Chapter 15
Three years after the hotel gala, Cassian took Millie to Lucas’s high-school orientation.
Lucas was fifteen now.
Millie was nine.
Leah had invited them.
That alone would have seemed impossible once.
Cassian stood beside a campus map pretending not to be confused.
Millie caught him immediately.
“You don’t know where we are.”
“I know exactly where we are.”
“Where?”
“School.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Cassian looked toward Lucas.
“Your sister is disrespectful.”
Lucas shrugged.
“She’s right.”
Cassian regretted introducing them.
They walked toward the gym.
Lucas had grown nearly five inches.
He still lived with Leah most of the time.
Still called Cassian by his name.
Still sometimes went weeks without wanting anything beyond a text.
Cassian had learned not to interpret distance as rejection.
A father who arrived twelve years late did not get to set the emotional schedule.
Millie had learned something too.
Having a brother did not mean losing part of her father.
That fear faded gradually.
No dramatic speech removed it.
Time did.
After orientation, the three stopped for lunch.
Lucas ordered enough food for two adults.
Cassian looked at the bill.
“Do you have a job?”
“No.”
“Interesting.”
“You’re rich.”
“That is not a financial plan.”
Millie pointed at Cassian.
“You say that to me too.”
“Because both of you are expensive.”
Lucas paused.
Both of you.
The phrase passed quickly.
Cassian noticed.
So did Lucas.
Nobody commented.
Later, outside the restaurant, Leah arrived to pick Lucas up.
He opened the car door.
Then stopped.
“Cassian.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s a father-son thing at school next month.”
Cassian’s expression changed.
Lucas immediately became uncomfortable.
“You don’t have to make a face.”
“What face?”
“That face.”
Millie interrupted.
“He does faces.”
“Apparently.”
Lucas looked toward the parking lot.
“Mom said I can ask whoever.”
Cassian waited.
Lucas continued.
“I was thinking maybe you.”
Cassian did not answer too quickly.
He had learned that lesson.
“I’d like that.”
Lucas nodded.
“Okay.”
Then he climbed into the car before the moment could become larger than he wanted.
Cassian watched them leave.
Millie stood beside him.
“Are you going to cry?”
“No.”
“You look like it.”
“I absolutely do not.”
She smiled.
The legal cases were over.
Lucinda had served her custodial sentence and remained under supervision.
The money had been traced and restitution ordered.
The foundation no longer operated through hidden family channels.
Northgate was gone from Romano business.
The forged records had been corrected.
Leah knew the truth.
Lucas knew the truth.
Millie was safe.
Cassian had accepted consequences for his own use of force instead of treating Lucinda’s cruelty as permission.
Everything practical had reached an ending.
Only one emotional question remained.
Whether Lucas would someday choose to call Cassian Dad—not because DNA required it, not because money purchased it, and not because anyone told him he should.
Cassian could not force that word.
He had inherited enough damage from adults who believed they could force family into the shape they wanted.
Millie slipped her hand into his.
“Come on.”
“Where?”
“Ice cream.”
“We just ate.”
“That was lunch.”
Cassian sighed.
“Apparently meals have legal categories now.”
“Yes.”
She pulled him toward the corner shop.
Behind them, Lucas’s car disappeared into traffic.
May you like
Cassian did not know what his son would call him next year.
For once, not knowing did not feel like something he had to control.
