Chapter 265: Secrets that will paralyse quite a few people

The polite, distant tone and the name ‘Olga’ pierced straight through the older woman’s composure. A sharp, hollow pang seized Olga’s heart, aching with the bitter reminder that her own flesh and blood addressed her as a mere stranger instead of calling her mother.

Olga swallowed the sorrow rising in her throat and turned her attention fully to Cassian, fixing him with a sharp, unforgiving glare. “When are you going to tell everything?”

She needed no further words for him to grasp her meaning. The truth of Cixi’s real identity, when it was revealed, she asked Cassian.

Cassian met her hostile stare with complete indifference, his fingers tapping a slow rhythm against his knee. “Talk with your husband and arrange an official engagement between your daughter and Rafael. On that day, I shall announce to the world that I am very much alive, and perhaps I will spill the secrets you wish so desperately to see dragged into the light.”

Cixi shifted her focus back and forth between them, confusion pulling her brows tight. “What secrets?”

“Secrets that will paralyse quite a few people,” Cassian replied, a dark, wicked smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Behind the smug amusement, his sharp mind calculated every possible move. He had originally intended to remain dead to the world until he uncovered the identity of the assassin who had dared to attempt his murder.

Yet waiting in the shadows had its limits; sometimes a hunter had to offer himself as bait to force the rats into the light. If the Syvroski family had played a hand in orchestrating the attack, letting them know Cassian Crown was still breathing would shatter their composure and force their hand into making a fatal error.

Olga’s spine went rigid against her chair. “I do not want my daughter to be engaged to the Crown family.”

Her words landed with deliberate weight, making it unmistakably clear that she despised the idea of Cixi binding herself to Cassian just as much as she resented Tatiana’s entanglement with Rafael.

Cassian’s expression hardened into cold, territorial certainty. “What is mine will remain mine, Olga. As for your daughter and my stepbrother, Rafael, whatever game they choose to play is entirely up to them. Unfortunately for you, your opinion holds no weight. They are consenting adults now. Your daughter slipped right through your fingers and landed squarely in Rafael’s lap, an arrangement you and your husband engineered with your own hands, by the way.”

A biting silence gripped the room with the poisonous truth of his accusation.

Cassian pushed himself up from the sofa, smoothing his tailored suit with leisurely grace. “In any case, I shall leave you two ladies alone.”

He stepped toward the single armchair where Cixi sat. Before she could deduce his intent, Cassian reached down, cupped her chin in his firm hand, and tilted her face upward. He planted a slow, possessive kiss directly against her lips, his mouth lingering long enough to stake an undeniable claim right before Olga’s eyes.

He did not need to witness Olga’s reaction to know her face was twisting with helpless fury. The devil in him derived exquisite pleasure from making his adversaries suffer, especially those who dared to stand between him and what he claimed as his own.

Cassian straightened, casting one last mocking glance across the room, and stepped into the corridor. The second the door swung shut behind him, his presence vanished into thin air, leaving no shadow or scent behind.

Back in the living room, the suffocating tension slowly receded.

Olga drew a trembling breath to steady her nerves and picked up the porcelain teapot. Without uttering a word about Cassian, she poured the steaming amber liquid into both cups, adding a generous spoonful of golden honey into Cixi’s before stirring it gently. She lifted the saucer and handed it to Cixi, taking the second cup for herself.

“I hope you will like the blend, my dear,” Olga murmured softly, her eyes carrying a warmth that felt almost fragile.

Cixi accepted the warm porcelain cup between her hands, letting the heat seep into her chilled fingers. Although she remained naturally hesitant, she genuinely appreciated Olga’s gentle care. Yet beneath her polite gratitude, a cold knot of dread held her back from leaning into the affection.

The scars left by her kidnappers ran too deep to fade easily.

The couple who had posed as her parents for eighteen years had never offered her warmth; they had treated her as an invisible burden, ignoring her existence until the day they decided she was mature enough to sell off to human traffickers for profit. Because of their cruelty, Cixi had developed an instinctual distrust of parental figures. Whenever someone showed her motherly kindness, which rarely happened, alarm bells sounded in her head, warning her to keep her guard high.

She desperately wanted to know who her real biological parents were, yearning to understand where she came from. Yet a paralysing fear kept her silent—what if they refused to accept her? What if, after all these lost years, they looked upon her with disappointment and rejected her just like everyone else had?

It was that quiet, gnawing fear of being unwanted that kept Cixi from ever truly pressing Cassian to reveal their names.

Cixi lifted the cup and took a slow sip. The soothing sweetness of honey and chamomile washed over her tongue, sending a gentle, comforting heat spreading across her chest and loosening the tension in her limbs. She turned her attention to Olga, who was watching her with quiet, eager anticipation.

“Did you like it?” Olga asked, leaning forward slightly.

“Yes, it is very warm and soothing,” Cixi replied, offering a faint smile.

Setting the saucer steady on her lap, Cixi considered the older woman across from her. Memories of that morning outside the palace gates surfaced, where Tatiana had clapped mockingly and hurled bitter insults about taking in an orphan. A touch of concern softened Cixi’s voice.

“How is Tatiana, your daughter? Are you two alright? I hope I did not cause any trouble between you both.”

Olga took a long moment before answering, her gaze dropping to the steam curling from her own cup. She had tried speaking with Tatiana earlier that afternoon, but the girl had refused to utter a single word to her, retreating into cold spite, much like how Olga herself had shut out Victor after learning how her husband had conspired to harm Cixi.

“She will be fine,” Olga murmured, brushing aside the topic with a forced calmness. She looked back up, her eyes softening as she gathered the courage to ask the question burning in her soul. “May I ask you something personal, Cixi?”

Cixi nodded. “Yes, of course.”

“How were your parents with you while you were growing up? How did they treat you? Do you have any siblings from them?”

Support my new book with PS and gifts. Bonus DFO chapter.

Support my new book with PS and gifts. Bonus DFO chapter.