A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 161

Rufus couldn't feel his face. He was desensitized from his surroundings. He even failed to notice Cassandra's cry of pain.

The only thing he focused on was the feeling he felt when he witnessed Cassandra getting out of Dylon's car. It was like a bucket of ice water pouring onto him. He couldn't believe what he saw.

His mind was occupied by this. He didn't notice his thrusts were getting harder and harder. Cassandra bit down on her lower lip, drawing blood. She tried to stifle her moans until the torture ended. She fell asleep soon after they were spent. The corners of her eyes still glistened from the tears even when she was already asleep.

Rufus, on the other side of the bed, couldn't sleep. He put on some clothes and walked out of the room. He went down and stood in the middle of the garden with an emotionless expression.

He lit up a cigarette and was soon letting out puffs of smoke. The smoke clouded his already cold expression.

The night wind gently kissed his face. The flowers he helped Cassandra plant swayed in tune with the breeze. They were already sprouting out small green leaves. They seemed to make the garden look alive, a stark contrast to how Rufus was feeling at the moment.

Rufus took out a velvet jewelry box from his left pocket and grasped it with his hand. He gently flipped it open, and a beautiful ring with a clear-cut diamond at its center appeared.

It was a platinum ring decorated with four claws that held the gem. The ring itself was simple, but one look from even a non-expert would know that it was priceless.

The diamond was imported from overseas. It cost him a ton of money to acquire it from an auction abroad. It had the highest grade of clarity and color, and was even more rare because of its carat weight.

Rufus heeded Jasper's advice. He thought that this would really show Cassandra how committed he was to their relationship. He would give her a home, their very own home. That was when he began planning a proposal to her.

He thought last night was the right time.

The Range Rover's trunk was filled to the brim with Ecuadorian roses. He planned to make Cassandra open the trunk, and then get down on his knees as soon as she was surprised.

He texted her and informed her that he would be at the Garden Villa came the evening. To his disappointment, Cassandra didn't reply. He was extremely worried, so he called her. It went straight to voicemail.

Rufus tried to reassure himself that Cassandra must have an emergency, or a good reason. As soon as he got off work, he drove to the villa as fast as possible to wait for her. He waited for 3 hours. She was dropped off by Dylon.

Rufus felt so empty. He hated himself for being so stupid, but he also felt sad and hurt.

Cassandra wasn't even his first woman. Ever since he and Amanda broke up, he buried himself in building up the company so he hardly had any time for a serious relationship. But every man had his needs. He had plenty of flings to attest to that.

But Cassandra was different.

Other women fell in love with his physique or his money, since he was a generous lover. They all wanted something from him. Cassandra, though, disappeared immediately after the night they slept together. She didn't even leave her phone number.

This made its mark on Rufus. He was driven insane by his curiosity about her. When he did eventually get to know her better, he set his sights on conquering her.

She was beautiful, yet stubborn. She was so bull-headed. As time passed by, his heart gradually became more open. Before he knew it, he was already in love with her.

With a loud clack, Rufus closed the box. He couldn't bear to see the beautiful ring right now. It only reminded him how much of a fool he was.

His eyes were cold, no trace of emotion was present.

At the same moment, Cassandra was sound asleep on the sofa. Neither of them knew where their love was going, and how much it would affect their lives.

When Cassandra came to, the sun was already up. She was still on the sofa and her body ached. Rufus was nowhere in sight.

A blanket was covering her body. Rufus must have put it on her after she felt asleep last night. This confused her though. Normally, Rufus would carry her to their bed and sleep beside her.

Cassandra's thought trailed off, while she was in a fetal position. All of a sudden, she remembered that her phone died last night and she hadn't charged it since. She got up and swiftly plugged her phone in.

In a few minutes, her phone booted up. Then came the torrent of ringing.

A ton of messages started coming in, vibrating the phone to no end. Missed calls from Rufus also showed.

Cassandra's heart fell when she thought of why he seemed angry. She opened her call log and saw twenty missed calls from Rufus and a dozen texts from him as well.

"I am coming to see you tonight."

"Why didn't you pick up my call?"

"Pick up my call right now, Cassandra!"

"Where are you? Don't ignore me. I have something to tell you."

"I am mad at you."

...

Cassandra sank to the floor after seeing his messages. 'Well, I really fuck up this time, ' Cassandra thought.

'What should I do right now?'

Cassandra was at her wit's end. She felt remorseful and helpless at the same time. She wanted so badly to make up for what she did, but didn't know how.

She should have noticed Rufus was pissed last night. He was just so different towards her yesterday. He was rude and irritable. Rufus last night was totally different from the Rufus she knew.

He even went out before she woke up. That never happened before. He would always wait for her to wake up so he could say goodbye.

