“What is going on in here?” Tracey demanded to know.

“Cassie just slapped me in the face,”

“What?” Cassie could not believe what she was hearing, she just shook her head.

“Cassie how could you do that to my daughter?” Tracey was so mad.

“I didn’t do anything to your daughter!”

“That’s bull Cassie and you know it,” Tracey raised her voice.

“I don’t know what is it that you want from me because I told you that I did nothing to your daughter! I’ve never laid a hand to anyone in my life, why would I do that now to my half-sister?”

“You need to go to your room and start packing. You’re going to the Southern suburbs tonight,” her father said.

“I ain’t going anywhere,”

“Yes you are young lady!”

“Make me.”

“Cassie, go and get your things together,”

She stood up and headed to the room she stopped for a minute.

“If ever I leave this house you will be seeing me for the last time Daddy, I swear!” she continued and went to get only the important stuff then went back.

“I’m ready,”

“I’ll be right back sweetheart,” he went and kissed Mel on the cheek. When he turned to Cassie, she was no longer there she ran away. “Cassie?” he called out loud but there was no answer.

He went to search for her outside but there was no sign of her. He started to get worried when none of her friends knew where she was, so he called the police. They searched the whole night but they couldn’t find her.

“We searched everywhere, Sir; it’s quite obvious that your daughter doesn’t want to be found. I’m afraid we’ve got to stop now until tomorrow,” one of the police officers said.

“OK, I’ll let you know if we find anything,”

He couldn’t sleep; the whole night he was worried about what is he going to tell Cassie’s mom if Cassie really doesn’t show up.

“Honey you need to get some rest,” Tracey said.

“No, I can’t. I need to find Cassie. Who knows what might happen to her while she’s away,”

“I’m sure she’s fine, she knows where she is,”

“She can never be safe unless she’s here with me,” he said. “I have to figure out a way to tell Alicia without her freaking out on me,” he added, “and I think that I should call her now,” she handed him the phone.

“Hi, Daniel,” Alicia greeted on the phone.

“Hi, look something really bad happened tonight,”

“Please tell me that my daughter has nothing to do with whatever that may be,”

“I wouldn’t have called if it didn’t involve her,” he said annoyed. “I’m just gonna shoot this out, Cassie’s missing,”

“What do you mean she’s missing?”

“Exactly that. We kinda had a little misunderstanding and she just ran out the door, and nobody has seen her; even her closest friend doesn’t know where she is,” he explained.

“Oh Lord! I’ll be flying to Cape Town tomorrow, first thing in the morning. And, I’m returning with my daughter,”

“That we’ll discuss when we’ve found our daughter,” he said and hung up.

He couldn’t sleep the whole night the whole night, he tried to figure out where Cassie could be but he couldn’t come out with the right answers, Cassie’s words, “If I live this house you will be seeing me for the last time Daddy, I swear!”, kept on repeating themselves in his head. He blamed himself for not being a very caring father; because if he was, Cassie would have never ran away like that. It was so unlike her, he was even teary as he sat there alone in the dark.

***

Tell us: Where do you think Cassie went? Did Daniel do the right wanting to send Cassie away?