BEFORE YOU START READING...
This is THE SECOND BOOK OF A SERIES. Please do not read this book without reading the first book, Adler | The Aces of St. Sinclair
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to pajamas05 and SnowMoana1. Thank you for all the support you've been giving ADLER and I hope you enjoy this second installment!
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'Every cloud has a silver lining' was the motto Cassandra lived by.
She believed there was always a good in a bad situation. Like, when she was seven and finally convinced her parents to let her have a bike. The first time she rode it, she fell down a hill and her parents rushed her to the hospital. When the doctors informed Mr. and Mrs. O'Reily the surgery they needed to perform on their daughter would leave a permanent scar, her mother fainted on the spot.
When Cassandra woke up from the anesthetics, sure enough, she had a five centimeter scar above her right brow and was sulking through the walk to the car. She tuned out her mother ranting to her dad to sue the surgeons for decreasing her daughter's value as a woman. God forbid she show gratitude to them from preventing Cassandra being brain dead.
Upon reaching the parking garage, Cassandra crossed paths with a young boy around her age on crutches. He looked directly at her, no doubt regarding her blemish and she ducked her head in shame, expecting he was in horror.
Instead he smiled and said, "Whoa, cool. You've got a lightning bolt like Harry Potter!" He then proceeded to roll up his sleeve to reveal his ghastly scar on his elbow, looking proud to show it off.
That was how Cassandra met her best friend Mark Kingston.
**
So Cassandra was sure that good wasn't going to change even now, the last month of summer. Before her new term, her father's affair with the secretary got out to the tabloids through an amateur video catching them in the act.
Shagging in the conference room with the blinds open and several ten storey buildings squeezed together was probably not the wisest decision. Her mother filed for divorce instantly and beat him with a Prada bag when he tried to state Cassandra would be in better hands with him.
Cassandra left East Sussex, her best friend Mark and her surname to follow her mother to Surrey where they'd be staying with their closest and richest relative, uncle Jason. He happily welcomed the two to stay in his estate with his only son the moment he heard his sister-in-law left his 'shit stain of a brother'.
Uncle Jason was a cheery man with a sense of humour Cassandra liked. His son Ewen however, who Cassandra hadn't seen since they were ten, was a different story.
In her faint memories, he was very, very quiet and didn't really do much other than sleeping or reading. Though maybe it was a phase thing and now, reuniting with him at aged nineteen would be different. They could even have so much in common and become close- this could've been the silver lining.
Cassandra abandoned that theory after two minutes when she ran into him at the lavish garden. The boy was even worse. He blinked when Cassandra greeted him, then went back to laying down and staring into nothing on his hammock.
Yet uncle Jason and her mother would boast at how outstanding the guy was in his classes at his posh academy, was a member of the school's posh academics club and how three top universities were offering him admission before he'd even graduated. A pure prodigy- blah, blah blah.
For Cassandra, he was nothing more than a space case who binged out on Spiderman comics. Probably got off on them too. Who read print when gorgeous English actors were playing the teen hero onscreen?
It got worse when the chummy ex in-laws moved on from praising the aloof boy to going on about enrolling her in said posh academy. Cassandra nearly choked on her yoghurt.
Cassandra wouldn't say East Chesterfield Prep was wonderful, albeit it had perks to redeem the old fashioned policies but she'd take it over a super snobby place like St. Sinclair any day. There were just endless stories of their pure breed genius pupils winning smarty pants awards, constantly proving how they were the best of the best. No doubt all of the kids were insufferable, geeky bores.
Hell, Ewen didn't have a single friend from there- that couldn't be a good sign.
Cassandra tried to plead with her mother to let her attend somewhere else, even pointing out to consider cautioning expenses on the cost of tuition but the woman was adamant on it. That didn't stop Cassandra from hassling her around the estate.
"Please, mummy don't make me go there." Cassandra implored. She did her best whimper, clutching her mother's waist. "Anywhere but there."
"Cassandra let me go. If you get any wrinkles on this blouse, I will skin you and use it as a replacement."
She dropped her hands and quit the crocodile tears. "I'm begging you mummy. Let me attend Harvey Julliard. They're just as elite."
"It's an all boys school, dear."
"No problem! You always go on about how unladylike I am. I'd blend in perfectly."
