A Woman Scorned, Chapter 3
Warnings: mentions of domestic violence.
It wasn’t too much longer after things started heating up between Cassandra and Malcolm that the Landgraab scion invited her to move into his opulent home with him. It wasn’t as big as the Goth mansion, he was quick to say, but it was more spacious that the little hovel she and Darla had been living in, and wouldn’t they be more comfortable there, after all?
For a while, life was perfect.
Malcolm didn’t seem to do anything during the day - well, he did own Club Dante, after all, and the big electronics store in Bluewater Village but he did not have what Cassandra would call a ‘real job’ - but he did not mind at all if she worked. He even helped her to get a job at Bluewater General Hospital. It had always been Cassandra’s dream to be Chief of Staff but she had followed her father into a science track instead.
Now, at least, one of her dream was going to come true.
And maybe another, as well?
Malcolm wasn’t sweet like Darren or HANDSOME like … like… dear, poor Donny… but he certainly did seem to be be fond of Darla.
And he made Cassandra feel sexy… something that neither of the men in her life had ever done.
Secretly, she locked the cow plant up in the unused garage on Malcolm’s estate, securing the doors so that now one would simply walk in and find it. She had been surprised when her father had told her to take it with her… “For protection, Cassandra dear. Since I won’t be there to see to your safety, I feel better knowing that the Laganaphyllis Simnovorii will be with you.
Cassandra did not expect to ever need this extra protection, however. Malcolm was rich, too, and he had excellent security! He didn’t even own a burglar alarm, for Sim’s sake! And when she innocently asked about it, he had laughed and said, “Well, honestly, Cassandra, who of the losest low life’s in this berg would ever dare to rob me?”
She couldn’t tell if it was naive or not, but he was very assuring that she was safe with him.
Time passed. Cassandra not only rose in her chosen profession, but explored other pursuits… like cooking.
Darla grew from an adorable toddler into a beautiful little girl right before their eyes.
Malcolm even bought her a dog for her birthday, whom they named Royal.
One day, as Cassandra was returning from work, she noticed a police cruiser out front of the house and the owner of that cruiser heading up the walkway just ahead of her. Malcolm shot her a sharp, warning glance which clearly enough said ‘stay out of this,’ and she hurried into the house from the back door instead of walking past the police officer.
She did not hear any of what got said, however, because no sooner entered the house than Darla came running towards her, waving a paper in her hand. “Momma! I got an A+ on my essay, Momma!”
It was a paragraph free-write about their family pet, assigned by the teacher and consisting of five sentences. But Darla was pleased, so Cassandra smiled warmly and hugged her little girl tight. “That’s good, baby,” she said, and asked if Darla wanted an after school treat.
“Sure!”
It was much later that night, after dinner and after Darla was tucked safely into bed, that Cassandra finally worked up the courage to ask about the police visit that day.
The look Malcolm gave her was chilling at best. “That was my business, Cassandra,” he told her coolly, “and I trust that you’ll now enough to stay out of my business in this town.”
The way he said it sent a shiver down her spine, even though the coolness had melted away and he was now patting the bed beside him. “Come here,” he was saying, “I have something to ask you.”
Her head was reeling from the sudden turn around in his demeanor and in the back of her mind there was a slow mental list of all the things she knew - and didn’t know - about Malcolm Landgraab IV. But she sat next to him anyway, and suddenly found herself holding a dark blue jeweler’s box.
“I trust you know what this,” he was saying, though Cassandra only heard it through a haze of memories. Don dropping down on one knee and confessing his *snort* undying love … and then running away from their wedding altar and leaving her standing there in the rain… “Of, course, the wedding itself will have to wait for a while. I have business to attend to in Takemizu Village which needs to conclude before I can devote any time to the proper preparations…” What? Her head swam all the more. Darren was pulling her into a tight embrace after making love to her, whispering ‘I love you, Cassie. I always have” with his breathe warm on her ear. “You should wear it now, though, to show everyone that you belong to me.” He opened the blue box and slipped the ring on her finger.
Cassandra stared at it blankly.
Malcolm smiled warmly and kissed her cheek.
He hadn’t even said he loved her. Had he?
Things seemed to change after their engagement. Malcolm seemed more critical of Cassandra and Darla alike. He complained about her continued association with her friend, Mary Sue Pleasant. Mary Sue was her best friend, as far back as elementary school. Cassandra had only called to tell her that she was engaged… Malcolm blew a gasket.
“Your father,” he shouted. “You could have told him, as he might want to attend the wedding, but some trollop? Don’t contact her again, Cassandra.”
“You’re not my boss,” she shot back.
The blow to her cheek came without warning and without pity.
“Never.Say.That.Again.”
