Chapter 6
After ten days in the hospital, the burns on Cassie’s legs had finally scabbed over,
Throughout her stay, Callum had been relentlessly attentive–fetching ice chips at 3 AM, adjusting her pillows without being asked, monitoring her medication schedule with military precision. By the time the started healing he’d worked himself into complete exhaustion, developing a fever that spiked dangerously for days.
With two patients in the household, Laurina stepped in. She drove them both home from the hospital, dividing ber time between simmering herbal broths in the kitchen and helping Cassie with her painful bandage changes, her presence a constant blur of motion between floors.
“Just focus on healing,” Laurina told her, smoothing the comforter with practiced hands. “Ill bring up your pregnancy support tea in a bit. Don’t forget to drink it all–doctor’s orders.”
Cassie nodded with a convincing smile.
The moment Laurina’s footsteps faded down the hallway, she carried the steaming cup straight to the bathroom and watched every drop disappear down the toilet.
A few days later, when she could finally hobble around without tears springing to her eyes, Cassie decided to venture downstairs with her empty cup, desperate for fresh air after being confined to her sickbed.
As she passed Callum’s study, something shattered inside with a violent crash.
The door stood slightly ajar. Through the narrow gap, she glimpsed Laurina alone in the forbidden space, transfixed by the wall of photographs. Her usually steady hands trembled violently, her face a battlefield of warring emotions–longing, anger, guilt, and something that looked dangerously like love.
After a long moment, Laurina’s expression hardened with resolve. She began yanking down photos, emptying drawers and cabinets with growing urgency, stuffing everything into a cardboard box as if it might burn her fingers.
Sensing her approaching exit, Cassie quickly retreated to the far end of the hallway balcony.
From her hidden vantage point, she watched Laurina march purposefully toward the outdoor garbage bins. With methodical fury, her aunt dumped every gift into the trash, then began systematically destroying the photographs, love letters, and journal–ripping them into confetti so small they could never be reassembled.
Task completed, Laurina pulled out her phone and made a brief call. Minutes later, Callum appe his recent illness.
still pale from
The ensuing argument was explosive. Though distance muffled most of it, the final exchange carried clearly to Cassie’s hiding spot.
“This obsessive shrine doesn’t belong in your goddamn study!” Laurina’s voice cracked with frustration. “What happens when Cassie eventually finds it? Have you considered that?”
“She doesn’t have a key,” Callum replied with dismissive confidence. “And she’d never enter without my permission.
Chapter 6
The
She’s not like you–she respects boundaries.”
“You’re that certain? And if she did find it? Have you imagined what it would do to her–someone who worships the ground you walk on–to discover all this?”
“And if she was devastated, what difference would it make?” Callum’s voice took on a dangerous edge. “Would her pain somehow erase the fact that I’ve only ever truly loved you? For Christ’s sake, Laurina, forget about her for one minute. Just answer me: do you still have feelings for me? Just say yes–one simple word–and I’ll divorce her before
sunset.”
At this, the color drained from Laurina’s face. Without another word, she frantically flagged down a passing cab
and fled the scene.
Watching their bitter confrontation from above, Cassic pressed her palm against her chest.
Her heart hammered wildly, vibrating through her ribcage, but strangely, the searing pain she’d expected didn’t
materialize.
Apparently, her emotional wounds were healing alongside her physical ones–scar tissue forming where raw nerves had once been exposed.
Good.
Downstairs, Callum salvaged everything Laurina had discarded, cradling the remnants like precious artifacts as he carried them back to his sanctuary. He locked himself inside for three days and nights.
Cassie knew he was meticulously piecing together the torn fragments of his obsession, but she didn’t interfere, only ensuring meals appeared outside his door with clockwork regularity.
Once she could walk without wincing, Cassie arranged several “farewell” dinners with friends, though only she knew they were goodbyes.
After one such dinner, she went to settle the bill. Passing the restaurant’s largest private room, a burst of raucous laughter preceded a familiar name that stopped her mid–step.
“Callum, you’re always buried in work these days. We figured you’d be too swamped for something as trivial as a class reunion, so we didn’t bother inviting you. No hard feelings, right?”
“Oh, come on,” another voice chimed in. “If Laurina was coming, did you really think Callum would miss it? They were THE couple at California. Everyone knew that.”
was there! “How could anyone forget? Callum covered the entire quad with thousands of roses for his propo And those songs he wrote for her–God, I still catch myself humming them sometimes. What was the one line? Something about stars falling…”
Cassie listened, trying to visualize the scene: Callum in a rumpled college sweatshirt, guitar in hand, serenading someone beneath campus oak trees. The image refused to form properly, like a photograph with the wrong person spliced in.
After a moment of mental struggle, she realized exactly why the scenario seemed so utterly foreign.
T- Doclaim My Own Life
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Chapter 6
These people were describing a twenty–year–old Callum. A Callum who laughed freely and wrote love songs. A Callum whose entire universe orbited around Laurina Brooks. A Callum who had absolutely nothing to do with her.
Of course it felt wrong. The man they described and the controlled, calculating husband she knew were entirely different people. She had never known the real Callum Reid–only the hollow shell he’d become in Laurina’s absence, wearing a mask of perfection to hide his obsession.
The strangest part?
For the first time since discovering the truth, Cassie felt neither jealousy nor heartbreak. Only a distant, academic curiosity about a man she had never truly known.