Cassandra made her way into the garage. As expected, Rufus's car was not there. He really went away without waking her up. This only served to frustrate Cassandra even more. She turned around and walked back towards the room, but she stepped on something on the way there.

She looked down on the floor and saw myriad cigarette butts scattered on the floor.

Her heart sank again. She felt so terrible and her mind was in chaos.

Was Rufus so stressed last night that he smoke this much? Did she make him that unhappy? Cassandra had a strong feeling that it was about her. She must have done something that made him mad.

When Cassandra picked up her phone, fully intent on calling Rufus to apologize, her phone rang. Caller ID said it was Lyndsy.

Cassandra answered right away. Lyndsy's anxious voice came on, "Cassandra, where are you? I'm coming to pick you up! It's an emergency!"

Urgency was clearly evident in Lyndy's tone. It sounded big. But what happened that she needed her help? Cassandra was immensely worried.

"You don't have to. I'm too far from downtown. Just tell me the address and I'll be there as fast as I can,"

Cassandra promptly replied. Lyndsy didn't have to go the distance. It would just be a waste of time. She had to go to work anyway.

They decided to meet at a dessert cafe near the Qin Group's office. Cassandra walked in the shop which rung a small bell. She immediately spotted Lyndsy sitting at a neaby table, then walked over and gracefully sat down.

"Well? What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Cassandra cast a concerned look at her friend, who was sitting right across her. She wondered what had happened. Lyndsy had a big red scarf around her neck which hid half of her face. She also sported a pair of heavily tinted sunglasses and a big hat even though they were already inside the shop. One could hardly see her face, let alone recognize her.

"Cassandra, I went into the company this morning. I wanted to talk to them about the termination of my contract, so I brought my original there. I thought it would be so easy as long as I paid them a certain amount of money. What I didn't expect was they refused to sign my release because apparently, I broke the terms of the contract we signed!"

Lyndsy tried to control her tone, but it was still shaky because she had the jitters.

Cassandra couldn't see her eyes because of her sunglasses. But she could tell that Lyndsy was nervous as hell. She understood. Lyndsy was shocked that the company would do this. Not honoring the terms of a contract was a serious accusation.

"You breached the contract? How the hell did that happen?"

Cassandra's confusion only grew by the minute. In her opinion, Lyndsy couldn't have broken the terms of the contract, now. Especially when she wanted a release contract with the company.

Lyndsy didn't reply. She placed her phone in front of Cassandra and tapped it on. She gestured at Cassandra to look at the news on the phone screen.

Cassandra picked it up and looked down. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the words on the screen.

It was a microblog post which had already made its rounds online with over ten thousand recipients. It was also trending at this very moment.

The account who posted the picture seemed to be an ordinary Joe. He only posted a few photos and captioned them.

"I saw Lyndsy when I was eating hotpot with friends. Is the man sitting across her, her boyfriend? I remember she denied having a boyfriend. We obviously can't trust celebrities when they say that!"

The photos were obviously taken by a low-end phone since they were so blurry. They were apparently taken yesterday when the three of them were having hot-pot.

Though they weren't clear, Cassandra recognized Lyndsy's profile. Dylon sat across her was also easily identified.

Strangely, Cassandra wasn't present in the photos. Her body was covered by a big palm tree planted indoors.

"When I signed the contract with the company, there was a term that specifically said I couldn't have a relationship for the duration, or I'll have to pay a huge amount of money!"

It was obvious that Lyndsy was panicking right now. Her hands were balled into tight fists, and she was quivering.

"Earlier this morning, I went to the company to discuss the contract further. They refused and said this stupid post did serious damage to the image they so carefully built. Now there are some bad comments about me online. They said I caused a huge loss to the company and they even threatened to take legal action against me!"

Lyndsy grew more agitated as she went on. She thought that when the contract expired, she could finally be free. She never expected this to happen so close before her contract came to an end!

"Lyndsy, calm down! Let me see the comments first."

Cassandra opened the profile who posted the photos. The person seemed to be an average young man, not paparazzi who followed Lyndsy everywhere. Unfortunately, this worked against Lyndsy since people would believe a normal person more than a mere paparazzi.

The photos bugged her even more. They all were taken specifically at angles which left Cassandra out. They seemed to be taken right when Dylon and Lyndsy were discussing about photography. One was taken when Dylon and Lyndsy were huddling close since she was showing something on her phone. They looked quite intimate. If someone who didn't know them saw this photo, he would surely mistake them as a sweet couple.

She scrolled down further towards the comments section. The comments took her by surprise. There were really venomous comments aimed at Lyndsy. They called her a liar.

To be fair, celebrities were also human. It was normal for them to form relationships. It wasn't anything new. Why was this such a serious problem for Lyndsy? It all seemed strange.