Chapter 22
Isla
Iwoke to sunlight filtering through my curtains and the distant sound of voices drifting from somewhere in the penthouse.
For a disorienting moment, I lay there blinking at the ceiling, my mind catching up with consciousness. Then last night came flooding back—the balcony, the tears, Cassian's confession. I love you. I'm staying.
My heart stuttered. Had he meant it? Or would I venture out to find him gone again, another excuse manufactured, another day of careful distance?
I'll be at breakfast tomorrow. I promise.
Only one way to find out if he'd keep that promise.
I sat up, running my hands through my tangled hair. My pillow wasn't damp with tears this morning. Instead, I felt something fragile and cautiously hopeful stirring in my chest.
After a quick wash and pulling on one of Cassian's shirts over my sleep shorts, I padded down the hallway. Leo's room was empty, his bed unmade, Rex abandoned on the pillow.
The voices grew clearer as I approached the kitchen—Leo's bright chatter interspersed with Cassian's deeper tones, patient and warm.
He was here. He'd actually stayed.
I paused in the doorway, taking in the scene before they noticed me.
Cassian stood at the stove, spatula in hand, while Leo perched on the counter beside him in his dinosaur pajamas. Flour dusted every surface, batter dripped on the stovetop, and both of them had white handprints on their clothes.
"No, Cass! That one's burning!" Leo pointed with urgent authority.
"You're absolutely right. Good eye, buddy." Cassian flipped the pancake, revealing a slightly too-dark underside. "Think it's salvageable or should we start over?"
"Still good." Leo was utterly serious, as if pancake rescue operations were matters of life and death. "Just scrape the black part."
"Smart thinking." Cassian ruffled Leo's curls, leaving a flour handprint in his hair.
My throat tightened. He'd come. He'd gotten Leo up, made breakfast, and kept his word. He was trying.
"Mama!" Leo spotted me first. "We make pancakes! Help Cass!"
Cassian turned, spatula still in hand, his eyes finding mine across the kitchen. I saw everything there—nervousness, hope, determination. And underneath it all, unmistakable love.
"Morning," he said quietly. "Hope you don't mind. I got Leo when he woke up. Thought you could use some extra sleep after… after everything."
"It's perfect." I moved into the kitchen, unable to stop the small smile tugging at my lips. "Thank you."
"Sit, Mama!" Leo bounced with excitement. "We serve you! Special breakfast!"
I slid onto a stool at the island, watching them work together. Cassian plated the misshapen pancakes while Leo carefully—tongue stuck out in concentration—carried syrup and butter to the counter.
"Here you go." Cassian set the plate in front of me, his fingers brushing mine as he placed a coffee mug beside it. That simple touch—deliberate, warm—said everything we hadn't yet spoken aloud.
The pancakes were lumpy, slightly burned, and absolutely perfect.
"They're beautiful," I said, and meant it.
Leo scrambled into his booster seat with his own plate. "We good team, right, Cass?"
"The best team." Cassian settled beside me, close enough that our shoulders touched. He didn't pull away.
We ate together, Leo narrating his elaborate plans for the day while Cassian and I exchanged glances over his head. Checking. Connecting. Making sure this was real.
After Leo finished and ran off to play with his trains, Cassian and I stood side by side at the sink, cleaning up the flour explosion in companionable silence.
"You kept your promise," I said softly.
He set down the bowl he'd been washing and turned to face me. "I told you I would. I know one morning doesn't erase three days of running away. That I have a lot to prove still. But I'm here, Isla. And I meant what I said last night. I'm not going anywhere."
"I want to believe that."
"Then let me prove it." He stepped closer, his hands finding my waist. "Let me spend every day showing you that I meant it. That I'm done being afraid."
I looked up at him, this man who'd broken my heart and was now carefully, determinedly putting it back together. "What if you get scared again?"
"Then I'll remember last night. Remember how much worse it felt to push you away than to risk staying." His thumb traced circles on my hip. "And you'll call me on my bullshit. Like you always do."
