Bound By A Broken Night novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

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Chapter 72

Her lips curved into a faint, unreadable smile.

“But sometimes,” she added quietly, eyes still fixed on the city.

“I wonder if strength came from healing… or if it was just something I learned to wear so I wouldn’t break again.”

The night swallowed her words, and Ashton remained quiet beside her, giving her the space she seemed to need.

“I lived by my own standards,” Cassie went on, her lips curving into a bitter smile.

“Far harsher than anything society ever demanded of me.” She took another slow sip, then exhaled.

“I was nothing like the Cassie who left this place six years ago,” she continued, her voice dropping to almost a whisper. The realization left a sour taste in her mouth.

“Back then… I was broken, yes. Naïve. Desperate.” Her fingers tightened around the stem of her glass.

“But I felt more human.”

She drew a deep breath, the kind meant to steady a heart that had begun to ache again.

“Now,” she said quietly,

“I feel like I’m trapped in a lie I created myself. A lie I keep telling so I can survive. So I can convince myself that I’m stronger–that I’m no longer that Cassie from six years ago.” A soft, humorless snort escaped her.

“But am I really?” She finally turned to Ashton, offering him a sad, fragile smile.

“Or did I just become more pathetic in a different way?”

Ashton looked at her, his expression unreadable, his silence intentional. He didn’t interrupt, didn’t rush to reassure her with hollow words. He stayed–letting her untangle her thoughts at her own pace.

When no response came, Cassie turned back to the city, her gaze empty, piercing nothing.

“I used to be happy with the simplest things,” she said suddenly, a faint, wistful smile touching her lips.

“I was over the moon every time my father so much as spared me a glance. Even if it was fleeting.” Her shoulders lifted in a small, helpless shrug.

“And you,” she added softly.

“I used to get excited whenever you came to the Knowles residence. Even when Mirriam would glare at me in secret every time she caught me staring at you.”

A quiet chuckle slipped out, tinged with self–mockery and nostalgia.

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Chapter 52

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“It was still worth it,” she said.

“Just to steal a glimpse of you.” She shook her head slowly, as if amused–and saddened–by the girl she

once was.

“I was content with crumbs,” Cassie murmured.

“With the smallest sliver of attention. I convinced myself it was enough.”

Her reflection shimmered faintly in the glass railing before her–older, stronger, and yet carrying the echoes of a girl who once believed that being seen, even briefly, was already a privilege.

“Can I go back to being the same Cassie from six years ago, Ashton?” she asked suddenly.

The smile on her lips was fragile–tinged with bitterness and quiet pleading. A faint flush colored her cheeks, the wine softening her edges, loosening thoughts she usually kept tightly restrained. Her lashes fluttered lazily as she looked at him, longing laid bare in her drowsy gaze.

Ashton met her eyes without hesitation.

“You can be whoever you want to be, Cassie,” he said gently.

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