Cassandra

Mother daughter talk

"When I got out, I didn't have anything, but I knew, that I wasn't going back to your father again. He never came to visit me and he wasn't much of a husband already before that. I only stayed with him to keep you safe.

I didn't want to find you before I had my life back on track again. I decided to get honest, get a real job. It was a lot harder than I thought, people don't really want to hire someone with a criminal background. At one lame job I had, I accidentally overheard my boss talking to some guy about a new security system. It was supposed to be so good, that nobody could get past it. I went to them and said, that I could get past it easily. So, we had a little wager - boss promised me a double salary, if I could do it.

Of course, I got past it, but instead of extra salary, I got fired, because my boss was afraid I'll rob him blind. But the security firm guy liked me and hired me to test out some other systems. Later I started getting job offers from other security companies, so now I work freelance. If someone wants me to check out their system, they contact me, I test it and then tell them, what they should do better."

"Good for you, but you are not really making me feel any better."

"You are so impatient... It took me about half a year to get things going, then I decided to find you. I had already tried before too, thought that I could just go to you once I get things settled, but finding you wasn't that easy at all. I talked to some of my contacts from back in the day, but they had no clue." Yeah, because everybody looked out for themselves, nobody cared about some homeless little girl.

"Why didn't you just ask dad? He always seems to know everything. Plus, he was the one who sent me in prison."

"You think finding him is any easier, than finding you? Anyway, I finally found Seth lurking around at that new guy's territory. He was pretty shocked to see me. I asked him, where you were and he said you were in prison, so my idea of seeing you again went down the drain. I gave Seth my number and address just in case he hears something about you. I already said, why I didn't come to see you. It already hurt me enough, when you had to come and talk to me in prison. I couldn't just come and see you. I tried to pull myself together, but then I already heard at the police station, that you're getting out."

"What were you doing at the police station?"

"Oh... emm... My job sometimes requires teamwork with the police. I don't just break into places, I sometimes also help solve police cases, that involve stealing something valuable. So, one day, this policeman comes to me, who I had never seen before and he tells me: "Your daughter is getting out tomorrow, I thought you should know." I had no idea, how he knew about me and you, but he did. I had a big job that day, so I told Seth to pick you up and bring you here. When I came home and asked Seth where you were, he said, that you decided to leave all your old life behind and start fresh. He said, that you didn't want to see me. He was pretty upset."

"And that is why I'm allowed to treat him the way I do, because he never even told me you were out. He didn't tell me anything about you until like a week ago."

"But he was right. You left your old life behind and I can't blame you. If you would have actually wanted to see me, you would have gone to my prison and heard from there, that I was out, but you never went there once, so clearly you didn't want to see me. Even now it took you a whole week to get here." Damn, she was right. I was just like her.

"I was just busy. A lot has been going on. It's like you said - it takes time to get your life on the line. Plus, now I've been tracking dad. That is actually one of the reasons, why I'm here. I wanted to ask you, if you know, where he is."