Inferna Nuntius

Chapter 3

3

The next six months flew by in a whirlwind of classes, 4am runs and exams. Before Cassidy had a real chance to catch her breath, she was marching through Madison Square Garden’s for her graduation ceremony. Her adoptive parents had never really supported her decision in career choices, so it came as no surprise when it was Marcus who greeted her as she came off the stage. She threw her arms around his neck and squealed with joy.

“Oh, Baby Girl, I’m so proud of you!” He held her close, pressing his hand onto the back of her neck. While he was not surprised that her parents hadn’t shown up, he knew he needed to be there to make up for their shortcomings. He had grown accustomed to their indifference towards him, but he tried his best to shield his daughter from it.

He pulled away from her and brushed the tears from her eyes. “Come on. I got a car waiting for us.” He started to pull her away from the crowd, but she gently pulled away from her.

“Cass.” A young man had walked up to her, grabbing her hand. “A couple of us are heading to the bar if you want to join us.” Marcus could see the excitement in his daughter’s eyes and shook his head yes when she looked back at him. She gave him one last kiss on the cheek and followed the young man away.

“Run a background check on that kid,” Marcus told the man who had walked up beside him.

“Marcus, it’s her graduation. Let her have some fun.” The man protested.

“David, she’s my daughter and I want to know who that kid is.” Marcus replied, walking off.

*          *          *

Graduation itself was a smorgasbord of bars and alcohol for Cassidy. She stuck close to Derrick, another graduate from her class, the entire night. The two had been paired up before in different courses and the sexual tension between them had always been undeniable. As she dragged him up the stairs to her flat, the two fell into the stairwells together, a tangled mess of uniforms.

“Why did I get the feeling that your dad doesn’t like me?” Derrick asked her as they entered her flat.

“You just don’t know when to shut up, do you?” She pulled him close and tore through the buttons on his shirt. He chuckled and pulled her shirt over her head.                      

“He’s not going to kill me, is he?” There was a hint of anxiousness in his voice. Cassidy laughed at him and pushed him closer to the bed.

“No, but I will if you don’t shut up.” She pushed him onto the bed and straddled him. “One more word,” she leaned in close, whispering in his ear. “And you’re going to really regret talking.”

*          *          *

It was the first of many encounters for the two in their on-again off-again tumultuous relationship that they even kept hidden from family and friends. When Cassidy met John, Derrick thought that it would end like all of her other flings ended-with her confiding in him and eventually finding her way back to him.

When she asked him to help her move her stuff out of her apartment and into John’s house after just six months of dating, Derrick was nothing shy of devastated, but he helped her anyway. Because that’s what partners were supposed to do, he thought to himself. He thought his life with her would be over after that night, but surprisingly, it wasn’t.

Every three months or so when shifts changed, he and Cassidy were forced to work the night shift and more often than not, she ended up back at his house, crashing once again in his bed. She told John that she stayed at one of her girlfriends’ house because she didn’t want to wake him. And he believed her. That’s when Derrick knew that her bond with him was stronger than the bond with her husband.

John knew nothing of her affair with her partner until after their first fight as a married couple. It occurred two weeks after the return from their honeymoon. John had called Derrick’s cell phone, looking for Cassidy and found her. He threatened divorce until she reminded him that he would be broke if they split. It was two weeks before they talked again.