I couldn't help it. I smiled. "You're counting on me being mean to you?"
"I'm counting on you being honest with me." He leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine. "That's all I ask. Be honest. Call me out when I'm being an idiot. And let me love you. Let me try."
"Okay," I whispered.
"Okay?"
"I'll let you try." I reached up, touching his face. "But Cassian? If you run again—"
"I won't. But if I do, chase me down and drag me back." A hint of that half-smile I loved. "I'm not too proud to be rescued from my own stupidity."
He kissed me then, soft and sweet and full of promises neither of us was quite ready to voice yet. When we pulled apart, Leo's voice drifted from the living room.
"Cass? Mama? Play trains?"
"Coming, buddy!" Cassian called back, but his eyes stayed on me. "Stay with us? Please?"
Like I could be anywhere else.
We spent the morning building elaborate train tracks that wound through the living room, creating tunnels from cushions and bridges from books. Leo directed with absolute authority while Cassian and I followed orders, stealing glances and small touches when Leo wasn't looking.
It felt almost normal. Almost like a real family.
Around noon, Leo was deep in dinosaur negotiations when Cassian caught my hand.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
He hesitated, suddenly looking nervous in a way I'd never seen from him. "Would you… would you both want to go to the park? This afternoon?"
The park. Where Leo had been taken. Where everything had fallen apart.
My instinct was to say no, to keep us safe in this penthouse fortress. But I looked at Cassian's face and saw what this really was—him asking to face that fear together. To reclaim something that had been stolen.
"Security?" I asked quietly.
"Triple what we had before. Marco personally overseeing everything. I wouldn't suggest it otherwise." He squeezed my hand. "But if you're not ready—"
"I'm ready." And surprisingly, I was. "Leo needs to know that place doesn't own us anymore."
Relief flooded his expression. "Thank you."
"What are we thanking Mama for?" Leo looked up from his dinosaur battle.
"For agreeing to go to the park," Cassian said. "All three of us. Would you like that?"
"Park!" Leo's face lit up. "Swings! Can we, Mama? Please?"
I looked between them—my son's hopeful excitement and Cassian's careful determination—and nodded. "Yes. We can go to the park."
The October air was crisp and cool, leaves crunching under our feet as we walked the familiar path. I held Leo's hand on one side while Cassian flanked his other, both of us instinctively protective.
The park was busy with weekend families. Children shrieked from the playground, dogs chased balls, and joggers passed us on the path. Normal. Safe.
Leo tugged toward the swings, but Cassian's hand on my arm stopped me before I could follow.
"Can we talk first?" he asked. "Just for a minute. There's something I need to say."
My stomach flipped. "Okay."
He led me to a bench with a clear view of the playground, where we could see Leo but have privacy. We sat, and he immediately took my hand, as if needing the anchor.
"Last night," he began, then stopped, jaw working. "Last night I told you I loved you."
"I remember." How could I forget?
"And this morning I kept my promise. Made breakfast. Stayed." He turned to face me fully. "But that's just one morning, Isla. And I've put you through hell these past few days. I know that."
"Where is this going?"
He took a shaky breath. "It's going somewhere I didn't plan.
Somewhere I probably should have thought through better.
But watching you this morning, playing with Leo, seeing you smile at me again like maybe I hadn't completely destroyed everything—" He shook his head.
"I can't wait. I can't do this the slow, careful way. "
"Cassian—"
"I love you." He said it fiercely, like a vow. "I love you, and I'm terrified, and I don't have a ring or a speech prepared. But I'm asking anyway, because waiting feels like wasting time I don't want to waste anymore."
My heart stopped. "What are you asking?"
He slid off the bench, kneeling on the grass in front of me. Right there, in the middle of the park, with families walking past and Leo playing nearby.
"Marry me." His voice shook slightly. "I know it's fast. I know I just spent three days pushing you away.
I know I'm a mess, and I'll probably get scared again.
But marry me anyway. Not for Leo, not for convenience.
