“So this is what goes on behind my back…” Cassandra gasps as she parts from the hug. Alex turns around in surprise and shock. Ravine was standing by the doorframe as she had opened the door and let herself inside. She couldn’t believe her ears.
“You sold me out like that, Cassie? I thought we were doing great with each other.”
“We are, mom. We are doing the best right now. You and me, living all alone in this lonely house where I have no one but you to talk to.” Cassandra says as Ravine widens her eyes at her daughter’s words.
They were ignited with feelings that seemed so rare to come out from the cool little Cassandra.
“What…?” Ravine speaks in disbelief. She pushes the blunt to a wooden cupboard as she wipes her face.
“Mom, we’re doing great mom. We’re the best team of this world.
But don’t you think we can be better?”
“Better than this, Cassie?” Ravine’s shaky voice of regret makes Cassandra feel like the bad guy. Ravine was the best parental figure Cassandra could ask in any of her lifetimes.
But there was also something regrettably missing in their lives.
After Eugene’s tragic death and Louis’s incident, Cassandra hated watching her mother turn into a heartless being. Someone who wandered around aimlessly with nothing but love and care for her daughter and to earn for their basic living.
Cassandra could see the pain in Ravine’s eyes. Everyday.
The pain was from her locked away feelings that no one else had the keys for.
The previous keys were held by Eugene as her husband and Louis as her son.
When Cassandra found the perfect two people to open her heart up again with an alternate set of keys… she didn’t want to miss that opportunity.
She wanted to see her mother smile a little bit more each day. She wouldn’t like the idea of someone stealing that key again, let alone keep it away from reach as well.
Cassandra takes a deep breath in. She slowly walks her baby steps towards her mother. Ravine was gazing at her baby walking towards her, as if Ravine would chew her out and never let her speak anything more. Ravine knew she was never vicious towards her child. She may be the biggest barker of obscenities out there, but she never raised her voice even once at her child.
“Mama…” her daughter’s sorry coo spoke a million words to her.
“Please let me have Alex as my dad, mama. I want him to be my dad… I miss dad…” she says, tears rolling down her face.
Cassandra bumps her forehead into her shoulders, resting on Ravine’s tall and old body as she cries.
“I miss dad…” she repeats, yet again.
Zayn and Alex tried terribly to hold their tears back. Ronan, as cracked he was, he still knew when and where to stay calm and behave wisely.
He stares at the four people in the room.
Ravine suddenly turns towards Alex.
“Was it you who filled this filth in my daughter’s mind?” She asks him sternly. Surprised that she was chewing her anger on Alex, Cassandra quickly tries to deny that fact.
“Mama! I- I know enough about your love story. I hear your side of the story all the time, mama. But for the first time in my life, I heard his side of the story as well.”
Ravine gasps as she looks at her daughter.
Cassandra widens her eyes.
“N-no, mama. Listen to me-” Ravine strides towards Alex to push him out of her house by his collar. She was angry.
“Mama!! I know everything! I know everything that you both did, okay!?” Cassandra, for the first time, raises her voice in front of her mother.
Cassandra was pulling her back by her shirt as Ravine slowly turned around.
“You… know everything?”
“Everything.” Cassandra confirms.
“B-but, I don’t think you’re the bad guy, mom. You did hate the Johnsons for what they did to your father, but don’t you think your parents deserved it? You were just a pawn in their play, mama! I know how you feel, but-”
“Baby…” Cassandra holds Ravine who leans against her shoulders, holding Cassandra as she bends forward.
“I am the bad guy in our story. I am-”
“You were not the bad guy, Ravine. It was me.” Alex says.
His words unlock the parts of her memories as she cries harder.
The days when Alex used her, took his anger out on her as if she was just a rag doll, a prostitute for him. She hated herself back then, ultimately hating the whole Johnson Family because of that.
Then, her parents took advantage of her naivety and exploited her relationship with the Johnsons.
It was all a big mess.
“Both of you were the bad guys, don’t you think?” Cassandra says at last.
She wipes her tears, helping her mother sit down beside Alex who was standing up.
“I know.” Alex slowly utters.
“Now… all I want you to do is forgive each other and… and spend the rest of your lives together! This is your chance, mama!” Cassandra urges.
“It’s not that easy, sweetie-” Ravine says with her tears rolling down, her head starting to hurt.
“I know… I know. You gotta give him a second chance, mama.”
“I already gave him a second chance.”
“Then a third, maybe.” Ravine smirks as she recollects the same words from someone she knew in the past.
The same words were uttered by her best friend.
The words from Cassandra Johnson.
Cassandra remembers the words as well. Her personality stayed intact with her memories, and she was grateful. If not, she had grown stronger than before.
“Wait… why would you give me a third chance? What was the second chance?” Alex asks in confusion.
“YOU USED HER-”
“YOU USED ME-!” Both the mother and daughter look at each other in thought.
Ravine tilts her head to the side, how did Cassandra know about that?
“U-um… Mr. Zayn told me.”
“Wait… how do you know about that?” Alex asks Zayn immediately after he hears Cassandra’s reasoning.
“U-Uncle Louis told me!” Zayn quickly answers.
Alex’s facial muscles rest into a poker face as he says, “That loud-mouth.”
“Ravine… I will wait for you even if it’s the end for me. I have been waiting for you since 2023, Ravine. Hoping every single day that you would come back into my arms. I was a fool for 36 years to believe you would come back. And I still am.”
“Remain as a fool, fucker.” Ravine’s savage reply makes the room burst into laughter.
It was an indirect diss-compliment that ran in the genes now.
“Thank you…” the old man felt too graceful.
He hoists the old woman on her feet as he kisses her cheek in affection.
They hug each other, Alex let’s her show her vulnerability for the first time as the rest of them move out of the room.
And we all know who’s sleeping where.