Outcast
"What are you doing here?" Sam opened up the door, looking across at Cassie.
"I came here to talk to you." Cassie said, pushing her way past Sam, walking into the house as Sam shook her head.
"You know, I always thought Thea was the cheekiest out of you three girls but… I'm started to reassess." Sam shook her head, closing the door back over, "What brings you to my palace?" Sam smiled, walking into the kitchen, watching as Cassie dumped folders down onto the table.
"You've got some talking to do, Sam." Cassie said, "A lot of it."
"What's that?" Sam asked curiously.
"Oh, this?" Cassie questioned, "This is a report filed, describing what happened the night Daniel was arrested for a hit and run." She said as Sam looked at her with confusion.
"Daniel? W-What? What are you talking about?" Sam shook her head.
"Oh, no one told you? That's right, because we all forget you exist sometimes." Cassie nodded, "I found Daniel a few weeks ago. Tracked him down. Didn't know that he was so close by but… I'm assuming you probably did."
"No, I haven't… I haven't seen Daniel since… since he was arrested-"
"Yet you told your sons that he walked out on you when you were pregnant with Dean." Cassie said.
"Wait a second, do… do Phil and Dean know? Have they spoken to Daniel?" Sam asked, "What the hell are you doing with this shit?" Sam shook her head.
"Police reporting kinda works like mock tests and then the final exam. There's all the paper work that gets thrown in the trash, and then there's the official report. Someone didn't throw the paper work away from Daniel's case." Cassie said, "And I'm seeing two stories that don't match up, at all." She said.
"Cassie, what the hell are you doing?" Sam shook her head, "Why are you… digging into this stuff?"
"I wasn't. My partner was. And he's… well he's gone now, but he left all of this in his desk at work. I've just found it." Cassie said, "Like everyone else I thought my dad's dad walked out on them, wound up in prison for a mistake and now he wants redemption but… you've been lying." Cassie said as Sam looked across at her.
"How have I been lying? Daniel did walk out on me and the boys. That's not a lie. He did walk out on us." Sam made clear.
"Yeah but… he came back, didn't he?" Cassie figured, "He came back because the night he was arrested, you were with him, so was my dad and uncle-"
"How the hell do you know this?" Sam asked, horrified.
"Because I am a cop!" Cassie said, "I'm on that side now. I don't have to wonder and hide things. I can get to them." She said, "The paper work that wasn't filed says that you, my dad and my uncle were in the car the night of the hit and run." She said, "And that bags were in the trunk."
"You don't know anything." Sam folded her arms, "You know nothing about this-"
"I know… but you're gonna tell me." Cassie said, "And you're gonna tell me right now." She spat as Sam looked across at her.
"You wouldn't understand." Sam shook her head.
"Try me." Cassie said, "Why were you taken out of the equation? Why were you and your sons erased from the file? And what were you running from?" She questioned as Sam looked across at her.
"What has Daniel said to you?" Sam questioned defensively, "What'd he tell you?"
"He's never even mentioned you." Cassie said, "My dad and uncle think he abandoned them and then wound up in prison. They think he's a deadbeat-"
"Well he is. He was." Sam said, "He walked out. I was the one who called him… because I needed help."
"Help with what?" Cassie asked.
"I got myself into trouble." Sam said, "Drug debt. I was… I was doing everything I could to get money. Including losing every sense of dignity and humility I had left." Sam nodded, "I called him out of desperation and he came." She nodded.
"You were gonna run away from debts?" Cassie asked.
"Yes. Yes, because believe it or not Cassie, I was scared for my son's. I know you all think I'm the worst mother ever, maybe you don't even look at me as a mother at all, but I didn't want them to be in danger." Sam said, "Yes I was still taking drugs and… I was drinking all the time but I still knew my boys were in danger-"
"And Daniel just came to your aid? Just like that?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah, he did. He knew I was in trouble. He… wasn't exactly clean himself. Just like your mother and father, we got caught up in bad things but…. We decided we were gonna leave." Sam said.
"And this was the night Daniel killed that girl? That's the night you set out to leave?" Cassie asked.
"Yes." Sam said, "Only… Daniel didn't do it." She said as Cassie looked across at her.
"What?" Cassie said.
"I was behind the wheel." Sam nodded as Cassie ran her hands through her hair, "I knocked down that girl."
"Oh my God." Cassie shook her head, "You did it?"
"I… I never saw her, I didn't. She just came out of nowhere and I… I couldn't break in time." Sam said, "We got out the car right away and… Daniel told me to say it was him. That he was driving. I… I'd been drinking so-"
"Of course you had." Cassie shook her head, "You were that worried and concerned about your son's safety that you decided to get behind the wheel whilst intoxicated?" Cassie asked.
"The cops showed up." Sam explained.
"Yeah, Hamilton." Cassie nodded, "Says here, he lead the case but… if this was his paper work, why would he hide the fact you and the boys were there?"
"You don't know about him and Daniel, do you?" Sam figured.
"Know what?" Cassie shook her head.
"They're brothers." Sam said as Cassie raised her brows and shook her head.
"What? No… No, that cop has been on my dad's ass since he was a teenager. He's… There's no way." Cassie said in disbelief.
"They never got along. They were complete opposites. Hamilton was the good one, Daniel… the bad one." Sam said, "We'd talked to him before we left, he knew that we were running from bad stuff and… we didn't want him to say anything. He saw me get behind the wheel so when he pulled up at the scene he… he knew it was me who had to have been driving."
"How the hell are they brothers?" Cassie shook her head, noticing Theo had highlighted both names, "Theo already knew that." She realised as she looked at the paper work.
