I don't bother with the palace guards or council members. I don't tell Esther. I don't even ask the driver to wait.
If Cassian truly wanted to vanish, he wouldn't be at Wild Villa. He'd go where it's hard to find him. Where he had once fled to run from an unwanted marriage… from me.
I remember that house. I remember how it stung to find him there the first time with those two women, half-dressed and half-drunk, trying to forget the world. He had never taken me there willingly, never once showed it to me with pride. But I remembered how to find it. I remembered how to get in.
The guest house is quiet now, blanketed in ivy and a strange kind of stillness.
I walk around to the back gate, the same gate I once slipped through in heartache. I take out the small tool from my bag, just like last time. The lock isn't complicated. Cassian never thought to change it.
The door creaks open.
No alarms. No motion. Just silence.
I step in, careful, closing the door behind me. The air smells faintly of coffee… and something else. Him.
I move through the hallway, past the kitchen where a mug sits untouched on the counter, and toward the staircase.
The wood groans softly beneath my feet as I climb. I feel my heartbeat rise with each step, not from fear but because I know. I just know he's here.
I reach the landing, heart in my throat, and quietly turn the corner toward the upper lounge.
And there he is.
Cassian.
Sitting on the couch, laptop on his thighs, staring blankly at the screen. His hair is longer, his face more shadowed, but it's him.
He looks up and freezes the second our eyes meet.
I take one small step forward.
He doesn't move. Doesn't breathe.
Just stares.
"What are you doing here, Celeste?" Cassian asks, voice tired and ragged.
I step forward and slowly sink onto the couch across from him. "I've come for my husband," I say softly. "What does it look like?"
"You shouldn't have come," he mutters, averting his eyes.
"Why not?" I ask, unfazed. "Have you given up on us?"
"There's no 'us'," he says bitterly. "Nothing is real, Celeste. I don't even know who I am… and 'us' isn't real."
I breathe slowly, calmly. "If that's what you believe, then that's your truth. But my truth? I believe there is an us. There always has been even long before we met. We were destined to meet. We are fated, Prince Cassian."
"Don't call me that," he snaps. "I'm no prince, and you know that. You are the Princess. Go back to your palace where you rightfully belong."
I smile faintly, tilting my head. "If you are not a prince, then I'm not the princess. If I'm a princess and we are married, that makes you a full-fledged prince."
He says nothing.
"I was nothing when I met you, Cassian," I continue, "Just a girl from the common place. But when you married me, you gave me a name, a home, and a chance. I evolved… became a barrister… a royal. All of that, because of you. I'm nothing without you."
Still, he doesn't speak, but I see his jaw twitch, his hands clench.
"Even if the Queen lied to us… even if the crown rejects us… even if the whole world turns against us, we still have each other," I say, firm but tender. "You are my husband, Cassian. We belong together. Or do you wish to divorce me now… just because our identities were swapped?"
His face finally changes. A tear slips down his cheek.
"It's easy for you to say these things," he whispers, voice cracking. "You've always had Amira… and your father… and Ray, before you even came to the palace." His chest trembles. "But me… I have nobody. I don't know who the hell I am."
He breaks.
Tears roll freely as he buries his face in his palms.
I don't hesitate. I rise and cross to him, gently wrapping my arms around his trembling frame.
"You have me, Cassian," I whisper, holding him close. "You've always had me. And we will find your birth parents together. I promise you that."
His breathing slows, his hands clutching my waist like I'm his anchor.
"You once said, no matter what comes, we face it together," I remind him gently. "When we lost our baby, we faced it together. When we thought we might be siblings, you held me and said we'd survive it. What could possibly be worse than that?"
He wipes his eyes, sniffling. I feel his body slowly start to steady in my arms.
"We have a family now," I say. "A son who needs us. We have something worth fighting for."
Cassian blinks at me, confused. Then his gaze drops down to my stomach. "Are you… pregnant again?" he asks slowly.
I laugh lightly and shake my head. "No."
I stand to my feet, smoothing my blouse with trembling fingers.
"Morgana hasn't been the only one keeping secrets," I say. "I'm guilty of that too."
Cassian frowns, sitting up straighter.
"I have something to confess," I say, voice now a little shaky.
I take a deep breath, holding his gaze as my fingers twist together in front of me. "There's something I've never told you. Something I've kept locked away for years, because I didn't have the strength to face it. Until now."
Cassian doesn't move, but I see his body tense. He's listening.
"It happened on my eighteenth birthday," I begin softly, eyes trailing to the far corner of the room as the memory claws its way up from the depths of my past. "My friends and I went to a club in Letham. It was meant to be a wild night out, a way to finally feel grown, free."
His brows twitch at the name Letham. He remembers taking me there.
"I was reckless," I admit. "Stupid. I thought I could handle a couple of drinks. I was convinced I was invincible. And then… I saw him."
My voice grows quieter. "The most handsome boy I'd ever seen. He offered me a shot, then another. We danced. We laughed. I didn't even ask his name. I didn't care. I was caught up in the moment, just a stupid girl playing at being a woman."
Cassian is completely still now. His eyes locked on mine.
"One thing led to another," I whisper. "And that night changed everything. I left the club with nothing but a headache and a mess of shame. I didn't even know I'd lost something much bigger until weeks later. That's when I found out I was pregnant."
Cassian's jaw tenses, his breathing uneven.
"I couldn't tell anyone," I continue. "Not my parents. Not even myself. I couldn't explain who the father was because I never knew. I had no name, no face, just a blurred memory of a boy in a black hoodie, eyes that smiled when he looked at me, and the faint scent of whiskey on his breath."
I blink away tears I didn't know had formed. "That mistake… became my miracle. Ray."
Cassian stares at me, his lips parted slightly. He looks… haunted.
"I didn't know, Cassian," I whisper. "Not until our honeymoon. Not until I began to connect the pieces. The year. The city. The club. Our age and birthdays. The look in your eyes when you told me you once went to Club Delphi in Letham—and how you never forgot this girl who didn't give you her name."
Cassian's eyes widen slowly, his breath halts.
I step closer. "It was me, Cassian," I say gently. "It was me… all this time."
He doesn't speak. For several heartbeats, he just stares. And stares.
Then, softly, almost like a breath…he says, "It was you…"
I nod, tears streaming freely now. "Yes."
He leans forward, his face a mix of disbelief, awe, and something close to fear. "It was you… all this while?"
"Yes," I whisper.
He presses his palms into his temples, shakes his head slightly, then… suddenly breaks into laughter.
Not mocking or cruel but disoriented, disbelieving, cracking from the weight of too many revelations.
He lifts his head to look at me, eyes wet, lips parted in wonder and laughs again, the sound echoing through the room like a strange kind of music.
The kind that comes with acceptance and peace.