Rebecca’s collapse threw the whole estate into an uproar for half the night, ending only when someone finally sent for a pack physician skilled enough to steady her for the time being.
The physician was blunt with Adrian once the worst had passed. "I’ve treated Madam Warren before, and I’ve done what I can tonight, but my skill only stretches so far. Sebastian is the finest healer in this territory when it comes to heart conditions like hers. His Snowdrop Pills are the only thing keeping her alive at this point. She’s held steady this past year because of them, but if these episodes start coming more often, there’s little more anyone but him can do for her."
He gathered his things and left without waiting for a response.
Adrian’s eyes had gone bloodshot by the time the door closed behind the physician. He had gone to Sebastian’s clinic himself earlier that day, hat in hand, and the man had refused to even see him. There was only one explanation for that, as far as Adrian was concerned. Cassandra had gotten to him first, using his mother’s failing heart as a weapon to force him away from Aurora before the marriage could even take place.
He kicked the door of Grace Mansion open hard enough to rattle the frame.
Cassandra was still awake, seated beneath the lamplight with a brush in hand, midway through a line she never finished. She looked up at the sound, took one look at his face, and knew exactly what kind of conversation this was about to become.
"Holly, Lily, Lulu, leave us for a moment," she said, her voice calm despite the storm walking toward her.
Adrian crossed the room slowly, his expression carved out of ice. "Get Sebastian here by tomorrow. Or else."
She held his gaze without flinching. "Or else what?"
His jaw clenched so hard it looked painful. "Or else I’ll divorce you."
"You’ll divorce me." She repeated it back to him, unhurried, testing the shape of the words.
"You said it yourself the other day." His voice had dropped into something flat and final. "There are more than enough reasons for it."
The lamplight caught the pale line of her throat as she tilted her head, and for a moment her calm looked almost otherworldly, untouched by anything he’d just said.
"Good. Now I know you mean it." A faint smile touched her mouth. "I’ll wait for the papers, then."
"You understand what happens to your dowry once this is finalized. None of it comes back to you." He said it like a threat, like something meant to make her flinch.
It didn’t. "Oh, that old thing." Her smile never wavered. "Take it, if that’s what you want. Tomorrow, invite both our family elders, the neighbors, and the matchmaker who arranged us in the first place. Bring the papers, and I’ll sign them the moment I see them."
He jabbed a finger toward her, stopping just short of her face. "Fine. Tomorrow at noon. I’ll have you out of this house by nightfall."
He turned and stormed off, sleeves snapping behind him like a door slamming twice.
Holly rushed back in the second he was gone, practically shaking with anger. "My lady, once that’s signed, everything you brought into this house belongs to him. How can you agree to something like that so easily?"
Lulu wasn’t far behind her, eyes already wet. "She’s right. Are you really going to let them walk away with everything just like that? Your mother gave you half of everything the Sinclair family owned as your dowry, and you’re going to hand it over without a fight?"
Cassandra sat with her hands folded in her lap, still seeing the coldness that had settled over Adrian’s face only minutes ago. Something in her chest ached at the memory of it, small and unwelcome. It would have been a lie to say she’d never hoped, in some quiet corner of herself, that this past year might have turned into something real between them. Whatever their marriage had lacked, he was still the man her mother had chosen for her, and some part of her had wanted that choice to mean something.
"If he goes through with this, he’ll pay for it in more ways than he thinks." She kept her voice steady. "As for the dowry, we’ll decide what stays and what comes with me when the time actually arrives. There’s no need to panic over it tonight."
"Exactly, and think about everything you’ve done for this family," Holly pressed, still fuming. "You cared for his mother for a whole year while he was off earning his medals, and the moment he comes home with honors, he asks for another mate and now wants to be rid of you on top of it. He’s even selling off the family’s shops to pay for his new bride’s gifts. Who’s to say this divorce isn’t just him finding a clean way to get his hands on your dowry? People will talk, my lady. The pack elders won’t just let this slide quietly."
"Even so." Lulu wrung her hands together. "I worry he’ll do something rash before this is settled properly. Even if you keep your dowry in the end, being a divorced woman will follow you everywhere you go. That’s not a small thing to carry."
Cassandra turned that thought over slowly. Her real worry wasn’t Adrian’s temper, not really. It was the Alpha. She had built her case for the separation on her father’s and brothers’ service to the pack, but every one of them was long dead now, their sacrifices already spent. The Alpha did care about lifting up new blood among his warriors, that much was true, but there was no telling whether he’d hesitate once he sat with the decision a while longer, whether old loyalty to a dead family would be enough to move him when weighed against Adrian and Aurora’s rising value to the pack.
The dowry itself didn’t worry her nearly as much as the others assumed. She held the full inventory in her own hands, every bond and every coin accounted for, and the properties themselves had always belonged to her family by name, not the Warrens. Whatever Adrian and his household might get their hands on would amount to little more than silk, some malachite pieces, and a modest amount of jewelry. There would be a loss, certainly, but nothing close to what Holly and Lulu feared.
Still, if Adrian truly meant to follow through with this, no one could accuse Cassandra of being the cold, heartless one in the story that would eventually get told.
"And to think you were still going to send for Sebastian on their behalf tonight." Holly shook her head, muttering under her breath. "After everything. It isn’t worth it, my lady. It never was."