, she spoke before entering.
"You know you're not the only one with scars. Cassian Rourke"
She entered and left. I sighed as I relaxed and thought about it. She sounded honest and hurt. But people's emotions were the least of my worries.
***
The sound of my alarm ringing at dawn tore me out of sleep. My head was banging from an obvious hangover.
I reached for my phone without thinking, irritation already started rising in me.
Then I saw the words hospital and Aiden register together. In that instant, everything else dropped away.
The room, the time, the weight of my own body all felt irrelevant. I was suddenly awake in the sharpest sense.
My heart was pounding as if it was trying to outrun whatever would come next. I don't think or hesitate.
I can't remember getting dressed. I couldn't remember asking anyone for anything or even starting the car. My head was completely blank. The only thing I wanted to see was if Aiden was okay.
The drive there existed only as flashes of red lights, packed roads, and my hands clenched too tightly around the steering wheel. I couldn't think straight.
My mind refused to imagine specifics, yet it couldn't stop circling the same terrifying question. If he's still alive.
By the time I reached the hospital, my body felt numb, as if it had decided that the sensation was something I couldn't afford right now.
"Doctor, where is he? Doctor?"
I yelled and questioned dramatically and helplessly. Then a nurse came in to calm me down.
"He's alive Mr Rourke"
Those words eased my mind. Then the first clear image that anchored itself in my memory was Aiden lying still, his skin drained of color, his body connected to machines that hum and beep with mechanical indifference.
I was taken to his room in the ICU. As I walked close to him he looked smaller somehow, diminished by the stillness, stripped of the sharp awareness that usually defined him.
"What happened? Who did this to you?"
I asked but he was still unconscious.
Seeing him like that hit me harder than I expected. It felt invasive, like I was witnessing something I was never meant to see.
Something fragile snapped in me. Something that could be taken away. My vulnerability came alive.
I took a deep breath and I knew I had to find and answers. What happened to him?
The explanation came in clinical fragments. Someone tried to kill him. The attempt was deliberate. The timing was precise. He survived because of circumstances that could easily have tilted the other way.
"It was a bullet that missed his heart by chance but injured his arteries"
The doctor explained to me. Those words landed with a heavy weight on me that made it difficult to breathe.
I had faced threats before. I understood what danger, risk, and consequence was.
But none of that prepared me for the reality of seeing it lie out on his unmoving body. I was shocked. I didn't know his death would cause a major back drop in me. The way it did.
I take a seat beside him and stay there long past the point of reason. Time stretches into something shapeless. I just hope he wakes up. But then a question turns in my head. Didn't he have any family?
"So he doesn't have anyone"
That thought rings in my head long enough for me to understand that I knew nothing about Aiden.
As the machines continued their steady rhythms. Nurses move in and out, efficient and detached, while I stayed fixed in one place, watching for the smallest sign of movement.
Just then my phone rings. I see my father's name light up my and I choose to silence it at once.
At this point the only thing I cared about was Aiden opening his eyes. Whatever Alaric Rourke wanted could wait.
Nothing felt more important than staying right where I was, as if my presence alone could keep Aiden anchored to this world. Even if he didn't have anyone. He could come back for me.
"You f
orgot about our meeting today"
Charlotte stood by the door as she spoke. I wondered what she was doing here.