A Graduation Gift

Chapter 240 Hatred And Desire (Part One)

"It's late. There is no need to rush into finishing the job. It can wait until tomorrow,"

Rufus spoke softly, coaxing Cassandra into giving up her idea. The bitterness in her smile escaped him.

"Creative work needs inspiration, and an idea has just struck me. If I stop now, I might lose my momentum. It'll be too late tomorrow,"

Cassandra argued. She did not want to stay with him longer than necessary.

The more she stayed with Rufus, the more difficult it got to rein her emotions. The air around them was becoming stifling even as she spoke, and all she wanted right now was a moment's peace from the turbulence inside her.

"Fine. I'll give you a ride,"

Rufus conceded, nodding his head thoughtfully to show understanding.

"Don't bother," Cassandra answered back, a little too quickly. Rufus noticed it as well. His head shot up at her response. "Your leg is fine now, and there is no need for me to take care of you. Go back to the Tang mansion tonight. You haven't met your family for a long time," Cassandra continued, stubbornly refusing his offer.

She looked at Rufus with a steady gaze, her face impossible to read.

Rufus gave her a long look in return.

'Family?' he scoffed inwardly at the word. 'The Tang family never regarded me as one of them.' When his leg got hurt, Lionel made changes to the dinner party without consulting him. He knew what Lionel

was doing when he deliberately let Amanda play the piano at the finale. Clearly, every step he took was to derail Rufus's plans.

Cassandra looked at him in silence, but he knew she had already made up her mind. He pressed her no longer.

To her, family was the most important anyway.

"All right. I'll drive you to your company and then go back. If it gets too late when you finish, don't go back to the villa. Go to the apartment."

The apartment she rented was very close to Qin Group. If she stayed there, Rufus could feel more at ease.

"Alright."

Cassandra nodded and cast her eyes down. For a moment, a shadow seemed to pass across her face, but her bowed head concealed it from Rufus.

The car pulled to a stop at the gate of Qin Group. Just as Cassandra was about to get off, Rufus's phone rang, shattering the silence that had settled between the two during the whole ride.

Cassandra threw a quick glace at his phone—Amanda's name flashed on the screen. She winced at the flashes, as if her eyes were stung by something that was too bright and glaring. Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

She smiled cynically in dissatisfaction. Her jaw felt stiff at the forcefulness of the movement. It had not been long since Rufus left Amanda, and now she was calling him again.

Rufus hesitated for a moment, as if pondering whether or not to take the call. Before long, he reached for his phone and answered, pressing it to his ear.

Amanda was crying at the other end of the line. "Rufus, my body stings all over," she managed to say between her sobs. "Could you please come over and take me to the hospital? I'm scared."

Her crying was so loud that even Cassandra could hear it from where she was sitting.

'Oh so she is in pain? Is it the same pain that I feel?' she though to herself bitterly.

"Are you still at the hotel? Stay put. I'll be right there,"

Rufus answered, trying to calm Amanda down. His ears rang with her pleas, her voice cracked from crying. It must be her illness. Charlie wasn't in the city, and he didn't have it in him to let her be by herself. She had no one else.

A small motion at the corner of his eye brought his attention back to his immediate surroundings, and it was only then that the situation sunk in. He was in the car, with Cassandra, and she had been sitting there as he spoke to Amanda on the phone. Jerking his head in Cassandra's direction, Rufus opened his mouth, wanting to say something to explain, but words failed him. he closed his lips and surrendered to a helpless silence.

It was Cassandra who scaled the tense quietness. "Rufus, is Amanda hurt? Where does she hurt?" she asked him. "It seems that you understand her perfectly. It's funny you know," she laughs, an empty echo in the darkness. "I'm hurt too, but you don't even know anything. You have no idea how much I have been breaking."

Cassandra's face was calm, but the eyes that stared at Rufus had biting coldness that he couldn't bear. Cold anger burned in her as she threw the words to him, each one punctuated with unspoken doubts and accusations.

It burned.

For a moment, Rufus was unable to speak, his tongue paralyzed at the intensity of her gaze. He had to explain to her, and make her understand the reason behind his behavior. "Cassandra," he started, "Amanda is sick. She is my teacher's daughter. I can't leave her alone. She has no one else."

"You can't leave her alone because you still love her!" Cassandra screamed, her voice shaking.

She had had enough. She could no longer just stand by quietly and pretend not to see what was happening right in front of her eyes. Her chest tightened with so many emotions all at once, and she could not contain them any longer.

"You're being unreasonable. Charlie treated me like his own son. I can't just turn a blind eye to his daughter in a foreign country. Family has always been the most important to you. I thought that you, of all people, would understand," Rufus answered, keeping his voice low and steady. "Amanda is sick, and she needs to be taken care of. I'm the only one who can do that for her."

Rufus shook his head in bewilderment. He had never seen Cassandra so difficult.

She understood it when her own family decided to marry her off to save themselves. She forgave the Tang family, after all that they had put her through. Why was it that she was losing her cool when it came to Amanda?

"Fine," Cassandra answered, her tone distant. She was opening the door as she continued to speak, "If she is so pitiful and helpless, then go and take care of her. Better yet, marry her, so you can keep doing that your whole life," she laughed bitterly, her voice thick with hurt.

She lingered for a moment, as if waiting for Rufus to speak. Then she slammed the door and walked into the direction of the building.

Left alone inside the car, Rufus felt as if his limbs had turned to stone. His frustration boiled inside him and he pounded the steering wheel with his fist.

Heaving a deep breath, he slammed the car into gear, the tires screaming as his foot jammed against the accelerator. The car headed straight to the hospital. The screeches of rubber on the pavement reached the building, and Cassandra gave a broken laugh when they reached her ears.

She sat slumped in the sofa in her office, as if in a trance for a long time. There was nothing but numbness.