Cassandra took her last breath with tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. Her body went still.


Across the room, Kali pushed herself up from the floor, holding the side of her bleeding head. She wobbled, then grabbed a towel from the counter and pressed it against the wound. Her eyes darted around the hotel room; looking for her father.


He was gone.


Kali walked over to Cassandra’s body and stared at her for a long moment. Then a slow smile spread across her face, a small laugh escaping her throat.


She opened Cassandra’s purse, pulling out her wallet and her phone. She dialed Trevor, but he didn’t answer. She took all the cash from the wallet and stuffed it into her suitcase. After a quick look in the mirror, she picked up the hotel phone and said in a trembling voice:


“Please… please send the police. Something bad happened.”


Ten minutes later, officers flooded the room. Kali greeted them with wide, innocent eyes and a shaking voice.

“She...she tried to kill me. I had to defend myself. I shot her.”


There were no witnesses. The officers took her statement carefully and brought her to the station. They called Trevor over and over, but he never answered. What they didn’t know was that he was already in the sky; on a flight to another state to hide with his parents.


Other officers remained at the hotel, checking cameras. The footage caught Trevor running from the scene. A BOLO was issued. A manhunt started.


When detectives searched Cassandra’s phone, they found the last recording she had sent to herself: Trevor threatening Kali, and hinting at Mona’s death. The evidence was damning. Now he wasn’t just a suspect in Cassandra’s murder but he was tied to Mona’s, too.


Police called every member of the family, trying to place Kali. No one would take her. Finally, when they reached the uncle, he told them the truth about Kali, about her behavior, about why no one wanted responsibility for her. The officers ended the call with more questions than answers.


Months passed. Trevor remained missing. Kali cycled through foster homes until she ended up in a group home. One night, she quietly packed her suitcase, slipped out the back door, and ran.


She never looked back.



---


Years later


At eighteen, Kali lay on a sunbed at a luxury resort in the Bahamas, waves whispering across the shoreline. She turned her head and smiled at the man stretched out beside her...her father.


“I’m so glad you never stopped running,” she said. “So we could be together again, Daddy.”


Trevor grinned, sunglasses hiding his eyes. “It took a lot of work… but we made it. Rich. Comfortable. Free.”


Kali nodded. “Yep.”


In the years since the murders, the truth had become clearer. Trevor had been stealing from Cassandra for years, funneling money into hidden accounts. He loved Mona but he loved himself more. When Mona couldn’t keep pretending anymore, when she couldn’t stand to keep using Cassandra, Trevor handled the problem the way he handled everything.


He gave her a hot shot of drugs.

And when she started to fade, he shot her...right after Kali left for school.


Now, Cassandra and Mona were both gone and taken by the same tragedy: love, misplaced and heartbroken.


And as the sun shimmered on the beach, father and daughter lay side by side.


Like father, like daughter.


Turns out, the only thing Cassandra ever needed to save… was herself.