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“Come on in, meet my husband, Leif.” She points to the man I grew up with since they found me living on the streets. He doesn’t acknowledge me, but Aisha doesn’t miss a beat. “And the two rascals over there are Cassandra’s children. The raven-haired boy is Leon and the biker chick with wild blond hair sticking in every direction is Liane.”
“Hey, I love my hair,” she protests but doesn’t look away from the screen, too engrossed in the game. “Hello,” she sings to me.
“Hi,” the
boy hollers next to her.
His eyebrows are drawn together while he tries to win the race. Liane shoves her elbow to his flank, but the boy clearly has a tunnel vision on the finish line. His hair falls into his resolute eyes as he maneuvers the race track, leaving Leif and his sister in the dust regardless of his twin’s attempt to rig his game.
“That’s not fair, Leon. You’ve cheated!” She throws her remote control onto the sofa and crosses her arms, pouting.
“I have not!” Leon retorts and puffs his chest, ready to argue, but before this could get out of hand, Leif steps in.
“Knock it off, you two. No one cheated. We both lost to your brother in a fair contest.” His stern tone ends the fight straight away. “Liane, sweetheart, next time you can settle the score and win the race. Today is not your day.” Something hot burns in my chest, settling in uncomfortable pressure as I watch both kids respond to his fatherly tone.
“Hey, you two need to go to bed,” Aisha interferes. “Now!”
“But there’s no school tomorrow, Aunty,” Liane whines like a puppy.
“Guys, you stayed up way beyond your time only because you wanted to hang out with your grandpa,” she reasons, and they both grumble, unhappy. “Go kiss your mom good night.”
And they both sprint toward their mother, entwining around her legs like two monkeys.
“Well, I’m going to put this little angel to sleep. Take care, Mark. I hope it’s not the last time I see you.” She winks and leaves us alone.
Leif cranes his neck to finally look at me. His sharp pale gaze digs into me like shrapnel. He stands, extending his frame to his full height, and saunters toward me like he’s on a mission. He grasps my palm in his, sinking force into his firm grip, and shakes it.
“A prodigal brother returns.” His cold and full of distrust gaze locks on mine. “How do you know Cassandra?” His tone, sharp and low, rattles deep in his throat.
“She works at Fading Ink.” I squeeze his palm back, not backing down. He knows the truth already. We both know this was inevitable. All the secrets are eventually bound to crumble their castle of lies. They can’t keep her in the dark for the rest of her life.
“And you always bring your employees home?” His jaw gets razor-sharp, his words tainted with a threat. I grin, expecting nothing less of him. Leif has a special bond with Cassandra, and he cares for her well-being, but so do I.
“Only when I’m dating one,” I admit to him, and his eyes darken, flooding with fierce protectiveness.
He lowers his voice so no one can hear us, and steps closer into my personal space. “What do you think you’re doing, Mark? Do you even know what she went through?” He shakes his head, snorting. “Let her go. She deserves happiness and peace.”
“I know.” My hands ball into fists at my sides. “I don’t want her hurt either.” My chest wrings with a phantom ache, thinking of letting her go. “I can’t, Leif. She is mine.”
“Listen to yourself.” He steps even closer, hissing in my face. “You know Cassandra for what, a few days and are already talking like a psychopath. She isn’t yours, Mark.”
I hold my breath as he carves those words into my flesh. My chest burns with denial, but how can I explain my fixation?
“Don’t do this to her. She won’t survive this heartache.”
I close my eyes, but when I snap them open, he sees the truth.
I can’t.
11
Against The Tide
~Cassandra~
“I thought we made it clear to you that a certain extent of responsibility befalls your name. The job at Fading Ink might hurt our business image. We had enough of bad press because of you.”
They’re afraid my mental issues might resurface and soil their public image. The Cades barely had time to hide the evidence of my previous trauma before. My family admitted me to a psychiatric hospital because the pain was too much to deal with. The Cades don’t want to be associated with my less than pristine past. That’s why they hired people to teach me to speak and conduct appropriately, to hide my ‘craziness.’
