A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 220

'Tastes good? Must've been Amanda who said it.

Amanda bought this bread for him, but he turned around and gave it to me? It's ridiculous how he thinks I know nothing about this.

Rufus, you must be wallowing in satisfaction right now as two women pine for you at the same time.

What exactly am I to you?' she thought to herself.

Her trust in him was already at the brink of collapse, but because of this, it had fallen rock bottom. 'Is there any good reason, any reason at all to stay in a relationship with a man who uses what his other lover gave him to flatter me?' she wondered, apparently in a daze.

"Rufus, we're bearking up!"

Cassandra wrestled with herself before blurting it out, hear tears like torrents streaming down her cheeks.

"What's wrong with you, again?"

Rufus's smile was gone like the wind and was replaced with a look of concern when he saw her tears. A wave of panic engulfed him.

'Why is she crying? Is it because of my tardy return?

But no matter how upset she is, she has no right to break up with me because of that small slight, ' he thought and got kind of crossed.

"I remember saying that to you before, are you just using that to get back at me?"

Rufus asked, knitting his eyebrows and studying her expression, grasping for some sort of clue that would give away her true intentions.

Cassandra only shook her head, unable to say anything.

"Tell me what happened, Cassandra. Please, please talk to me,"

Rufus pleaded. He took Cassandra's arm and held it tightly. She was wracked with sobs.

His stomach did a one-eighty. He was so physically close to her, yet their hearts and feelings were so far away from each other.

He silently wished that she would stop being so stubborn and be gentle like other women. He just couldn't bear seeing her in tears.

"I don't love you anymore. We're done,"

Cassandra cried out desperately and in one swift motion, pulled her arm out of Rufus's grip.

Once upon a time she had always imagined that she would live a happy and peaceful family life with Rufus.

But the recent events had only reminded her that she was never good enough for him. They weren't fated to be with each other.

"No!"

Rufus hissed with a snarl. He refused to believe what he had just heard. What he believed were her bitter tears, which betrayed her true feelings—she was still deeply in love with him.

"I'll be here for you as soon as I get off work tomorrow onwards, okay?" Don't say things like that!"

Rufus tried comforting Cassandra, to no avail.

"No..." Cassandra shook her head slowly as she closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks, "it's impossible for us to be together. I mean it, Rufus. I really don't love you anymore. I can't continue to love you. I can't afford it anymore, so I give up."

Cassandra took a step back and turned around, some of her tears glistened as they fell of her eyes. She then returned to her apartment.

She slammed the door shut, full of bitterness, and left Rufus standing outside. She refused to open it no matter how hard he banged on the door.

Leaning against the door, Cassandra slowly sunk to the ground. She bit her hand to keep her sobs from escaping. She didn't want Rufus to hear.

"Cassandra! Open the damn door! Please!"

Rufus kicked and banged the door desperately, not giving a damn about his priceless Italian tailormade shoes.

"Cassandra, I'm begging you, please talk to me! I'll do whatever you want!"

The image of her weeping filled Rufus with dread. He ached to hold her in his arms, to reassure her that everything would be okay.

Yet what he just said only added more water to her tears.

'Could he really do that? Give me whatever I want?' she thought to herself, full of doubt. What she wanted was quite simple, but it was a simple thing that he could never give her.

She wanted nothing more than a simple life, a man devoted and faithful to her, with whom she could celebrate life and love until their death.

'But can you really do that, Rufus?' she cried silently.

'Your life is full of excitement. Ever since I met you, my life began to take a different direction into unknown lands. I can only feel my way into my world since it was so dark, ' her thoughts recalled all the past events since they met.

Before she married Lionel, she was absolutely enthralled by him, drawn by his magnetism and looks. He was so perfect, aside from his identity.

His identity had clearly foreshadowed the tragedy that was their romance. How could she have been so blind? Nonetheless, his constant profession of his love for her never failed to disarm her and eventually, succumb to it.

She had thought that he was completely devoted to her and only her, but it was just wishful thinking and naive of her to believe that. She had been so confident, but now it had all disappeared in the face of Amanda.

She was never bothered by her unfavorable circumstances of birth, nor by what others thought of her. But in Rufus's heart, Amanda had been gradually tipping the scales in her favor.