Chapter 1
Cassidy was waiting tables when she saw a familiar face coming into the restaurant, it was Rebecca one of her friends, use to be her friend they stopped talking long ago. Her boss called her into the office, and she was glad.
She wasn’t going come close to their table, Rebecca brought a date. And with a look she warned Julie, danger that way. When Julie saw she sent someone else to cover for her for that table, last they heard from her she was a successful business woman with her own firm, of lawyers.
Cassandra stepped into the office, it was small it only fit the computer desk and chairs. They had arrange it to look spacious but it was cramped, how could he stand that?
Mr. Winston, was sitting comfortably in his chair tapping his fingers together, and staring at Cassandra until she took a seat. She sat uncomfortably, in the chair, “why were you late Cassandra? This isn’t the first time, and I’m afraid…”
“Please sir, I can explain, my…”
“No explanations, please, I just want to tell you that if you are late again you will have to look somewhere else to go, understand? We are very busy, if you can’t handle it, how will you ever be any better?”
“Mr. Winston, I had an emergency at home, I understand I was late but it won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Cassandra, I know how hard you’ve been working you are actually one of my best workers and I’ve given you many chances, let this be the last time.”
“Thank you Mr. Winston, I promise it won’t happen again.” He had given her chances, before, but between a four year old, hiring a baby sitter and work it was a lot, and she was stressed out at the end of the day.
She knew that Mr. Winston had been very patient with her, which is why she was always very thankful, which is why she worked extra time when she was late, to make up for the time lost. She always worked her hours.
She went to the counter where Julie was calling her, to ask what had happened in there. “Mr. Winston, said I can’t be late anymore.”
“But you’re not late, the time changed remember, you are actually an hour early, you haven’t been late, well not today at least. You were only late one day last week, I’ll talk to him, he probably forgot about the time change.”
“Thank you, I thought I was late.”
“No, you’re not the only one he was mad at today, there were other’s, and since he’s not mad at me I’ll explain it.”
Julie left to knock at Mr. Winston’s door, before Cassandra could say anything. She went inside and came back out with Mr. Winston behind her. He had a look of surprise when he saw the clock on the wall had a different time than the clock in his office.
“I’m so sorry Cassandra, you are doing a fine job, I should have looked at the time before, but my clock was wrong.”
Cassandra was surprised, not that he was a mean man but she never thought he would be the kind to make a mistake, especially one as simple as that! “It’s ok, Mr. Winston, I will get back to work now, than you.”
He paid her extra for that week he was embarrassed of the mistake he had made. When Cassandra was leaving she switched the open sign to close, she was ready but as she opened the door, she wasn’t watching where she was going and she bumped into a man. Both falling on the floor.
The man looked like he was in a hurry, “hey watch where you’re going!” he got up but didn’t bother to look at her, he grabbed all his papers, and shook the shoulders of his jacket, like if he had dust.
Jerk! She stood and yelled, “excuse me? I think that the restaurant is closed, you have to get out, now!” she grabbed him by the arm and before he spoke she led him out.
He shook his arm off, “get your hands off me! I need to see Mr. Winston, he is the owner of this place, isn’t he?”
“I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Excuse me, I’ll ask again is Mr. Winston here?” the man bent down at her as if to look down at her. “I need to see him, it is a personal matter, I just need to ask him a few questions.”
Cassandra was glaring back at him, “then I suggest you come tomorrow, I just fished my work here, and I have to get back home, I can’t leave a strange man in here.”
The man stood up straight, he pulled his glasses out of his pocket and placed them on his nose, he went outside and read the ‘closed’ sign. Cassandra was surprised, he wasn’t looking down at her he needs glasses! “At what time are they going to be open tomorrow?”
Cassandra’s glare turned to a softer look, he wasn’t looking down at her, “you can come at any time after noon because that’s when Mr. Winston comes, until six.”
The man took out a notepad, and wrote down after noon, “what is your name?”
“Can I ask, what for?”
“So that I can tell Mr. Winston, the name of the woman who should be fired, at site, did you know you can’t just walk up to someone and purposely knock then down? You could’ve said it was closed but you decided to knock me down before you did.”
Cassandra’s eyes went wide eyed, “excuse me? I… how could you possibly think I had anything to…”
“Your name.”
“Anonymous, and I have to leave, I really have to get home, so excuse me. But if you have a misunderstanding you shouldn’t take it out on me, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I will let Mr. Winston know about this! You hear, your not getting away that easily, I am a private detective who was privately hired to look for someone, and you are not being helpful.” He handed her a card.
Cassandra was bothered, so cocky but she tried to stay calm, after all he wouldn’t see her the next day, she wasn’t coming to work until Monday.
“Perfect! But I don’t work here, I am a business owner myself,” she lied, “I have a friend that works here.”
Cassandra saw the man place his glasses back on, as he looked at her, from head to toe, “you don’t look like a business woman to me.”