One day, when Cassandra was bored, she thought that she might help speed things along as far as wedding plans were concerned. Maybe Malcolm’s behavior had more to do with his other business which was keeping him from helping her plan?
She was browsing for wedding dresses on the Internet when Malcolm came home from… where ever it was he had been that day… and found her using his computer.
What came next happened in a blur of noise and pain. Through it all, Malcolm kept shouting at her to never again touch his computer and to stay out of his office.
The next thing she remembered was waking up on the floor of their bedroom. She hurt… everywhere.
At least Darla had the good sense to stay out of the way. During the worst of their arguments, Darla would take Royal and go for a walk. They walked a lot that fall.
As her little girl slowly withdrew from everyone except her dog, and Malcolm became increasingly angrier and more critical of everything they did… Cassandra was dealt another of life’s little surprises.
At first, she thought it was a stomach bug, but when it failed to go away, she slipped into the free clinic at work and had some blood drawn.
She was pregnant.
It should have been a happy thing. Like Darla should have been a happy thing, one she should have shared with Darren instead of letting Donny’s harsh words upset her so.
But could she really bring another baby into Malcolm’s world?
Hands shaking, Cassandra took out her cell phone called her father’s house. Alexander answered. He sounded so grown up. “Hello? Hello?” he asked.
But in the back of her mind, she could hear her father telling her that she needed to leave and not look back.
“Cassie? Cassie, pleas-”
Cassandra hung up. She couldn’t keep running to Daddy to solve everything. She had to do this on her own.
Well, maybe not entirely on her own.
After days of careful, secret planning, she went to Malcolm with a problem.
“You know how,” she said, keeping her shoulders hunched over and her eyes down, “when we moved in here, you said I could store our things in your garage?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Well… I was thinking. Darla’s not really a baby anymore and she has all these baby things. You keep saying they’re in the way. I was thinking that you were right about that.” She spoke quickly, in meek, subdued tones. A docile little woman if ever there was one.
“I’m pleased you’re finally seeing to reason,” Malcolm said. “You’ll store them away soon, then?”
“That’s the thing, Malcolm. I tried. But the garage door is door is jammed. I can’t open it. I was hoping that you could do it for me. Please?” She begged, letting her lying eyes plead for her, like she’d seen Donny’s do a hundred times during the course of their relationship. Just one more kiss, sugar lips. Batting eyelashes. Of course Nina means nothing to me. More lies. More eyes. She could this. If he could, so could she.
“Oh, alright.” Malcolm scowled. “Helpless woman…” he muttered under his breath as he stalked outside.
“Not entirely helpless,” Cassandra whispered, alone in the empty room. She knew that once he entered the garage, the door she’d carefully rigged would slam shut, locking him inside until she uncoded the locking mechanism.
All she had to do was wait, and then praise her pet cow for a job well done.
The second phase of her carefully laid plans came weeks later.
Everyone thought Malcolm was away on business and she was starting to show the first signs of pregnancy. She had precious few friends, so no one would really notice she was gone, but she still told the maid service, the paper boy, and the garbage disposal people that Malcolm was still away on business and she was going to be visiting her family while she could still travel.
“You know, before I get too far along.”
She paid them quite generously to see to the house one more time after she and Darla left, so that Malcolm would return to a clean house, and then quickly, she and Darla packed up their things.
Before she left, she went snooping into Malcolm’s precious computer. What she read there… well, it came as a shock, even though it shouldn’t have. Malcolm Landgraab IV was the notorious mobster, Emalfour. How had she not known? His club and his electronics store? Fronts for his more illicit activities. The computer held all of his records.
But not only that, the computer held mention of her, Pleasantview, and the missing-but-presumed-dead Don Lothario. The connection was clearly drawn between Don and her sudden disappearance. And there was an unsent email to her father, threatening him that if he didn’t ‘do the right, old man, and give your daughter the finest dowry your fortune can provide’ that ‘certain information could easily make its way to the PVPD.’
Cassandra knew what she had to do. She destroyed the evidence.
And they fled into the cold, dark night.
Simmer’s Notes: Malcolm Landgraab IV is always the land baron/mobster in my game. Always. It doesn’t help that those brows and eyes make him look slightly evil and his LTW is invariably to become a Criminal Mastermind, either. But in my game, he’s always the ruthless, legendary Emalfour (M.L.4).
I’ve flirted with pairing him and Cassandra up before this, as well. I actually have a story in my head, of them as the victims of an arranged marriage between two wealthy blue-blood families, him as a womanizer who can’t stay faithful no matter how many times he promises to, and her as stuck with the ‘business tycoon’ while she earns for the starving artist she left behind. *sigh* Someday. Someday.
Random.org gave me Riverblossom Hills next, so we’ll be wintering there.
Mirrored from The Simming Life.