BENEATH ALL THE LIES

Cracked

I gasped as I saw her came into the room,  I've never seen her in that condition before. She always had her hair tied up in a loose but tidy bun, wore light color dresses and never not put on any make up on her face even tho it was just mascara and lipstick. But today I saw a ghost of my mother, I mean Zasha, I didn't know how long it would take to get used to not call her my mother anymore. She was now standing in front of me, dressed in the prison signature orange jumper and her long hair was let down. Her face looked pale without any make up on it. She might had been arrested for a few days but she looked like she had been locked up for ages. Upon seeing her, I could feel my heart was aching for her.

"Ma," I didn't realize that I called her. And from the side I could feel Deena tensed and turned to look at me.

Zasha came towards us and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of us. She looked at me and smiled, she seemed relieved to see me there.

"My Cassey, you came to see me. I knew that you would come," my mother said through her smile.

I didn't know what to say to her, I was confused, hurt, betrayed and sad. All of those feelings at the same time. I didn't know which one to voice out first. Meanwhile, right next to me, Deena clutched my hand tightly.

"She isn't your Cassey, she's my daughter. My daughter who you took away from me and I had spent the past two decades trying to find her."

For the first time, Zasha turned her attention to Deena, as if she just materialized right that second instead of having been there with us this whole time . She looked like she was trying to figure out who the woman in front of her was. Then it registered to her who Deena was.

"Deena..." Zasha sounded uncertain.
"What are you doing here?"

The way Zasha looked at Deena showed that they knew each other. Zasha might have sounded like she hated Deena, but it wasn't hatred that was reflected on her eyes. Instead it was fear.

"Where is my husband, Zasha? What did you do to him?" Deena asked her.

"Husband? You and Kayne were going to get a divorce. And you know it."

"That is my problem. Now where is my husband?"

"How would I know,Deena? I have nothing to do with him. Now what business do you have here?"

"I came to take back my daughter from you, my Anna who you took away from me 23 years ago."

It was silent for a long time after Deena said that. Zasha looked confused by Deena's statement.

"What? Your daughter? Are you crazy? She's Cassandra Bennet. Juliette's daughter." Zasha said calmly

Zasha's statement shocked us all. Why did she say that? Was she losing her mind?

"Mrs. Bennet, we've acquired the DNA result of Cassey, Kayne Thatcher and Deena. It was a match. Cassandra is indeed the missing baby Thatcher. That's why you've been arrested." Andrew said to Zasha.

"But I told you again and again that Cassey wasn't the missing Thatcher. I admitted she was taken from her mother. But the mother was the dead Juliette. I took her from the orphanage, without documentation after Juliette was dead."

Deena scoffed at Zasha's explanation, "Stop your act. Just admit it. You took away my daughter and tell us where my husband is."

Either what Zasha said was true or she really was a good actress. But what she said couldn't possibly be true. The DNA test showed that I was the Thatcher. The only missing information right now was about my father's whereabout.