Cassandra looked at her watch, “that is because you knocked me down, and now I’m running late, tell me are you going to pay my wasted time? Or am I leaving now, I can have my lawyer speak to you if you want.”
The man stared at her, “oh no mam, please I am so… sorry.”
Cassandra laughed in the inside, “thank you, I guess, I’ll give you a chance.” She finally got into her car and drove home, she had to get back to Thomas, who was asleep and he was lying in bed.
She looked at her son asleep on the couch, Mrs. Schultz the sitter left when she came. Cassandra moved him up to his bed, he was getting heavier, which made her glad since he was eating again.
Monday he would start school, and he was excited, they had gone school shopping and they had all his school supplies ready. She bent down, to kiss her son on his forehead, his fever had gone down, and she smiled down at him.
She saw him open his eyes, “mommy, your back. Mrs. Shultz told me you’d be here, when I opened my eyes again.”
“Here, take your medicine, you can’t get sick anymore, unless you don’t want to come with mommy to the store tomorrow. And guess what?”
“What?”
“I’m going to be right here all day tomorrow, I’m not going to work. So since your feeling much better I’ll help you practice before you go to school, Mrs. Shultz, told me you ate all your vegetables, tomorrow we can go wherever you want. So go to sleep so that when you open your eyes, it will be the next day.”
Thomas closed his eyes, and covered his head as she bent to kiss him again and turned off the lights. She walked out the room and into the kitchen to see what they would need to buy the next day.
She remembered the man who knocked her down, and she was worried he’d find out she worked there. Mr. Winston, wouldn’t fire her, but if he ever came to the restaurant, she could be in trouble for lying.
It was funny tricking him, at least that’ll teach him some manners, but she wondered he mentioned he was looking for someone, but who? Although she wished that it was her family who hired a private detective to look for her, she had to come to the conclusion that it couldn‘t be.
Sometimes, she had to agree she was proud herself, that was probably why she headed out that day and would never go home. Not that she stopped caring, but all she had left was her pride. The one good thing, in her opinion that she inherited from her father, and she would never lose that.
Pride is what made her, her. It was pride that stopped her from crying that day on the altar, and it was pride, pride of woman that said she could take care of the baby and herself.
And now five years later here she was, everything else was shattered but the pride she took in living life one day at a time.
Probably, it was good she got away, she had a son who she would never give up on and he had her. Although sometimes, she wondered how it would have been if she had gone back that night. If her family, and friends were still talking to her, and she hadn’t missed out on anything.
During that time, when she was getting married she was very young, only eighteen. And being pregnant at a very young age, had taught her a lot.
Now twenty-three she was more mature, if she could go back she would have probably changed some decisions she had made, but she was young, the age of making mistakes. And Thomas was a huge mistake! Not her baby, the father.
Thomas Jr. was only an innocent child who had no idea, of what his father had done. Cassandra made sure to only tell him the good thins about him, she didn’t want him knowing that his father left them.
The next day Cassandra woke up to her son’s wild laughter, she arose and went to the living room where she found her sister Cassidy. She and Thomas were playing and her son would laugh hysterically when his aunt would try to catch him. They were playing a game of tag.
Cassidy looked up to her, “hey I saw Tommy awake and decided to play with him a bit, we made pancakes, didn’t we?”
Thomas nodded and a smile spread across his face, as he tagged his aunt and ran to hide to his room, in more wild laughter. “You can’t catch me!”
Cassidy stood, “here I go! Ha, ha, ha” and she laughed as she left behind him. Thomas’s little footsteps were heard all over the house, and Cassandra was smiling laughing almost at the sight of her sister and her son’s game.
It was always the same every morning he would jump on her bed and his laughter never failed to wake her up.
She took the newspaper and sat to drink her coffee, on the table. She wasn’t paying much attention to the news paper, she was listening to her son’s laughter. He seemed so happy.
Cassandra and her sister went to the store with Thomas, he wanted to go to the toys, as always, Cassidy decided to look after him, while Cassandra would go and shop for food. Later they went to an ice cream shop where Thomas got his cone.
Cassandra went back home with her son and Cassidy told her she would be there the next day. Thomas looked at other children with their parents, and wondered how it would be like to have a father. When he noticed, he would always ask, about him.
Cassandra would always tell him the same thing, “he died long ago before you were even born.”
He would lower his head, “how did he die?”
“He was dead I never saw how he died.”
“Did he know I was in your tummy? Did he love me?”
Cassandra had to get a hold of herself, she didn’t want to cry, “of course he loved you, so much. That is why your name is Thomas just like your father.” She bent down and carried her son in her arms, remembering the day he left them.
“His name was Thomas? How was he like? Did he look like me?”
“I have a picture of him, do you want to see it?”
Thomas nodded with a smile from ear to ear, and she bent down to place him back down, he jumped happily, she would go to her room and take out an album full of pictures. She would show him the family pictures, of his father and he looked satisfied. “I look a lot like him, don’t I mommy?”
Cassandra looked at him and nodded, “you are so much like him, Thomas was your father’s name, when he… died I decided to name you Thomas because he would have wanted you to have his name.”