Marry me because I love you. Because you're brave enough to call me on my bullshit.
Because somewhere between hating me and being terrified of me, you fell for me anyway. "
Tears blurred my vision. "You're serious."
"I've never been more serious about anything." His hands found mine, gripping tight. "I don't deserve you. Probably don't deserve this second chance you're giving me. But I'm asking anyway, because losing you hurts worse than being afraid ever could."
"Cass?" Leo's voice cut through the moment. He'd noticed us and was running over with concern on his little face. "Why on da ground? You hurt?"
Cassian glanced at Leo, then back at me. "Not hurt, buddy. I'm asking your mama something very important."
"Like princess movie?" Leo's eyes went wide.
"Exactly like that." Cassian's gaze never left mine. "What do you say, Isla? Will you marry me?"
Leo grabbed my hand, bouncing with excitement. "Say yes, Mama! Please? Say yes!"
I looked at my son's hopeful face, then at the man kneeling before me. The man who'd killed for us, pushed me away to protect us, and was now offering me everything despite his terror of losing it.
"You promise you won't run again?" I asked.
"I promise to fight to stay instead of fighting to leave." His voice was steady despite the emotion in his eyes. "I promise to choose us every day. To be the man you see when you look at me."
"And I promise to keep calling you on your bullshit when you forget," I said, smiling through my tears.
"So is that a yes?"
I pulled my hands free and cupped his face, feeling the roughness of stubble, the warmth of his skin, the slight tremble that showed his vulnerability. "Yes. Yes, I'll marry you."
The words had barely left my mouth before he surged up, pulling me into his arms and kissing me like I was air and he'd been drowning. Leo shrieked with delight and threw himself at us. Suddenly, we were all tangled together—laughing and crying and holding on.
"We're family now!" Leo announced to the entire park. "Officially!"
"We were always family," Cassian said, one arm around me, the other holding Leo. "But now everyone knows it."
People were staring—some smiling, some curious, all witnesses to this moment. I didn't care. Let them see. Let them know that Cassian Barone, feared businessman and dangerous man, was also just a father who loved his son. A man who loved me.
We stayed at the park for hours after that.
Leo played on every piece of equipment while Cassian and I sat close together, fingers intertwined, occasionally stealing kisses when Leo wasn't looking.
We bought overpriced ice cream and chased Leo through piles of leaves and took silly photos that would probably never make it to social media but would live in my heart forever.
Normal family things. Things I'd never imagined doing with someone like Cassian.
But he wasn't just Cassian Barone anymore. He was Cass—the man who made terrible pancakes and got down on his knees in a public park to propose. The man who was learning, slowly and imperfectly, how to stay.
As the sun began setting, painting the sky in brilliant orange and pink, we walked home. Leo between us, holding both our hands, swinging himself up with giggles every few steps.
"I can't believe you proposed," I said quietly as we rode the elevator up.
"I can't believe you said yes." Cassian squeezed my hand. "But I'm glad you did. And I'm going to spend every day making sure you don't regret it."
"I won't regret it." And looking at him now—tired, happy, covered in grass stains from kneeling—I knew it was true.
Leo had fallen asleep by the time we reached the penthouse, exhausted from the day's excitement. We carried him to his room together, tucking him in with Rex. In the hallway, Cassian pulled me close.
"Thank you," he murmured against my hair.
"For what?"
"For saying yes. For giving me another chance. For being brave when I couldn't be." He pulled back to look at me. "I love you, Isla Quinn. Soon-to-be Isla Barone."
"I love you too." And saying it felt right. Felt true. "Even when you're being an idiot."
He laughed, the sound warm and genuine. "Especially when I'm being an idiot. Someone has to keep me in line."
We stood there in the hallway, holding each other, listening to our son's soft breathing through the cracked door. Outside, the city lights flickered against the darkening sky—beautiful and dangerous and full of unknowns we'd face together.
But up here, in this moment, we were safe. We were whole. We were family.
And that was worth everything.