Cassie spoke before Sebastian could even process his anger. "You sound as if I agreed to marry him. It's just dating, Seb."
The line crackled with the static of midnight-tired minds, frayed nerves, and the kind of hope that cut deeper than fear. Sebastian inhaled sharply on the other end.
"But you told Evans you weren't ready for a relationship," he countered, voice low, the protective older-brother tone he never used unless something terrified him.
"And I'm still not," Cassie said. "But if having a relationship with Nathan is what lets Scarlet walk again, why wouldn't I try? He has no scandals, no debts, no skeletons in the medical board's closet.
And he's a workaholic. He won't smother me or pull me off my goals. I'll still have time to build something meaningful."
Her e
