Chapter 18 The Truth About Cassandra

If he thinks he can slip his full six and a half inches into me and hope that I will forget, well, he is wrong. Sex will not get him out of this situation, maybe at least not this time around. Even though he feels so damn good, and that thing he does with his hip is driving me insane, he is not getting away with it. "Christian, stop!" "Why? What is wrong, princess?" "You are not having sex with me so I can forget. Least of all, not in this damn room with all this shit around." "But princess, it is only guns." "Yes, one which I am about to take and shoot your ass if you do not tell me what is going on." "Your mom is going to be mad at me if I tell you everything." "Not as mad as what I am going to be if you don't tell me now. I promise you, Christian, if you do not tell me, you might as well leave here and go home." "Come on, princess, that is unfair. This is our parents' problems, not ours." "You keep on telling me I should know who I am, then tell me who I am?" ...Christian... It breaks my heart to stand here and see the turmoil on her face. I can see she is clearly lost at the present moment, and she shall only lose herself even more if she does not get the answers she is looking for. I do not feel I should be the one talking to her, but her mom has clearly deceived her for all these years. Where I always knew what I was growing into, she has just been left in the dark. Guess it is up to me then, a man she has only truly known for a few days, and to even make it worse, the man she shall soon find out sits at the opposite end of the table. I zip my pants and help her pull her dress straight, then I lace her fingers in mine and lead her to the sofa in the far side corner of the room. I make sure she remains tight by my side, for this might even be the last time I shall hold her again. "Let me ask you this, princess. Why does your dad have such an impressive collection of guns?" "Mom said he was a collector and got them from all over the place. Some were even given to him by friends." "Did he have lots of these friends come over at times?" "There were many men that came in and out of the house. My mom said they are men that worked with my dad." "What work did your mom said your father did?" "She said a shipping company. They imported and exported a whole bunch of things. What things, I do not know." "And the illegal stuff she said that got him killed?" "I don't know; I thought he just got himself in trouble with shipping something I should not have done." She seems to sort of get an idea but not truly completely yet. I am about to be the person that makes her entire world crash down. She shall most definitely hate me for this for a very long time to come. I just know I made a promise to never fuck her around. I am a man of my word, even though it is going to tear us apart. "Princess, before my father owned the whole state, it was divided in two. The Caine's had their territory, and someone else held their part." "So the Caine's have not always been so powerful?" "No. There was an unfortunate accident, and the other group just slowly started disappearing and went underground." "When you say unfortunate accident, did you kill them?" "No! Their leader had a business dealing with a crooked man that was power-hungry, and he got killed. The crooked man thought if he killed him that he could take his place." "It is a very sad story, but what has anything of this got to do with me?" "The man was Joseph Cummings." I hear her go dead quiet as nothing but confusion sets onto her face. But soon, it turns into fear and horror; there are tears that are starting to prickle her eyes. With a few stuttering breaths, she finds the courage to speak again. "What?! Did my father kill somebody else?" "No, princess, it is your father that got killed." "Christian, I don't understand what you are saying." "Your father, Joseph Cummings, owns half of the state." "But he is dead, so now you have all of it." "No. Technically not." "Okay, you are talking in riddles. Just get to the point. So my dad smuggled guns and whatever else. What has this still got to do with me?" "You are supposed to step up and take over." "What? Me? Become like you?" "Yes, princess." Which mean... Then she finally catches it all. The realization has come; for now, she knows who she is and where she finally fits in this whole scheme of things. For years, since my father and Joseph set out together, they have been at war with each other. They agreed to settle on half each other and never to set foot or even try to upset each other's territory. But then Cummings died, and they went underground, hoping that one day Cassandra would step up. "We don't normally sit at the same side of the table." "Please take me home." After abruptly saying goodbye to her mom, we leave and find ourselves in an uncomfortable silence in the car on the way to her home. The once bubbly Cassandra is gone; there are no jokes or even trying to tease me to distract my attention from the road. She is only but staring outside the window, with her hands in a firm grip on her lap. When we get to her home, she softly greets me and disappears inside. Then the most incredible thing happens to me, a suffocating feeling hits my chest as if I am starting to lose breath. It is like a chokehold on my heart; someone is squeezing me until I break. And break I do, for the very first time ever, Christian Caine cries. ...Cassandra... What has just happened? How can my mother have lied to me for all these years? Maybe I was na?ve in thinking that my father was a good man. Maybe I always knew but never wanted to believe anything of it. But that does not matter at all; what matters is what Christian said. Has he too lied to me all this time? Did he know who I was from the start? Whatever his reason, I do not care, for I never want to see him again. When I make my way through the lounge, I can see Tammy and Jessie are already home from their shift. As I pass through the kitchen, I grab a bottle of wine and three glasses. Before even sitting, I decide that I cannot keep it in anymore, and I start to burst out in tears. "Hey girl, what is wrong?" Jessie is the first to ask. "What did that Christian do this time?" "It is him and my mother." She clasps her hand in front of her mouth. "Oh god no! Don't tell me they..." "No, god, no!" "He can be glad. I would have gone and cut his balls off." "Hahaha. You can still go do it if you want to." "Is it that bad?" How do I even begin and explain the news? I am still not sure what to make of anything myself. Me, Cassandra Cummings, a mob boss, or whatever you call it, it is still very much unreal. Where are all this money and even the men that I am supposed to lead? The only thing I can smuggle is my cherry lipstick in my boots. But my biggest question, how could my mother let me be a stripper if I did not really have to? As I tell the girls, their eyes even grow bigger than their mouths. If they did not know me as a person that does not lie, they would have thought this is one hell of a story to come up with. "What are you going to do now?" Tammy looks at me with concerned eyes. "Go to bed and get up in the morning and go to work." "But what about all of this?" "Until I figure it out, I still need to eat, and hell will freeze over before I ask anyone for anything. The people I cared about just lied to me." "Did you just heard what you said?" "Yes...I think I am going to bed." ...Christian... I cannot even imagine what she is going through. The hurt and pain that played on her face are probably tenfold in her heart. To have been deceived for so long has definitely torn her apart. I wish she can see that I am here for her, that I will help her get through all of this. I know that technically this cannot happen, but I do give a damn about anybody's rules. As I try to sneak my way quietly to my room, my father catches me as he comes out of the kitchen. "So, how was your dinner?" "You don't want to know. Guess who I bumped into. Antoni Vega." "Antoni Vega?" "Yes, he seems to be engaged to Cassandra's mother." "Ah, does the idiot think he can take Joseph's place?" "Seems so...But Cassandra knows." "Knows what?" "Who she is. She is not taking the news well at all." "Do you know what she is going to do?" "No. She is not speaking to me. Now, if I can be excused, I just want to go to bed." Much to my surprise, he does not say a word further and let me leave to go to my room. Once inside, I throw myself down onto my bed. I just want this day over; in fact, it should have never happened at all. As I look at my bedside, I see the shirt she had worn only but a few hours ago. I softly press it to my face and get lost in the sweet scents of jasmine and vanilla. I take my phone from my pocket, I know she does not want to hear from me, but I am going to message her anyway "I know my number is probably the last one you wish to see, but I think there is something I need to tell you...I think I am falling in love with you."