Chasing Euphoria

Chapter Twenty Two

Cassie

Since arriving in Vancouver, there was no sense of grief, no sorrow, no anguish. Despite seeing my father lying motionless covered by a flimsy blue sheet, there was barely a hint of sadness. The only thing I could think of was planning his funeral as quick as possible. Distant relatives were freeing up time to make it. Some of them sounded slightly saddened, but for the rest of them, they were more shocked that it was so sudden. Clearly, he hadn't mentioned his illness to anyone.

Landon had called me almost every day, most of which I never had the chance to answer and the those I did were short talks, assuring him I was fine. I still hadn't explained the circumstances, time wasn't on my side and the right chance never came.

It was reassuring to know that he wasn't mad at me for leaving, he was definitely desperate for answers, but for now, it was enough to know I was fine.

Kristen was hosting me at her place and helping me with the clear out of my father's belongings at my childhood home. Of course, I wasn't allowed to discuss anything with her until I had updated her on life in Northlyn Hills, but I refused to give her every little detail she wanted. That would have to wait until at least after the funeral.

She did promise to come with me and swear to keep her sarcastic comments to herself whilst we were there. It was far from her style to do that; Kris was always very openly opinionated and despised my father more than I did if that was at all possible.

When it came to the day, she was more helpful than I thought.

"It's a funeral, Cass, you have to wear the most depressing colours possible." Kris said, pulling the dark pink skirt from my hands and replacing it was a pile of various black clothing.

"I just don't feel depressed." I muttered, throwing most of them to the floor to try on an appropriate dress.

She seemed pissed that I disregarded half of her outfits, but still kept her lips closed for the time being. "That's because Noah was the ultimate A-hole of North America. Are you still going to see his lawyer after?"

There was a known rule that the majority of people knew and it was to never speak ill of the dead. Perhaps I was also not a good person considering I was seeing his lawyer about his will as soon as I was finished at the funeral.

I appreciated that when I wasn't really mourning him as much as I should. She never criticised me simply because she knew the ins and outs of my relationship with him. Most people would jump to brand me as heartless – she took away any guilt I had.

"Stop changing!" She commanded just as I was about to take off the next combination. "That's perfect."

The tight skirt I wore had a silver zip up the middle, matched with a black, woolly sweater and thick tights to keep my leg warm. It wasn't the worse, but the lack of differentiation in the shades bothered me.

She could see the uncertain look on my face and sighed, grabbing her jewellery box for me to search through to find accessories to make me feel better. There weren't many options in there, but my favourite by far was a small butterfly pendant with gems encrusted across the edges.

"Let's go, we're going to be late if we don't leave soon." I said, seeing that we had around an hour left until the service started. Grabbing a lipstick to put on in the car, I made sure I had everything I needed and left with Kristen leading the way.

Surprisingly, we weren't the first to arrive. The cousins who promised to show up were there before us with my aunt Nina who I hadn't seen since my mom's funeral. Other than them, the only other people to show seemed to be business partners and employees who he spoke to enough for them to send their condolences.