A Graduation Gift

"I'm sorry, Cassandra! I shouldn't have mentioned it..."
Stella shut her mouth immediately, realizing she had completely disregarded Cassandra's feelings. She would have felt terrible
finding out something like that.
"I'm fine. It's nothing. They're all over the news. I already know this."
Cassandra feigned a ghost of a smile on her face bitterly. She tried not to pay attention to news like this, but it was inevitable for
her to come across it every now and then.
Whenever it reached her, she smiled speechlessly at the words they used: the Golden boy and Jade girl; the business tycoon
and the amazingly talented, beautiful lady; a heaven-made match and whatnot.
All the possible words they could use to describe couples were used to describe Rufus and Amanda. Cassandra simply
pretended like she saw nothing and heard nothing. She made herself trust Rufus. However, no matter how much she tried, her
belief was always broken by the reality that hit her everywhere she went.
If they were a perfect match, what did that make her? Was she simply Rufus's other woman?
"Cassandra, as your friend, whatever I'm saying is for your own good. Rufus might not be the man you knew anymore and he is
definitely lying to you. Please, stop trusting him and move on. If he really cared about you, he wouldn't have been engaged to
Amanda. How can you stand this!" Seeing how broken her friend looked, Stella decided to speak her mind.
Rufus was like a fishbone stuck in Cassandra's throat. She was neither able to swallow it nor spit it out. Stella was done
supporting her sinking fantasies. She really wanted to shrug her off this dream.
If Cassandra didn't get over Rufus, the fishbone would be there forever and rot in her flesh, brewing nothing but pain for her,
eventually becoming a scar she would have to bear for the rest of her life.
It was finally time to leave, but Cassandra decided to stay. Stella left soon, leaving her alone as she continued to work on
Lyndsy's propaganda program.
The lamp on the desk shed soft light on her face, making her eyes shut. She was too tired and decided to take a break. When
she opened her eyes again, she caught a silhouette right in front of her. Startled, she gasped and opened her mouth to shriek.

But then her mouth was covered by a pair of strong hands before she could utter a sound. A voice spoke to her, after which she
held back her desire to let herself free or speak anything.
"It's me, Cassandra!"
The familiar, low voice rang right beside her ears, making her eyes well up with tears.
This was the person Cassandra had been craving to see. Somehow, he always approached her like a shadow and left without a
trace. She could never comprehend when or how he would show up and disappear. She could never anticipate how long it would
be before she would see him again.
He drifted around her like a gust of wind, moving with its own accord. She wondered if she would ever be capable of making him
stay.
Rufus felt Cassandra's clenched body relaxing and took his hand off her mouth, finally appearing in the light and greeting her
with a delighted smile.
"I was waiting for you at home but you didn't show up. So I assumed you'd be working and came here to see you," he explained.
His smile looked like a blaze of light, filling Cassandra up with warmth, as if he had just kissed her. She stared at his face
overwhelmed with love but Rufus couldn't see the moisture in her eyes under the shadow the lamp cast on her face.
"I'm so sorry. I have been so occupied these past days. My aunt's husband, Jasper's company was in trouble and I needed to
help him out."
The companies aiming at the members of the Dark Night group were on the move again. Rufus helped Jasper to deal with them
but hadn't expected it would get stretched to such an extent. He felt terribly sorry for not being able to meet Cassandra.
"The construction for Amanda's school has started recently, so she asked me to come over. I had to go because I promised her
father I'd help her. I don't want to disappoint her because the school has been a dream for her ever since she was a child."
Rufus kept giving elaborate explanations, gazing at Cassandra softly. He wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her
passionately but thought it made sense to talk about his absence first. This absence, like it was said, made his heart grow
fonder. Despite his urges, he felt content just looking at her.
Cassandra sat in the shadow silently without moving an inch.

Stella had left the door to her office open while leaving. Cassandra had never expected Rufus to show up, especially since she
was on the cusp of giving up on him. She had hundreds of questions to ask him, hundreds of things to share with him, but for
now, all that mattered was she could simply stare at him and shed a few tears. She, too, like Rufus, was content with that.
She didn't know where to begin. Why had he kept so many things from her? In reality, the company wasn't Jasper's. it was his.
Jasper was the chairman of TY Group but yet, not the real boss. Now, he was saying that, he was working for Jasper, trying to
hide the truth from her again.
He had promised her he would tell her everything about the things that went on between him and Amanda. She had begun to
wonder whether he ever imagined how she felt when he stood next to Amanda so intimately.
She was indeed the woman in the shadow.
'Rufus, I am keeping silent because I trust you. Do I look stupid to you?'