Chapter 8
He Said I Was Nothing Without Him And I Signed For Everything Chapter 09
Cassian froze at first. Then he gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“What is she trying to pull now?”
His first instinct was not to believe it.
The director lowered his head. His voice shook badly.
“Mr. Veyne, Ms. Sallow suffered a severe allergic reaction three days ago. We couldn’t revive her. She’s already…”
“Shut up.”
Cassian cut him off coldly.
His face was dark, as if he had just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
“Pull the security footage.”
“Get me her medical records.”
“And bring in every doctor, nurse, and orderly on duty that night.”
No one dared waste a second.
Soon, a thick stack of medical files was placed in his hands.
Cassian flipped to the medication log, and his gaze stopped.
It was written clearly in Maren’s chart that the injection was contraindicated.
But three nights ago, that exact drug had still been pushed into her body.
Cassian’s fingers tightened little by little. The page crumpled in his hand.
“Who gave it to her?”
When the night-shift nurse was brought in, her legs were so weak she could barely stand. The moment she entered, she collapsed to the floor.
“Mr. Veyne, I didn’t mean to.”
“I really didn’t know Ms. Sallow would die.”
Cassian looked down at her.
“Was the warning written on her chart?”
The nurse’s lips turned white.
“Yes…”
“Then why did you do it?”
The nurse shook all over as she cried.
“Someone told me to.”
The hallway went silent in an instant.
Cassian’s eyes turned colder.
“Who?”
The nurse didn’t dare lift her head.
“I don’t know.”
“They only said Ms. Sallow was unstable and told me to give her something to calm her down.”
Cassian’s throat moved. For one moment, his face went pale.
The next second, he slammed the medical file down in front of her.
“Keep digging.”
The security footage was pulled up quickly.
On the screen, after Maren was placed in a locked ward, a doctor noticed something was wrong and tried to send her to the ER.
An orderly stopped him.
After that, the footage went dark for more than ten minutes.
When it came back, the nurse was already pushing a medication cart into Maren’s room.
Cassian stared at the blacked-out stretch.
“Who cut it?”
The technician wiped sweat from his forehead.
“The power was shut off manually.”
Maddox stood beside him, his face changing too.
“Cassian, this isn’t right.”
Cassian kept his eyes on the screen. Of course it was.
He ordered them to check earlier footage.
Soon, another camera angle was pulled up.
Before the power outage, Isla had come to Blackridge Psychiatric Center.
She was wearing that loose white dress, with Cassian’s jacket draped over her shoulders, standing outside Maren’s room.
She didn’t go in.
She only stayed there for a few minutes.
Cassian stared at the screen, and darkness slowly settled in his eyes.
Just then, his phone rang.
It was Isla.
He answered.
Her tearful voice came through the line.
“Cassian, how is Maren?”
“I’ve been so worried about her. Is she still angry with me?”
Cassian didn’t answer.
He only asked, “Did you go to Blackridge?”
The other end went quiet for one second.
“I was just worried about her.”
Isla’s voice softened further, wounded and fragile.
“When she came at me like that before, I was terrified.”
“I was afraid she would lose control and hurt herself. Or hurt my baby.”
Cassian asked coldly, “What did you say to the nurse?”
“I didn’t.”
Isla began crying at once.
“Cassian, are you suspecting me?”
“I really didn’t know that shot would hurt her.”
“I’m carrying your baby. How could I do something like that?”
If this had been before, Cassian’s voice would have softened the moment she cried.
But this time, he did not comfort her.
There was only silence on his end of the line.
Isla seemed to sense it too. Her crying faltered for a second.
“Cassian…”
He said, “Maren is dead.”
The line went quiet.
A beat later, Isla started sobbing again.
“I didn’t know it would happen.”
“It must have been the nurse using the wrong drug. Or the orderlies not watching her properly.”
“Maren was already unstable. If she hadn’t struggled so much, it wouldn’t have turned into this…”
Cassian cut her off.
“Enough.”
Isla took half a step back, frightened by his stare.
Cassian turned to the guards.
“Detain everyone who was there that night. Doctors, nurses, orderlies. Question them one by one.”
“If one person gets away, you answer to me.”
The director nodded again and again, terrified.
Cassian stood where he was, his chest heavy as if a cold, soaked stone had been placed inside it.
He had thought he was only teaching Maren a lesson, forcing her to lower her head, admit she was wrong, and stop using divorce to challenge him.
But now she was dead. Dead in the psychiatric facility he had sent her to with his own mouth.
When the morgue door opened, cold air rushed out.
A white sheet covered the gurney.
Cassian walked over. His fingers stopped at the edge of the sheet and stayed there for a long time.
Maddox lowered his voice.
“Cassian, maybe don’t look.”
Cassian didn’t answer.
He reached out and lifted one corner of the sheet.
The first thing he saw was a right hand wrapped in layers of gauze.
Dark blood had seeped through the bandages. Her fingers were stiff, stripped of all life.
Cassian went still.
That was Maren’s painting hand.
And he was the one who had destroyed it.
