POV Cassidy
The front door explodes. Theo bursts through the door, soaking wet from the rain and his eyes full of worry, his gaze scanning the chaos—the scattered letters littering the kitchen floor, my tear-stained face, Xander crouched beside me, protecting me like some dark guardian.
Something dies in Theo's expression. Pure betrayal cuts across his features, raw and bleeding.
"What the hell is this?" His voice cracks like a whip.
"The letters are from my father," I manage, but the words shred my throat like broken glass. "About this cottage, about—"
"Not the letters." Theo's eyes never leave his brother. "What I want to know is what happened here. Why is she crying and you're hovering over her."
"She was upset. I stayed with her like you asked." Xander rises slowly, every movement controlled.
"I know you did." Theo's voice is tight, conflicted. "But that doesn't explain why she looks like her world just ended."
The kitchen contracts around us, walls pressing closer as both brothers close in. I'm trapped between them—Theo's familiar warmth now edged with hurt and rage, Xander's dangerous intensity crackling with barely leashed hunger. The air becomes suffocating.
"Theo, please—"
"No." He advances another step, fury rolling off him in waves. "I want answers. What did he say to you? What did he do?"
"Nothing happened," I insist, but my voice wavers.
"Look at her," Xander says quietly. "Look at how upset she is. You think I caused that?"
"I think you cause everything you touch to burn," Theo snarls.
"Maybe some things need to burn."
Fire explodes along my collarbone. The pain intensifies with both of them so close, like my body is being torn between two magnetic poles. Something impossible happens—I can feel their emotions.
Theo's devastation crashes over me, bitter and sharp.
Xander's guilt pours through the air thick as smoke, undercut by something fiercer. Yet he doesn't look like someone who would regret anything.
"Now you can go," Theo says, stepping closer to me.
"That's not for you to decide," Xander counters.
"Like hell it isn't. I'm here now. She doesn't need you hovering around."
"Maybe you should ask her what she needs instead of assuming."
"I don't need to assume anything. Look at her—she's falling apart, and you're just making it worse."
"Am I? Or are you the one making this harder than it needs to be?"
"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" The words tear from my chest, but they keep circling, keep arguing like I'm invisible.
"You heard her," Xander says quietly.
"Fine." Theo's jaw ticks. "Cassidy, do you want him here?"
"Don't put that on her," Xander cuts in before I can answer. "Look at the state she's in."
"Exactly my point. She needs space, not you lurking around making everything more complicated."
"I'm not complicating anything. She found something that upset her—I helped her through it."
"Helped her through what exactly? What was in those letters?"
"That's not my story to tell. Ask her."
"I'm asking you. What did you do to calm her down? What did you say?"
"I listened. That's what she needed."
"Right. You listened." Theo's voice turns sharp. "Just like you listened to Tessa before you convinced her to leave."
Xander's eyes flash dangerously. "Leave Tessa out of this."
"Why? Afraid Cassidy might learn what kind of man you really are?"
"Afraid she might see there are other options besides settling?"
"Settling?" Theo's voice turns deadly. "Is that what you think she's doing with me?"
"I think she deserves someone who actually sees her."
"And you think that's you? After knowing her for what, a few days?"
"Sometimes a few days is enough to recognize something real."
"Real? You don't know the meaning of the word."
Their voices rise, cutting through air that's become suffocating. Words fly between them like knives, each accusation sharper than the last.
"STOP!" I scream, the word ripping from my throat.
The raw pain in my voice cuts through their argument like a blade. Both brothers freeze mid-sentence, turning to stare at me with expressions of shock and concern.
My chest heaves as I struggle to breathe, overwhelmed by everything—the letters, the revelations about my family, the way these two are fighting over me like I'm some prize to be won. Heat flashes along my collarbone where those strange marks have been burning all day, and my vision blurs with tears of frustration and exhaustion.
"Cassidy?" Theo whispers, reaching toward me.
"No," I gasp, backing away from both of them.
"Something's wrong," Xander says, his voice turning gentle. "You're shaking."
Both their hands touch my skin simultaneously.
The world detonates.
Power crashes through the connection like lightning seeking earth. Suddenly I'm not in my own head—I'm drowning in theirs. Theo's desperate terror floods my consciousness, his absolute panic that he's losing me to forces he doesn't understand. His love hits like a physical blow, pure and desperate and everything good he's ever wanted.
Then Xander's soul slams into mine like a meteor strike.
Recognition so profound it rewrites my DNA. I'm not just someone he wants—I'm the missing piece that completes him. Years of emptiness suddenly filled with purpose, with completion that goes deeper than blood and bone. His love doesn't comfort—it consumes, devouring everything until nothing exists but us.
"Too much," I sob, feeling everything they feel, wanting everything they want.
"I can't—I can't handle both of you—"
The admission tears from my chest as their emotions crash through me in waves.
My knees buckle as fire blazes through every nerve. The golden threads connecting us pulse brighter, demanding more than any human heart can survive giving.
"Cassidy!" Both voices scream my name as darkness swallows me whole.