Chapter 1 : Cassandra Morgan.

Bonk. A short deep sound startled the taxi driver.

The sound of her head bumping on the window was loud enough to make the old taxi driver look at his back seat.

“Are you alright?”

Cassandra pushed away the red burgundy hair that covered her eyes and scratched lightly her itchy forehead. It was a little painful but she thinks she was fine.

She looked outside the window. “I’m fine. Are we there yet?”

The taxi stopped at the front of the old garden apartment. but it seems it was under a good rental agency, the building was in a good condition.

“We are here.”

Cassandra paid, said thank you and rushed out of the taxi.

“Shit, I'm already late.” She stormed into her apartment throwing her wig on the floor.

“God, you reek of alcohol. Are you drunk?” The petite housemate Renee, took the red wig with her finger and almost felt disgusted. She put it outside the balcony trying to wash away the smell with the smokey air of the Upper West Side neighborhood.

“Hey, that's expensive.” Cassandra pushing her door room with her shoulder, threw her purse on the bed. She almost out of breath trying to be faster than she already did.

Cassandra was taking off her outer coat, revealing her in the tight black dress that shows the gorgeous body she was born with. But she almost ripped it off and after grunting a few times she managed to escape and she took a deep breath.

“Take it easy, you still have an hour to the school. It's only a few blocks away.” 

Latisha the owner of the apartment, also the landlord was half Indian and half Mexican. 

She appeared from the kitchen with three cups of coffee in her hands and put the cups on a small dining table size for three people.

“I need to make sure I can wash away the smell.” Finally kicking off the dress with her leg, Cassandra wrapped a towel on her body, crossed over the apartment. She glanced over at her friends at the table and got into the bathroom.

Letting the bathroom door halfway closed, she threw the towel on the hook at the bathroom and quickly submerged in the bathtub.

“I need to buy some groceries and restock the kitchen supply. Are you going to follow me or do you want to open the store?” Latisha sipped her coffee while asking Renee who was cracking her neck.

“I haven't slept yet, I just finished up my new chapter. Can I sleep first?” Renee yawned and scrubbed her eyes.

“I will wake you when I get back from the store.”

Renee, who almost falls asleep on the chair, opens her eyes wide when Cassandra suddenly stands in front of them and starts grumbling.

Her hair was still wet and the water was dripping on the floor. 

Latisha took some kitchen towel and threw it on the floor near Cassandra's feet.

It has been like their routine. Everything is just nothing, but a familiar morning. 

“Those damn old bastard man, they always think that the lingerie models were no different with prostitute. I almost kicked one of their balls but managed to hold on thinking it will be my last time.”

“Remind me again why you have to endure all this again?” Renee sat besides Latisha who was sipping through her morning coffee and checking her emails.

“She was a saint.” Latisha sarcasm remark makes Cassandra scoff but she takes the cup and feels amazed by its taste.

“Urm, arabica...wow.”

Cassandra slightly bowed to Latisha and Latisha also bowed, taking the compliment with a grin.

“I never saw you drink with clients before, did George finally lose his mind? I thought he would never ask you to please his client.”

Cassandra took a last drop of the coffee to her mouth, shaking her head towards Renee words.

“He was forced to leave early, his younger sister got into a traffic accident and he also gave me money to go home by taxi.”

“But you know, old ugly perverted being, they try to get me drunk with the other models. We got into a fight, pushed and pulled into action and the drinks were poured into me.”

The girls just nodded.

They just thought that was the way with Cassandra. Wild and carefree, she may look calm and easy but underneath that calm demeaour, a hidden bold fearlessness that they sometimes thought Cassandra worked hard to hide.

“What's with the looks that you guys now throw at me?” Cassandra eyebrows arched.

Renee and Latisha. Cassandra's two friends who shared the apartment rent for two years were the only people she can properly call as friends. They only knew each other for a few years but the bond they shared was like more than a decade of friendship.

Not only sharing the apartment they also shared their own mystery way of living where some people on this world could never understand.