Cassandra was certain she could easily pass as the opposite gender. Blessed with a flat chest, she only earned a number of skirts she could count on hand and didn't care about eye candy boy bands.
Okay, maybe that last one wasn't true but it was a secret shame she only shared to Mark.
"Cassandra stop with all this nonsense. You're going to St. Sinclair and that's final."
"But-"
A long manicured nail wagged in front of her. Identical brown eyes to her own stared Cassandra down. "I said that's final." Her mother's voice low, but lethally powerful if provoked.
Cassandra frowned. "This isn't fair."
"It's life, darling. It is what it is. Now why can't you accept what I'm doing for you? This is a great opportunity for you. St. Sinclair is-"
"Enough!" Cassandra snapped. "I'm sick of hearing it. This has nothing to do with me, this is about you! Using that school's reputation to try to prove you don't need dad to still be at the top. It's selfish dragging me into this and taking me away from my friends, my home."
"That place is not home." Her mother seethed. "Not with that fat headed pig being there."
"He cheated on you. Not me."
A still silence descended and Cassandra regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. Her mother's face fell, grim frown on lips as her gaze hollowed on the marble flooring.
"Yes. He did." Her mother murmured. "I was the one humiliated, betrayed and left heartbroken. Not you."
Cassandra fiddled with her fingers, nervously. She wasn't sure what to say, stumped in awkwardness and remorse.
"I lost the house, my spot on the East Chesterfield's wives club, my Chevrolet and e-even my special brand Cuban cigars...!" A sniffle surfaced, those same olive eyes watering. Her mother cupped a hand to stifle the sobs. "I know it's selfish but I didn't want to lose my baby too."
At that, all resolve left Cassandra and she sped to the distressed cries of the broken woman before her. Cassandra rubbed circles on her mother's back as she bawled. "M-Mummy I'm sorry. I... don't know what came over me. I was being selfish too. You're the greatest woman ever for leaving that shit stain. A total legend. You kept your chin up and won custody over me, you're incredible."
Despite the showers of appraisal, the sobs grew louder.
Cassandra swallowed. "A-And I'll stop complaining. I'll attend St. Sinclair and make you proud."
"... Really?"
"Yes, we'll show those backstabbers back in Chesterfield we don't need that man. So stop..." Cassandra trailed off when her mother leaned back. No expression of pain or sorrow. No smudges in her flawless make up from tears. Just stoic.
"And that my little girl, is how you guilt trip."
Cassandra's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What...?"
All at once, there was applauding and Cassandra snapped her head to find her uncle stood by the archway clapping, beside him was Ewen. The usual neutral look, chomping on a packet of crisps. Who ate crisps so bloody quietly?
"Bravo." Uncle Jason cheered. "That was marvelous work, Miranda. Cassie, you could learn a thing or two huh?"
Cassandra whipped her head back to the smirking woman before her. "Did, did you just... dupe me?"
"Persuaded, darling. I'm no con artist. Though, I did date one back in my younger days but that's a story for another time." She gripped the bewildered girl's shoulders. "Now, you can't go back on your word. And rightfully so, you will make me proud. You will restore my honour and we'll be the ones with the last laugh. So listen up, from this day forth you have no father on this planet. You are a descendant of me alone. You are a Lovett and a Lovett always keeps her word."
Cassandra could only blink repeatedly.
"I think you've left her speechless." probed Jason.
"Apparently so." She placed a chaste peck on her daughter's cheek. "Oh, and try to do something with that hair. You look like the pool boy."
Those were her fleeting words as she sashayed her curvy figure out of the room, uncle Jason trailing in tow then her cousin was left. A numbing silence ensued until he pompously cocked an eyebrow and was gone too.
Cassandra still stood staring agape. "That conniving cow." She hissed under her breath.
It sadly wasn't the first trick her mother had ever pulled and Cassandra realised the stakes were higher than lies about the tooth fairy, or never parking in a handicap space on purpose. Cassandra had sealed her own fate. She tried to evade it but her mother called up the school's headmistress, the transfer forms were filed and a fat cheque from uncle Jason's bank account was withdrawn to cover the tuition for the semester.
She was Cassandra Lovett now. There was no going back.
A/N: So, what are your thoughts on Cassandra?