Thomas looked proud, when she said that he had his father’s name, he would smile and put his lay on his back placing his head on his mother’s lap. “Mommy, I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.” There was a knock on the door, and they turned at the same time to look at the door. Thomas lifted him self and sat up straight.
Cassandra went to check who it was. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and what she saw surprised her, and frightened her at the same time. There he was he looked stern, and ready to pounce the door, she came to the living room, and told Thomas to leave to his room.
How dare he? Is he a stalker? “Hold one minute…” she went to clean as best as she could the kitchen to put everything away. And went to Thomas’s room she handed him a cell phone and quietly whispered, “remember what the emergency number is?”
“I know.” Thomas looked at her.
“Don’t worry, it’s just in case, now stay here and if you here loud noises, I want you to be brave ok?”
Thomas nod his head in approval, and Cassandra went to answer the door, “I’m sorry sir but can I help you?”
“Yes, I need to come in, my name is Jesse Campbell, I have some questions for you.”
“I’m sorry but I don’t know who you are! I can’t open the door for you, please leave.”
“I understand but I can’t go unless you…”
“Leave! I’ve called the police, and they should be on their way, go away!”
“Can you answer me one thing?”
“What?”
“Is this Cassandra’s place? I have a letter for her from her mother…”
She didn’t trust him, “I’ve called the police, I’m not opening the door so you can be there until they come…”
“I am sliding the letter under the door, I will trust you with it, but I will come back tomorrow to speak to Cassandra,” he bent down to push the letter under the door, he knew the one he was talking to was Cassandra, and this was the only way to gain her trust.
Cassandra bent down to pick the envelope from the floor, it was her mother’s! She opened the envelope, and a picture fell to the floor, Cassandra picked it up, and saw her family. With a letter asking her to come back that if she could apologize to her father, things could go back to the way things were, they could even take her child in and they would accept him.
She couldn’t believe it! The day she left, was not her decision to, and she didn’t do anything wrong, to apologize to her father. In addition, her and her son were living comfortably well sort of.
“I’m sorry but you can tell my mother that I am just fine! And I have been taking care of my son and myself thank you very much. I don’t need anybody’s sympathy, now leave and don’t tell my mother where I live.”
“Cassandra, I work for your mother, she hired me to look for you and bring you back! I am not your messenger boy, got it!”
“I can’t believe this…” she sighed apparently she wasn’t getting anywhere with this man and if she wanted to get rid of him there was only one way, “if I give you a letter from me, will you give it to her?”
“I promised to bring you along, look she just wants to know about you, and what has happened with you, she…”
“I am very busy, and…”
“Wait a minute, your that lady from the coffee shop, you knocked me down yesterday. No wonder you sounded so familiar…”
“That’s right, I am the lady who got knocked to the floor, by you. The police are on their way, so if you want talk to them.”
“I see you don’t trust me, but it’s not my fault your fiancé left you in the altar, I am just doing my job. I thought you would be happy to know your mother’s been searching for you.”
“Not if in the search and rescue I would have to give up to the way… look nevermind that! You wouldn’t understand so just leave me alone. I have to go back to my son.”
“I see, you’re so busy, I’ll come back.” He left but not before placing a business card on the door.
He decided to call Mrs. Hopkins, she would be able to convince her own daughter, since he found her it should be easier for her now. But he would keep watch to see that she wouldn’t run away.
Mrs. Hopkins understood, and she would go to her daughter and pay her a visit, she actually wanted to know how she was doing. How could she not want to come back.
Mrs. Hopkins, was hopeful now that he had received the phone call that her daughter was found, she wanted to see her but she didn’t know what to say. Her husband, Harold saw her leaving, “hon. Where are you going?”
“Oh, I’m going to the store to get something did you want anything for tomorrow?”
“No, but if you can bring me a newspaper, I didn’t see it this morning.”
“Alright! I’ll be back in five minutes,” she grabbed her jacket, and left to her car. She was smiling from ear to ear, just thinking about meeting her daughter, for the first time in five years, and her grandson. She had a grandson.
When she arrived, she thought her daughter lived poorly, they were used to always living in big houses. And now she lived in a small two bedroom apartment.
How could she have preferred to live like this? That’s it! She wasn’t going to have her daughter or her grandson live like this, it was just not fair. Olivia rang the door bell to the apartment to where Mr. Campbell said she lived.
Cassandra, had, had enough, was he seriously back for more, “are you stalking me Mr. Campbell? I can assure you, it wouldn’t do you any good to keep trying, I’m not opening this door!”
“Cassandra is that you?”
No! that couldn’t be! She went to check who was behind the door, what was she doing here? Nervously, she opened the door, “mother?! What are you doing here? Why are you here?” Cassandra was surprised to see her mother wasn’t alone.
Jesse Campbell was standing there with her mother, “I see you’ve gotten her to open the door for you, I’ll leave now,” How could she have brought him here!