Chapter 5 I’m Important To Her
Instinctively, she shut her eyes again.
Not completely.
Just enough to leave the tiniest gap between her lashes.
Her heart beat a little faster as she listened.
"Ask the doctor to come back and check on her again."
Cassian's voice was rough.
Tight.
As though he were forcing himself to stay calm.
"I told you something is wrong with her."
A familiar sigh followed.
"She's fine."
Elias sounded exhausted.
"The doctor already examined her. All the tests came back normal."
A pause.
"You're overreacting."
"No, I'm not."
Cassian's reply came instantly.
Without hesitation.
Juliet frowned slightly.
That didn't sound like the Cassian she knew.
Curiosity got the better of her.
Carefully, she opened her eyes a fraction.
Just enough to see them without being noticed.
The moment her gaze landed on Cassian, she froze.
He looked terrible.
The tall man pacing across the room barely resembled the cold, powerful billionaire she knew.
At six-foot-four, with broad shoulders, a powerful build, and ruggedly handsome features that carried unmistakable traces of his Asian heritage, Cassian had always possessed the kind of presence that drew attention the moment he entered a room.
His striking black eyes usually held a cold, unreadable calm.
Not tonight.
His usually perfect black hair was messy, as though he had run his hands through it a hundred times. The sleeves of his expensive shirt were rolled up unevenly, and a fresh cut stretched along the side of his neck.
Bruises covered his knuckles.
And his hands—
Juliet's breath caught.
There was blood on them.
Fresh blood.
Her eyes widened.
For a second, she forgot how to breathe.
Cassian dragged a hand through his hair and began pacing across the room.
His movements were restless. Agitated.
The muscles in his jaw flexed violently as he clenched his teeth. His expression was dark, and his eyes burned with a fury she had never seen before.
Not the cold, controlled anger she was used to.
Even his face looked slightly flushed, as though he had only recently calmed down from a fight.
Juliet became completely still beneath the blankets.
Shock filled her eyes.
He was injured.
And he looked furious.
Yet somehow, none of that seemed directed at her.
That alone felt impossible.
Juliet had spent years stealing deals from him, ruining negotiations, and making his life difficult whenever she got the chance.
She had always assumed he hated her. Always assumed he would laugh if he saw her falling down a flight of stairs.
Yet the man standing across the room looked like he was losing his mind because she had gotten hurt.
His eyes kept drifting back toward the bed. Toward her. Toward the bandage on her forehead.
Every single time, his expression darkened further.
Juliet's confusion only grew.
Nothing about this made sense.
“Look at the state of you.”
Elias threw his hands up in frustration, pacing once before stopping again as his eyes locked on Cassian like he couldn’t decide whether to shake him or drag him out of the room himself. “You’re losing your fucking mind.”
Cassian didn’t respond.
He stood near the tall window, the city lights spilling faintly across his profile, half of his face carved in shadow, the other sharp with exhaustion and something darker.
His jaw was clenched so tightly it looked like it hurt to keep it that way, a muscle ticking near his cheek as he stared out without really seeing anything.
His hand, still marked with blood, hung at his side before slowly curling again into a fist, as if his body couldn’t decide whether to relax or strike.
Elias saw it and scoffed under his breath.
“You smashed an entire room tonight,” he said, voice rising again as he gestured sharply toward him. “You destroyed thousands of dollars worth of property, you beat Vincent half to death, you terrified everyone in that club, and you nearly got yourself permanently banned like some reckless kid.”
Cassian still didn’t speak.
Didn’t even look at him.
That silence only made Elias angrier, because there was nothing to push against, nothing to break through.
“We’re going to have to pay millions to fix what you did,” Elias continued, dragging a hand through his hair, his frustration turning heavier now. “But that’s not even the point.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice slightly, like he was trying not to explode.
“The point is I told you we’d send men to handle Vincent. That’s what we agreed on. But you—” he pointed at Cassian, his expression tightening, “—you refused. You went there yourself.”
Now he stopped right in front of him.
“Now look at you.”
His gaze moved slowly over Cassian’s injuries, taking in everything at once—the torn sleeve hanging loose, the dried blood staining his knuckles, the bruising along his jaw, the cut at his neck that looked like it had only just stopped bleeding.
There was something almost disbelieving in Elias’s expression now, like he was staring at a man who had crossed a line he couldn’t come back from.
“You completely lost your head.”
Cassian’s expression didn’t change.
