The Supreme Sovereign Returns

Chapter 004

At that moment, Neve Ashford stood frozen, her face pale with shock as she stared at her mother in disbelief.

Her undergarments had been going missing for months. At first, she had dismissed it as carelessness on her part, but now that Cassian Reed had spelled it out so plainly, could it really have been her own mother all along?

An indescribable emotion washed over her as she looked at the woman who had raised her. For the first time in her life, Bernice Grady felt like a stranger.

The atmosphere in the room solidified into suffocating silence.

Bernice opened her mouth to explain, but no words came. Instead, she covered her face with both hands and broke into loud, theatrical sobs.

Even Damon Grady stood rooted in place, intimidated by the sheer force of presence radiating from Cassian. He didn't dare take a single step forward.

"That's impossible. Cassian, stop it!" Neve's voice cracked with desperation. "My mother would never do something like that."

Cassian's gaze swept over her, and the coldness in his eyes deepened until he looked like an emperor seated upon a throne of ice. His voice was quiet, but each word landed with brutal clarity. "I don't mind being wronged. I can continue to endure it all without complaint. But you need to use your head. Wake up, Neve."

Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked past her. His back was solitary, desolate, like a lone figure disappearing into a winter wasteland.

Damon watched him leave, and a flicker of vicious intent flashed across his face. Quietly, he slipped out after him.

"Sweetheart, don't listen to that waste of space," Bernice said the moment Cassian was out of earshot. Her tears dried up remarkably fast, and her eyes actually brightened. "Sure, his mouth works now, but his brain is clearly broken. How could your own mother ever hurt you? Right?"

No matter how she looked at it, today had turned out rather well. That useless fool had finally left of his own accord.

"Stop talking."

Neve's voice was distant, her gaze fixed blankly on the wall.

"Darling, don't be sad. A man like that isn't worth your tears..."

Bernice kept chattering on, the words spilling out in an endless stream.

"I said stop!"

The sudden ice in Neve's tone froze Bernice mid-sentence. Her mouth hung open, breath coming in short gasps. The words she'd been about to say died in her throat.

Neve finally turned to look at her mother, and her expression was unreadable. "I didn't side with Cassian just now because I was trying to spare you the embarrassment. Did you really think I didn't know?"

She had chosen to give her mother dignity, not because she was ignorant of the truth. And Cassian, he hadn't said another word. He had simply left.

It was hard to imagine how much pain he must have been in at that moment. He hadn't been met with justice. Only cold reprimand.

Cassian stood before the elevator doors, one hand raised to press the call button. Suddenly, a sharp prickle of danger ran down his spine. His brow furrowed.

The elevator doors slid open.

A pack of men in black suits surged out, weapons gleaming in their hands. Blades, steel pipes, brass knuckles. Each one caught the fluorescent light with a cold, menacing glint.

Damon emerged from behind the group, a cigarette dangling from his lips and a smug grin plastered across his face.

"You piece of trash," Damon sneered. "You think you can hit me and just walk away? Not a chance. Today, I'm going to cripple you."

He turned to the thugs with a lazy wave of his hand. "Boys, take good care of him. Ten minutes. Break him, then drag him back to me."

With that, Damon turned on his heel and swaggered back toward the hotel room, smoke trailing behind him.

A surge of white-hot rage exploded in Cassian's chest. He took one step forward, only to be immediately surrounded by seven or eight burly men who moved to block his path.

"Well, well, look at this cocky little punk," one of them said with a cruel laugh. "You've got guts, I'll give you that. Messing with Boss Grady? That takes balls."

"Don't blame us for what happens next," another chimed in. "You brought this on yourself."

"Grab him, boys. Let's have some fun."

The leader of the group, a bald, hulking man with brass knuckles already fitted over his thick fingers, raised his fist and charged. The others followed his lead in a chaotic rush. Blades flashed, pipes swung through the air, and fists came hurtling toward Cassian from every direction.

An ordinary person would have been overwhelmed in seconds.