“I only hope that man still can walk by now.” Renee was a petite but energetic lady, with her curly hair and sometimes had a bad temper. She shrugged and drank her coffee. “But don't worry, I still can give you some advice if he wants to see you in court.”

She used to study as a lawyer but she dreams of becoming a w*****n artist, which makes her family that is full of legal profession background disown her. She was seen as a disgrace to the noble family.

“You should get some time for yourself, nowadays even people who look normal are suffering from depression. Didn’t realize they had depression, were sort of some mental illness too.”

Latisha put her cup on the table. She sounds like mocking Cassandra but she knows that women were serious about it.

Latisha once had a stable job as a general manager at a big and successful company but the repeated routine burnt her out and she decided to resign.

When her grandmother passed away, she left her the whole building of the apartment. She remodeled the ground floor as a small cafe, and the first floor as her home. While the rest, she left it to the real estate agency to use as a rental home.

Then there was Cassandra, she was a teacher. Even though at the moment she is just a substitute teacher at one of the private schools, anytime soon she could be hired as a full time teacher. It was her dream job, she had it on her heart and mind since she was young.

But she also had to endure a dark side as she had the bright side. She had to pay off her dead father’s debt. It may take forever by only doing one job at a time, so she tried to get a few jobs at a time.

That's how she met Latisha. She works at Latisha’s cafe on the weekend, while becoming a private tutor at night. Cassandra lives with her boyfriend in the same building that Latisha owns.

One day, Cassandra caught her boyfriend cheating on her, but instead her asshole boyfriend kicked her out. Latisha, who saw the whole damn thing, offered Cassandra to live with her.

After doing lots of odd jobs, she met George who had a small modeling agency and offered her to become a lingerie model. She was a lingerie model for three years now, mostly for some shaddy magazine or some new clothes line who needed a daring lady doing the job.

Finally after years of hard work, no time for fun, no boyfriend to cling onto and no guilty pleasure in her life, five years went so fast and yet felt longer. She finally did enough to settle the debt.

“It’s alright, I'm almost done. That was the last gig.” Cassandra sighed softly.

***

The books stumbled from her hand and now scattered on the floor, the students who just bumped her shoulder stopped and apologized.

But the students were startled when they saw their teacher blankly staring at her phone and even when they tried calling out for her name, she didn't respond for some time.

“Miss Morgan…”

Cassandra saw the concerned eyes of her students and she feigned a smile.

“It’s alright kids, you can go I will pick it up by myself.”

“We are sorry.” They still picked the books and put at her open hands and they left.

She saw a bench at the end of the hallway and walked there. Then she sat, leaning her back head to the wall before she read the text she received again. 

This time she read it out so her ears can hear it too. “Cassandra Anderson, you finally finished paying the debt. The last payment had been transferred and we finalized it with the firm. Thank you.”

For the last three years, she has chosen to work as the lingerie model so she can quickly pay the debt off. Now it had been settled, she could be living like a normal life.

She can get away from the mess that the dead men left, in fact she was not obligated to pay for it. But she always believed in karma that nature holds, it was a powerful magic where it always comes to you now or later.

Her phone rang, the incoming call was from George. She took some time to look for a hidden place before answering.

“Sandy, let's hold a small gathering party tonight.”

Sandy. After today she probably will never hear that name anymore. The name she used as her pseudonym at her night work.

At the other line, George was talking, trying to make her agree with lots of persuasion. Cassandra thought to herself, just one. She wants to celebrate herself for this one. Let lose everything and embrace the joy.

“George, text me the place. Tonight I'm gonna be wild and free.”

The man at the end of the line was shocked but soon laughed. After three years, the reserved lady wants to show her wild side.

It's not gonna be pretty as he knows how bold the lady was. 

“At a Sky Bar?” Cassandra chuckled. She was determined.

She has not touched her seven days leave of absence and for the first time in years struggling to be nice, she wants to be bad. Cassandra, head over to the dean's office, she needs to take a leave for tomorrow.