"Daniel said to him that he was driving but Hamilton knew it was me. He pulled me aside and told me to take the boys and leave. Go back home." Sam said, "So I did. Daniel got arrested for the hit and they also got him on other charges they were following up. Saw the bags in the car and figured he was trying to escape it all."
"So he went to prison for you?" Cassie asked.
"I didn't ask him to do that. He told me. Hamilton told me to go. He must have wrote it down in his notes but then the official report he obviously just said it was Daniel in the car." Sam said.
"And you went home? Where you were running from?" Cassie asked.
"Yes, Cassie, I had to go home and I had to deal with the debt. Phil and Dean brought themselves up because I had to work that debt off. I used to tell the boys that it was boyfriends, just to make it seem better but… they grew up and figured it out." Sam shook her head.
"Yeah these boyfriends who abused them." Cassie said, "Who chained uncle Dean to an oven one time. Did you know all of that?" She spat as Sam sat down at the kitchen table, placing her hands over her face.
"Yes, I knew that." Sam muffled against her hands.
"If Hamilton is their uncle, why didn't he do something?" Cassie spat.
"He did. The boys got taken out of my care multiple times by him. He put them in a good foster home but… they'd run away. They were little bastards when they were younger, believe me." Sam shook her head, "But I always told myself they were… they were coming back to check on me." She smiled to herself.
"Coming back to check if you were alive more like." Cassie said, "You never thought to tell them any of this as they grew up?" She questioned.
"No, I didn't because it doesn't change anything." Sam said, "They still had the same childhood, they still suffered, so what difference does it make?"
"They deserve the truth." Cassie said, "Because of you, Daniel spent his entire life in prison, because he was trying to help you-"
"And that's on him. He didn't have to." Sam said.
"You're unbelievable." Cassie shook her head, "How could you not have told them that Hamilton is their uncle?"
"Because they despise the guy, and the guy is a pig. He's a terrible person. A terrible cop. He never had the boys interest at heart. He was always racist to your mom and Thea. He's not their family, whatever you think." Sam said.
"They still deserved to know." Cassie spat, "What about Daniel? He got caught up in your mess and suffered the consequences."
"Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" Sam nodded, "He wasn't all innocent. He was running from his own debts. Mine was just with… more people." She said.
"And you wonder why my dad lived the life he did? After growing up around all of that." Cassie said, "They never had a chance with you, did they?"
"Phil made his own choices. I was never a drug dealer. I was the victim. Your dad turned into one of the people behind that. That's way worse than what I did-"
"You are not a victim." Cassie scoffed.
"Really? You think I enjoyed that life? You think I enjoyed being raped and… assaulted?" Sam asked as Cassie looked at her, "Go ask Jude-"
"Shut your fucking mouth, Sam. I'll beat you up." Cassie spat angrily.
"Well that's what it was, Cassie. That was my life." Sam said, "And sometimes I wonder what would have happened if… if we did get away that night. Would I have gotten clean? Would the boys have had different lives?" Sam said.
"Well like you said… what's the point? It doesn't change anything." Cassie said.
"You should have left all of this alone." Sam shook her head, "You had no business looking into this stuff." She stood up.
"You're right, it's not my business." Cassie nodded, "But it is my dad's and my uncles. And you're gonna tell them everything you just told me. You're gonna tell them the truth. You're gonna do one good thing for them in your life, and that's tell them what really happened."
"And what good will that do, Cassie?" Sam asked.
"Well I think it says a lot about you that they didn't know-"
"Please, those boys know I'm a terrible mother. What are you trying to prove to them?" Sam shook her head.
"They still deserve to know." Cassie spat.
"You're just causing everyone unnecessary stress." Sam shook her head.
"No, I want my dad and uncle to know what really happened when they were little, because as far as they know they had a drug addict mom and a dad who walked out-"
"Yeah and that's still the same story!" Sam yelled, "I was still a drug addict and their dad still walked out. Just… some things happened in the middle but the outcome was the same." Sam said, "So what is it? Why are you doing this?"
"Some things happened in the middle? Big things. The cop who has been on their ass their whole life is really their uncle. They deserve to know that." Cassie said, "Because they don't deserve anymore secrets and lies."
"Fine. You bring them here and I'll tell them everything. See what difference it makes." Sam shook her head, "Don't you have anything better to do? Your mother is in hospital right now."
"Yeah, my mom. Who did absolutely everything she could to be there for me and my sisters, to help us and raise us well. Maybe that's why I want my dad and uncle to get the truth. Because I can't even imagine what it'd be like to have a mother as useless as you are." Cassie spat as Sam nodded.
"Well then when you go to sleep tonight you count yourself lucky that you have saint April as your mom." Sam scoffed.
"Excuse me?" Cassie said.
"Your mom made her fair share of mistakes too, Cassie. We all have. You will soon enough. It's life, it's how it works." Sam said, "Is this an attention thing?"
"What?" Cassie shook her head.
"You digging all this up. Is it for attention? Because you're the youngest? The afterthought?" Sam asked.
"Is that what you think of me?" Cassie looked at her with sadness in her eyes.
"No, but it's what you think of yourself, isn't it?" Sam nodded, "There's Thea, the crazy one, the one who could probably survive on the streets if she had to, the tough one… there's Jude, crazy too but in a different way, outspoken, has this weird ability to control a room somehow… and then there's you… a cop?" Sam questioned, "The complete opposite of everything your family is about."
Cassie quickly gathered the paper work into a pile, running out of the kitchen.
"Where you going?" Sam asked, "I thought we were talking about this!" She called, listening to the door opening and closing shut loudly, shaking her head to herself collapsing down at the table, hands in her head.