Elias let out a sharp breath through his nose, shaking his head slowly.
“Are you even thinking straight anymore?”
No answer.
“I don’t think you are,” he said, quieter now, but sharper in meaning. “I think you’ve already lost it.”
On the bed behind them, Juliet lay perfectly still.
Her body looked calm, almost asleep, but her fingers beneath the blanket had curled tightly into the fabric. Her breathing had slowed, controlled in a way that didn’t match the storm building inside her.
Cassian had gone to the club.
Because of her?
And he had beaten Vincent half to death.
Why would he do that?
Nothing about it made sense.
Elias exhaled again, tired now, and waved a hand toward Cassian.
“You shouldn’t even be standing right now. Go get treated. Calm down.”
That was when everything shifted.
Cassian turned.
So fast it almost felt violent.
His eyes lifted, and the fury in them hit the room like a physical force, as if something inside him had snapped clean open at the suggestion.
“I’m going to ruin that motherfucker completely.”
Elias closed his eyes for a second like he was physically restraining himself.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” he muttered.
Cassian dragged a hand over his face, exhaling sharply, like he was trying to pull himself back under control. For a brief moment, his gaze shifted—almost instinctively—toward Juliet.
Juliet’s heart jumped so hard it hurt.
She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe too loudly. Didn’t let her face change even a fraction. But inside, everything tightened.
A second passed. Then Cassian looked away again.
Elias crossed his arms now, his voice changing.
“You know what I can’t believe?” he said.
Cassian didn’t answer.
“The woman has spent years fighting you over deals,” Elias continued. “She has ruined so many of your projects I’ve stopped counting.”
Juliet’s lashes trembled faintly.
“She steals your clients,” Elias went on. “She steals your deals. And half of them end up in Vincent’s hands.”
Cassian stayed silent.
“And after all that,” Elias said slowly, “you’re still hopelessly in love with her.”
Juliet went completely still.
Her entire body froze under the blanket, as if even her heartbeat had forgotten how to continue properly.
In love?
The Cassian Han?
With her?
Her thoughts scrambled, refusing to settle.
Cassian was her rival. Her enemy. The man she had fought, stolen from, outplayed, humiliated in business and walked away from too many times to count.
And yet—
Memories began to surface without permission.
Deals she had taken too easily. Moments where victory had felt… unearned. Times when Cassian could have destroyed her completely but hadn’t even tried.
Back then, she had thought she was just smarter. Luckier.
Now those same memories felt like something else entirely.
Something she had misunderstood all along.
Cassian’s voice cut through it.
“It’s my choice.”
It was defensive in a way that didn’t quite match his usual control.
“If she wants something from me, I’ll let her have it.”
Elias stared at him like he had finally run out of patience for the concept of reason.
“Let her have it?” he repeated.
Cassian didn’t move.
“She stole a hundred-million-dollar deal from your files and handed it to Vincent!”
Still nothing from him.
“You call that love?”
Juliet’s breath caught silently.
“A hundred fucking million, Cassian.”
Elias’s voice cracked through the room, sharp with disbelief as he stared at Cassian. “Those goons broke your shoulder when she switched your auction documents with fakes.”
Cassian only gave a faint shrug, as if the words carried no weight at all. He leaned back slightly, rolling the tension out of his uninjured shoulder like it was nothing more than an inconvenience.
“She can take whatever she wants from me. I’m hers. What does it matter if she steals a few deals from our fortune? In the end, it’s all going to be hers anyway.”
Elias let out a short, humorless laugh, but it died halfway in his throat. His hands lifted in frustration before dropping again, fingers curling tightly at his sides as he struggled to keep control.
“You’re insane,” he muttered, stepping closer. “You even went and picked a fight with Silas’s men over that deal to protect her—” his voice rose sharply, cutting through the air, “—and you almost lost your fucking life.”
The last words echoed in the room.
Elias stopped right in front of him now, eyes blazing. “How do you call any of this romantic?”
Cassian gave a careless shrug, looking completely unimpressed by Elias's frustration. He leaned one shoulder against the wall and slipped a hand into his pocket, as though they weren't having a serious conversation at all.
"Just mind your fucking business, will you?"
His tone was dismissive, almost indifferent, but the slight tightening of his jaw betrayed his irritation.
Elias stared at Cassian for several seconds before letting out a disbelieving laugh.
"She hates you."
The words didn't seem to affect Cassian in the slightest.