Chapter 2 - Then at Cassidy.
“This is quite a change from yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“You married this morning.”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Vale, how long have you known Ms. Miller?”
Dominic answered before Cassidy could.
“Not long enough for any sensible person to recommend marriage.”
The evaluator blinked.
The judge looked over his glasses.
Cassidy’s heart stopped.
Dominic continued calmly.
“But Cassidy was facing a family crisis. I had a personal deadline of my own. We made a decision that solves practical problems for both of us. I understand that is unconventional.”
Rebecca stared at him.
The judge asked, “You’re telling me this marriage is partly practical?”
“All marriages are partly practical, Your Honor. Some people simply take longer to admit it.”
The judge suppressed something dangerously close to a smile.
“And your commitment to the child?”
Dominic’s face changed.
Cassidy saw it.
A shutter lowering.
“I have no intention of replacing her mother or becoming anything she does not want. But while she is under my roof, she will have a safe home, schooling, medical care and reliable supervision.”
The judge turned to Cassidy.
“What happens if this marriage fails?”
Cassidy swallowed.
“I still own the house.”
“And financially?”
“I have an employment offer managing two restaurant properties owned by a company independent of my husband’s immediate office. Regular daytime hours.”
Dominic glanced at her.
That part had been arranged by Rebecca, not him.
Cassidy continued.
“I also have six months of childcare expenses in an account I control.”
“And emotionally?”
The question surprised her.
Cassidy looked toward the closed courtroom door.
Beyond it, Emily sat coloring with a court aide.
“If the marriage fails, it fails,” Cassidy said. “I won’t tell Emily that adults never leave. She already knows they do. I’ll tell her I still stay.”
The judge watched her for several seconds.
Then he looked down at the file.
The court did not hand Cassidy a fairy-tale victory.
Real courts rarely did.
There were home visits.
Review dates.
Conditions.
But Emily could go home with Cassidy that afternoon.
When Cassidy heard those words, she covered her mouth.
Rebecca touched her shoulder.
Dominic did not move.
Cassidy turned toward him anyway.
“Thank you.”
His expression was unreadable.
“I fulfilled my side.”
“You could just say you’re welcome.”
“I could.”
He didn’t.
Emily met Dominic twenty minutes later.
She was small for seven, with light brown hair and the solemn eyes of a child who had overheard too many adult conversations.
Cassidy knelt and hugged her.
Emily held on tightly.
Then she looked past Cassidy.
“Who’s that?”
Cassidy stood slowly.
“That’s Dominic.”
Emily studied him.
Dominic appeared more nervous under the inspection of a seven-year-old than he had before a judge.
Emily pointed at Cassidy’s hand.
“Why do you have a wedding ring?”
Cassidy’s mouth opened.
Dominic said, “Because we got married this morning.”
Emily’s eyes widened.
“You married my sister?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dominic looked at Cassidy.
Cassidy waited.
His answer came slowly.
“Because we both needed help.”
Emily considered that.
“That’s not romantic.”
“No.”
“Disney would hate it.”
“Probably.”
Emily looked at him another moment.
“Do you have a dog?”
“No.”
She sighed.
“Then I don’t see what Cass got out of this.”
Dominic laughed.
It was the first time Cassidy heard the sound.
Not a polite chuckle.
A real laugh.
It changed his entire face.
And that, more than the house, more than the money, more than the contract, frightened Cassidy.
Because suddenly he looked human.
The house in Evanston had blue shutters and a maple tree in the backyard.
Cassidy had expected something absurd.
A mansion.
A marble staircase.
A kitchen nobody cooked in.
Instead Dominic had bought a home that looked as though a family had simply stepped out for groceries.
There were scuffs on the upstairs hallway floor. Pencil marks inside a pantry door showed the heights of children who had lived there before.
Emily found them immediately.
“Can we add mine?”
Cassidy’s throat tightened.
“Yes.”
Dominic stood behind them, hands in his coat pockets.
Emily leaned against the doorframe.
Cassidy drew a line above her head.
FEBRUARY 12 — EMILY — 47¼ INCHES.
“Your turn,” Emily told Dominic.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I’m fully grown.”
“So?”
Dominic looked at Cassidy for rescue.
She stepped aside.
“House rules.”
“We don’t have house rules.”
“We do now.”
With the expression of a man surrendering territory, Dominic stood against the pantry.
Emily dragged over a chair so Cassidy could mark six feet three inches.
DOMINIC — TOO OLD FOR THIS.
Cassidy wrote beneath it.
Emily laughed so hard she nearly fell off the chair.
Dominic stared at the words.
“You’re both impossible.”
But he did not erase them.
For the first month, the marriage stayed simple.
Dominic rarely slept at the Evanston house. His primary residence was a penthouse downtown, and the contract allowed him to come and go.
Cassidy began her management job at two neighborhood restaurants Vale Meridian had recently purchased. She discovered she was good at schedules, inventory and calming furious cooks.
Emily returned to school.
A nanny named Grace helped afternoons.
There were groceries.
Routine.
Quiet.