But to Cassian, their movements were painfully slow, sluggish, like snails crawling across pavement. There was no weight behind their strikes, no real threat.

"This is it?" Cassian's lips curled into a faint, humorless smile as he surveyed them with undisguised contempt. "How pathetic."

He moved so suddenly that his figure blurred, and in an instant, the entire hallway erupted into chaos as the fight began.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel room, Damon had just closed the door behind him. More than a dozen men in black suits lined the walls, blocking every window and exit.

"Neve, relax," Damon said with a grin. "I've got people taking care of that waste of space right now. In a few minutes, you'll get to watch him crawl in here on his hands and knees, begging for mercy with broken limbs."

"What? Are you insane?" Neve's face went white. "Who told you to do that? Assault is illegal, and he's still my husband. It's not your place to punish him."

Panic seized her. Without another word, she bolted toward the door.

And then the door exploded inward.

The wooden frame splintered with a deafening crack. Splinters flew across the room like shrapnel. Through the smoke and debris, Cassian's figure appeared in the doorway. The entire room seemed to tremble from the impact.

Damon blinked. Then blinked again. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating.

The kid should have been a bloody pulp on the floor by now. How was he standing here, completely untouched?

Behind him in the hallway, more than a dozen black-suited thugs lay scattered across the ground, motionless. And Cassian stood among them like a demon lord stepping out of hell itself. Even Neve flinched.

Cassian's gaze locked onto Damon. His foot shifted, and in the next instant, he became a streak of black lightning, closing the distance like death incarnate.

"Stay back! Don't come any closer!" Damon shouted, his voice cracking with fear as he fumbled at his waistband and yanked out a black handgun, aiming it shakily at Cassian while warning, "I'm telling you, take one more step and I'll blow your head off!"

"Shoot," Cassian replied calmly, without even breaking his stride.

He covered the remaining distance in a single step, moving so fast that the air around him roared like a violent gale, and before Damon could even comprehend what was happening, Cassian had already appeared directly in front of him.

Cassian reached out, gripped the barrel of the gun, and pressed it directly against his own forehead.

His voice dropped to a low, guttural growl. "I said... shoot."

Damon's face drained of all color. His entire body trembled under the crushing weight of Cassian's presence. His finger hovered over the trigger, frozen.

The moment Damon tried to pull it, the gun disintegrated. Screws, springs, and metal fragments clattered to the floor in a rain of broken parts.

Cassian's fist came down, once, then twice.

Damon's face split open. Teeth scattered across the tile. Blood sprayed in an arc. With a final, bone-crushing blow, Damon crumpled to his knees.

"Please, please, I'm sorry! Don't kill me!" Damon sobbed, his words slurred and incoherent.

Cassian raised his foot and delivered a lightning-fast kick to Damon's jaw. The impact sent him flying backward. He slammed into the wall and slid to the floor in a motionless heap.

Cassian knew he wasn't dead. Barely alive, maybe. Whether he survived would depend on how fast the ambulance arrived.

He turned around. Neve was helping Bernice to her feet, her face a mixture of shock and disbelief. She stared at Cassian as though seeing him for the first time. The man who had always been timid and submissive, who never raised his voice, had just dismantled an armed crew of thugs with terrifying efficiency. She didn't remember him ever learning to fight.

"Cassian," Neve said softly, her voice almost pleading. "Let's just stop here. Please, no more."

Cassian gave a small nod and started walking toward the door.

Neve exhaled in relief.

Then his voice cut through the silence, cold and final.

"Let's get a divorce."

The words hit Neve like a thunderbolt. Her heart seized in her chest, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe.

"You want a divorce..." Her voice was barely a whisper, confusion and disappointment swimming in her eyes. She never would have imagined that the man who had always endured it all without complaint would say something like this.

Cassian stood in the doorway, his back to her. He didn't turn around. He simply waited.

Neve's legs felt weak beneath her. She nearly collapsed, biting down hard on her lip until she tasted blood. The pain brought her back to her senses. "Fine. I agree to the divorce. But not right now. I need you to..."

Before she could finish, Cassian was already gone.