After They Sent Me Overseas, I Returned With a Powerful Husband Chapter 03

After They Sent Me Overseas, I Returned With a Powerful Husband Chapter 03

The moment it sank in, Rowan nudged my knee under the table.

“Ava, stop. This isn’t the time for jokes.”

Before I could answer, a shadow fell over us.

A hand reached between us, brushed Rowan’s away, and the man casually took the seat beside me.

I looked up.

Cassian was still wearing yesterday’s suit. One button at his collar was undone, and the exhaustion of a hangover lingered in his eyes. But he was smiling.

“Mrs. Monroe,” he said, turning to my mother, “you don’t need to worry about Ava. I’m her boyfriend.”

I barely heard him.

My gaze slipped past his shoulder.

Sienna stood by the front door with red-rimmed eyes, looking like she’d been holding back tears.

A subtle, awkward silence settled over the room.

My mother looked completely stunned.

A few seconds later, she snapped out of it, beaming as she piled food onto Cassian’s plate.

The warmth in her voice was nothing like the way she’d spoken to me.

Cassian answered her politely while quietly adding food to my plate.

Sienna never looked at him once.

She used to cling to him, calling him “Cassian” in that sweet voice of hers while asking him for one thing after another.

Today, she kept her face turned toward Rowan.

“Rowan, when are you taking me to that gallery you told me about?”

“Rowan, these BBQ ribs are so good. You should try them.”

Every time she called his name, Rowan answered immediately.

The two of them chatted back and forth as if they were in a world of their own.

Cassian kept talking to my mother like nothing was wrong.

But out of the corner of my eye, I saw the fist hidden beneath the table.

It was clenched so tightly his knuckles had turned white.

Every time Sienna said Rowan’s name, his grip tightened.

Then another piece of food landed in my plate.

I looked down at my plate. More Brussels sprouts.

Sienna’s nonstop attention toward Rowan had clearly gotten under his skin.

He wasn’t even looking where his fork went anymore.

He kept adding them every chance he got. There were five by now.

I’d had enough of pretending.

I pushed back my chair.

“I’m done eating.”

Without waiting for anyone to respond, I walked outside.

The air in the yard was much cooler.

I took a slow breath and followed the stone path.

Then, out of nowhere, my gaze locked onto something.

Beside the flower bed, a large dog crouched in the shadows. No leash. Ears pricked. Eyes fixed right on me.

My whole body went rigid.

In an instant, I was back in that rainy afternoon from childhood.

One afternoon after school, Sienna spotted a filthy stray on the side of the road and insisted on petting it because “it looked so sad.”

I tried to stop her, but she ignored me.

The second she crouched down and reached toward it, the dog lunged.

I shoved her behind me. Even though I was shaking with fear, I yelled for her to go find help.

I stayed behind, swinging my backpack at it, throwing rocks—until it knocked me to the ground and sank its teeth into my calf.

Sienna never came back.

A grown-up passing by finally chased the dog off with a stick.

I was rushed to the hospital and ended up with over a dozen stitches.

To this day, a jagged scar still circles my calf.

After that, my family never kept another pet.

So why was there a dog here now?

I didn’t have time to think.

The dog exploded out of the shadows.

It charged straight at me. Its jaws locked onto my calf.

Agony ripped through my leg.

I fell backward, the back of my head slamming against the edge of the flower bed. My vision blurred.

“Let go! Get off me!”

I kicked at its head with my free leg.

It didn’t budge. Its teeth dug in even deeper.

Pain and terror swallowed me whole.

Tears streamed down my face.

I screamed for help. No one came.

My hand searched wildly beside me until my fingers caught the edge of a heavy clay planter.

With every ounce of strength I had left, I swung it down.

It shattered with a deafening crash. Fragments flew everywhere.

I grabbed the sharpest shard I could find and drove it into the dog’s neck.

The dog let out a shrill yelp.

Finally, it let go.

I slumped to the ground, my entire body shaking.

Blood poured from the puncture wounds in my calf, running down my ankle and soaking into my shoe.

At last, footsteps came rushing up behind me.

“Coco!” Sienna screamed as she ran over and dropped beside the dog.

The moment she saw the wound on its neck, tears spilled down her face.

She whirled around and glared at me.

“Aren’t you terrified of dogs? Why would you go near him?”

“He never bites unless someone provokes him first! I’ve raised him for almost two years—he barely even barks.”

“How could you do this to him?”

“I know you’ve never liked me, but how could you do something like this?”

I was in too much pain to speak. A cold sweat covered my entire body.

But still—I looked up.

And saw the two men who had come running behind her.