Cassidy began sleeping through the night.
Then Dominic started appearing for dinner.
At first once a week.
Then twice.
Never announced.
He would arrive at six-thirty with his tie loose, sit at the kitchen table and read messages while Cassidy cooked.
“You know we can afford takeout,” he said one evening as she made meatloaf.
“I know.”
“And a chef.”
“I know.”
“Then why do you cook?”
“Because Emily likes knowing what dinner smells like.”
Dominic glanced toward the living room, where Emily was doing homework.
He put his phone facedown.
The next evening he brought groceries.
Wrong groceries.
Six kinds of expensive cheese.
Three jars of olives.
No milk.
Cassidy stared into the bags.
“Have you ever shopped for food?”
“Yes.”
“No. You’ve walked through a grocery store while an employee shopped for you.”
“That counts.”
“It does not.”
Emily came in.
“Did you get cereal?”
Dominic looked into the bag.
“Cheese?”
Emily groaned.
“You’re terrible at being married.”
“I’m learning.”
The words came casually.
Cassidy felt them settle somewhere they had no right to settle.
By April, Dominic kept a toothbrush in the upstairs bathroom.
By May, Emily had stopped asking whether he was coming for dinner and started setting three plates automatically.
By June, Cassidy knew how Dominic drank coffee, how he loosened his watch when anxious, how he hated television news, and how he woke from nightmares without making a sound.
She discovered the nightmares by accident.
At 3:11 one morning, she found him sitting on the back steps in a white T-shirt and suit pants, barefoot in the cold grass.
Cassidy opened the screen door.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Bad answer.”
“I’m fine.”
“Also bad.”
He looked at her.
She sat one step above him.
For a while neither spoke.
Then Dominic said, “My mother died when I was twenty.”
Cassidy did not move.
He rubbed his palms together.
“Car accident.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She was leaving my father.”
Cassidy looked at him.
“He was not kind to her.”
The words were flat.
Too flat.
“Did he hurt you too?”
Dominic’s silence answered.
Cassidy looked toward the dark yard.
“Your grandfather knew?”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing?”
“He called it family business.”
Something cold moved through Cassidy.
Now she understood why Dominic never raised his voice at Emily.
Why he froze the first time Cassidy jokingly swatted his arm with a dish towel.
Why the word family sometimes sounded unpleasant in his mouth.
“What happened to your father?”
“Dead.”
Cassidy waited.
Dominic looked at her.
“Natural causes.”
“Was that supposed to reassure me?”
“It was intended as factual information.”
She almost smiled.
“Why did your grandfather make marriage a condition?”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“He decided my father became what he became because no woman could control him.”
Cassidy stared at him.
“That might be the stupidest thing I’ve heard all year.”
“It’s February.”
“Still winning.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“My grandfather understood money. Not people.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
Honest.
Cassidy looked at him.
“You understand Emily.”
“She’s direct.”
“You like that?”
“I don’t have to guess what she wants.”
“What does she want?”
“A dog.”
Cassidy laughed softly.
“She told you?”
“Daily.”
“And what do I want?”
Dominic’s eyes shifted toward her.
The air changed.
“I’m trying not to guess.”
She should have stood up.
She didn’t.
“What if I want you to?”
Dominic looked down at his hands.
“This ends in seven months.”
“I know.”
“You leave with enough money to build a different life.”
“I know.”
“Cassidy.”
“What?”
“I cannot become the reason you stay.”
Her chest tightened.
“You say that like caring about someone is a trap.”
“For people in my family, it usually is.”
She wanted to touch him.
Instead she said, “You’re not your family.”
His expression closed.
“You don’t know that yet.”
He went inside.
Three days later, someone photographed Cassidy and Emily leaving school.
The picture appeared on a gossip website with the headline:
DOMINIC VALE’S MYSTERY BRIDE WAS A WAITRESS — AND SHE BROUGHT A CHILD.
Cassidy stared at her phone in the restaurant office.
Below were comments.
Gold digger.
Convenient custody arrangement.
Poor kid.
How much did she get paid?
One person had found Cassidy’s old apartment.
Another posted the diner.
A third wrote Emily’s school name before the site removed it.
Cassidy’s hands went cold.
She called Dominic.
He answered after half a ring.
“What happened?”
“How do you know something happened?”
“You never call during lunch.”
She told him.
Silence.
Then, “Take Emily home. Nathan is outside.”
“I don’t need—”
“Cassidy.”
She heard it in his voice.
Not control.
Fear.
“I’m going.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
Dominic arrived forty minutes later with two security consultants and a woman from his legal department.
Cassidy stood in the kitchen furious.
“I am not turning this house into a prison.”
“No one said prison.”
“You want cameras, guards and a gate.”
“A camera is not a prison.”
“Neither is fear until it decides where you’re allowed to go.”
Dominic dismissed the others.
The kitchen door closed.
His face was hard.
“You think this is about embarrassment?”
“I think you’re panicking.”
“Yes.”
The admission stunned her.
Dominic came closer.
May you like
“They published her school.”
“I know.”
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