A Graduation Gift

She knew she had to move out. She couldn't live in this apartment any longer. Rufus acted as if it was his apartment and she was something that belonged to him. Now Cassandra realized she must have been nothing but a well-thought-out plan for him.

But she didn't want her heart to sink deeper.

A few days passed in a blur. When Rufus came to her apartment again, he opened the door to nothingness. The apartment was empty.

There was no trace of Cassandra, not the tea cups, not the potted plants, not the chinaware in the kitchen...Everything was gone. Well, everything but one thing.

Rufus saw it, passing by the bedroom and suddenly came to a halt. He walked back a few steps and then into the bedroom. A unicorn lay on the night stand.

He looked at it with pursed lips for a while, then picked it up gently. Its happy smile suddenly seemed sad. The glow in its eyes seemed like brimming tears.

He remembered Cassandra telling him how she would always hold the unicorn doll in her arms when she was a young girl, how she used to pour her heart out to it. The only reason she treasured it so much was that it was the first ever gift Rufus had ever given her.

And now, she was gone, taking everything with her but the unicorn. Rufus knew it wasn't carelessness. He knew it was deliberate.

She must have known that Rufus would come by again and hence decided to leave it here, as a token of an end, a goodbye. They were done. She didn't have anything to do with the unicorn, or with him.

Rufus seized the doll. Inside, he felt cold and hollow, almost as if wind could pass right through him.

'Cassandra, you can't wait to get rid of me, right?' he said to himself.

But the trouble wasn't over, like Cassandra would have thought. From the very next day, she began to receive roses in her office. There was no name tag on them. They were fresh and beautiful; their bright colors cought her eyes throughout the day. She tried to reject them every time, but they kept coming.

gossip about it. It wasn't so much a controversy, rather a sense of envy they felt at her receiving those

any projects of late. Everyone

beneficial to Cassandra. Once in the list of the Top 10 young entrepreneurs of G City, she was now replaced by someone else. But she was resilient, taking

her. In their eyes, she was someone who could be seduced easily. After her divorce with Lionel, she fell in love with his brother, Rufus. On top of that, she was put into the detention house

right track a while ago and now they seemed to be boycotted from the

salaries was becoming difficult. If she couldn't find new clients soon, the Group was bound to see a major crisis within a couple of

to sleep. She tried contacting the old clients but everyone rejected her. Most days, she would come back to the office in despair

find herself another apartment; instead she put up a bed and hung her clothes on hooks in a small warehouse in a corner of their office.

to keep the company floating, with every effort. But

employees started to feel threatened regarding their salaries. By

them from working at a better place. Moreover, at this point, she was more concerned about the expenses and hence didn't persuade them to reconsider, given that she

people had different aspirations. She couldn't make herself a stumbling block in their

more bouquets in the office now, than there

for Cassandra but had lost faith in Qin Group. She

The gradual degradation of the company this time, was

Qin Group alive when she felt so suffocated herself?

the building. He didn't need to make any

new projects, but she was rejected, again. Everyone now gave her perfunctory replies. She hung up and sighed, closing her eyes. Right then, Lionel pushed the

be in