You had met Sebastian at boarding school when you both were teenagers, and kept in touch with him during college. Your relationship had always been confusing to say the least. Sometimes you were best friends, sometimes you were enemies, but often you were together. The problem was that you were both hot tempered people, always getting into trouble above all else. Sebastian had an unnatural bad luck that seemed to follow him everywhere that he went. This all came to head when you found out you were having a baby, and Sebastian had a history of avoiding anything that could be considered a problem.

When Cassie was born, Sebastian had indeed been there. However, your family was disapproving of him. After high school and during college he had grown more mature, getting a job as an appraiser after studying art history, and he travelled around to many museums and shops to appraise art value. But it didn’t change what they remembered about him in his younger years. He had still been a mess with a bad history of addiction and overall insubordination, and your family was raised in high society. It was their first thought to judge him, and by extension, they judged you too for having a child ‘so irresponsibly’. They allowed you and Cassie to live with them, but the bitterness towards Sebastian and the circumstances around Cassie’s birth remained in their hearts.

As for Sebastian, he visited you and Cassie once a week, enduring the stares from your parents. He did love Cassie dearly, but most of her care fell on you. She was currently a year and a half old. She was able to walk for a short while, climb up on furniture, and say a few short words, but her father was missing these milestones.

Today was a Saturday, the day of the week he usually picked. Cassie was standing on her short legs at the front door, trying to reach for the door knob with her small pudgy hands. You and your sister Priscilla were sitting on the couch nearby, exchanging anxious looks. Anyone could see that Cassie was on the verge of wailing. Sebastian was ten minutes late. A wave of relief went over you when you heard a car pull into the driveway of the large home. “Daddy,” Cassie called, trying and failing to jump for the door knob.