Adler | The Monarch & The Heirs BOOK 2.

Revealed | A TWENTY TWO

A/N: Dedicated to ABCD_Jacob and
NongthombamTeresa

•••

Since the tea party, Mark would frequently be more active to text and call. Cassandra was over the moon his schedule had gradually gotten less busy for him to make time for them. Even if he wasn't physically there with her, it almost seemed no different. Mark had even been the one to give Cassandra the push to finally confront Stevie on the affair which had all turned out great. Cassandra was certain, Mark Kingston would remain her best friend for life.

That weekend had officially broken their record of longest conversation since Cassandra moved. Starting from nine am, currently proceeding to half past noon. Cassandra had made a means to keep it going by placing the phone on speaker when she had to make trips to the toilet or switching to text, sound on silent while it lay tucked under the table during breakfast and tea.

Then stashing cookies Ewen helped her smuggle past her mother's radar to munch on in the room. The chocolate chips tasted even sweeter with the thrill of rebelling against the rules on snacking in between meals or maybe it was having the irreplaceable comfort of Mark's company. Either way, Cassandra was in bliss. Until in the middle of Mark sharing how he was training the neighbourhood stray cat to skateboard, a text came in.

Cassandra was set to dismiss it, when she registered an unknown number and then her eyes read the message;

I'm sorry

Cassandra's brows knitted.

Cassy- uhh, who is this??

She waited as the person took a while to respond, irritating Cassandra that she had to keep Mark on hold for whoever this was and their confusing message. Then a response finally came.

Andrea

Cassandra froze. Eyes reading the letters that formed the name over and over again and she leapt, eyes bulging and a downpour of cookie crummies toppling from her hoodie to the bed. She discarded all else, quickly apologising to Mark that she needed to hang up and didn't wait for his answer before ending the call.

Andrea. As in, Andrea Lenning? The same Andrea who had an aspiring will, the first person Cassandra liked and saw as a friend since enrolling to that madhouse of an academy St. Sinclair and knew every song by the Spice Girls?

It wasn't that Cassandra had taken Lydia's advice on giving up on talking things out but the girl had done a very good job of becoming unreachable. In fact, Cassandra was driven to thinking of pinning Andrea down but Cassandra resisted the forceful solution. She’d keep herself in check whenever Andrea momently crossed her field until Cassandra found a better way.

Now only for Andrea to come forth like this— Cassandra honestly hadn't expected it. It spurred back that hope, that needle thin hope Cassandra hadn't been wrong about the kind of person Andrea Lenning was.

Cassy- how did you get this number?

Caasy- actually never mind that. Where are u

Why?

Cassy- so we can meet up

Cassandra didn't want to do this through a string of letters on a screen. She wanted her reconciliation with Andrea to be one where they could touch, where Cassandra would pull her into a bear hug and they could go to have icecream together. That was the makeup she dreamed.