After They Sent Me Overseas, I Returned With a Powerful Husband Chapter 09

After They Sent Me Overseas, I Returned With a Powerful Husband Chapter 09

The officer froze. “But this case…”

“Don’t ask.” The middle-aged man dropped a file onto the table and looked at Cassian, his tone flat. “Mr. Sterling, you’re free to go.”

Cassian slowly got to his feet.

When the handcuffs came off, he rolled his wrist once without saying a word.

The man added, “Stay away from Mr. West. He’s way out of your league. If you end up back here, no one’s going to bail you out next time.”

Cassian didn’t answer. He walked out without looking back.

The first thing he did after leaving was get Rowan released from the interrogation room next door.

Rowan narrowed his eyes at him.

“Why’d you get me out?”

Cassian lit a cigarette. He took a drag before speaking.

“Don’t you think something’s off about Ava?”

Rowan let out a humorless laugh.

“How the hell would I know? Weren’t you her boyfriend?”

“You didn’t even know she’d gotten married and had kids, and now you’re asking me?”

—

Before he even finished, Cassian’s fist slammed into his face.

Rowan didn’t dodge. Blood instantly spread across the corner of his mouth.

He cursed under his breath, wiped the blood away with his thumb, and stared at the red smear on his fingertip. His expression darkened.

The next second, he lunged.

Ever since the day Ava told him she had a boyfriend, he’d wanted to punch Cassian.

Years of resentment exploded all at once. Neither of them held back.

They kept at it until neither had any strength left.

Finally, they let go and collapsed onto the pavement, staring up at the gray sky while gasping for air.

Cassian spoke first, his voice hoarse.

“Something doesn’t add up.”

“The Ava I knew would’ve never gotten married. She has to be putting on a show.”

“She’s trying to make us miserable so we’ll go after her and make things right.”

Rowan lay beside him, catching his breath.

“Yeah… She used to be so good, so sweet. That man must’ve put her up to this.”

“We have to save her. We can’t let some guy like that take advantage

—

of her.”

They pushed themselves upright at the same time. Their eyes met.

Just as they got to their feet, hurried footsteps came racing toward them.

“Cassian! Rowan!”

My mother came running over, completely out of breath.

Panic covered her face as she grabbed Cassian’s arm.

“What are we supposed to do about Sienna?”

“That bastard’s still locked up at the station. She’s been crying nonstop and won’t eat.”

“I can’t get through to her. You two have to do something.”

Cassian and Rowan both froze.

Because of Ava, they’d almost forgotten about Sienna.

When they returned to the Stonebrook Police Department, Gregory was already sitting inside a holding cell.

He glanced at them, lowered his head, and sighed.

“I’ll say this one more time. I never forced Sienna.”

“At first, it was just coffee with Ava, every day.”

“My family kept pushing me to get married, and hers was doing the same. We agreed to fake it so both families would back off.”

—

“Then one day Sienna somehow got my number. She called and said Ava wasn’t great with people.”

“She wanted to know what Ava’s future husband was like because she didn’t want Ava getting hurt.”

“Ava and I were never actually dating, so I couldn’t exactly expose the truth. That’s how Sienna and I started talking.”

Gregory went on. “After that, she’d text me in the middle of the night.”

“She’d send pictures and tell me she felt lonely. She’d say her sister had someone, but she didn’t.”

“I’d never met a girl like that before. I started falling for her.”

“Then she invited me to the Monroe Estate. She said Ava wanted me to come by. But Ava wasn’t even home that day.”

“Sienna brought me into her room and kissed me first.”

“Everything after that—it was exactly what you saw. No one drugged her. She took her own clothes off.”

Cassian stood there in silence.

Then he narrowed his eyes. His voice turned cold.

“So you and Ava were just acting?”

Gregory blinked, surprised that that was the part he cared about.

Still, he nodded. “Yeah. She laid it all out the first day.”

“Told me she had a husband overseas—he just wasn’t in the country yet.”

—

“She only came because she needed to get her family off her back.”

“I didn’t want my family hounding me either, so we played along.”

The instant Cassian heard those words, his expression changed.

He looked at Rowan. Rowan looked back at him. The same thing churned in both their eyes.

Neither of them knew what the two of them had really been up to during those days when Ava and this man went out together, day after day.