1997: Cassandra Foster would have been a casualty of abandonment if not for a string of strange circumstances. Jacob Foster and Dr. Angie Hubbard-Foster wanted nothing more than to have a child together. Unfortunately, a medical treatment left Angie barren and despite different treatments, it did not appear like she was going to be able to have children. Angie and Jacob were also turned down from adopting their foster daughter, Kayla, because she was white and they were black. Angie turned to surrogacy, but even that was compromised when Lorraine Hawkins became determined to be her surrogate mother. Angie knew Lorraine was trying to position herself in Jacob's life.
A drunk Lorraine confronted Angie about her hesitancy. In the struggle, Angie accidentally pushed Lorraine into the street into oncoming traffic. Guilt ridden, Angie tried to treat Lorraine's wounds. At the hospital, Lorraine saw visions of Angie with a child. She implored Angie to find "Cassandra."
Angie took a chance and followed Lorraine's lead. She found a baby in a dumpster by a sign reading "Cassandra." Jacob and Angie petitioned to adopt the abandoned child.
Cassandra grew up with her parents. They decided to divorce when Cassandra was a teenager. Cassandra spent her time between New York City with Angie, and Paris with Jacob.

2008: Cassandra surprised her mother with a last minute summer getaway to Pine Valley. Cassandra was anxious to see her brother, Frank Hubbard, who had just come back from a tour of duty in Iraq; and to meet Jesse Hubbard, a man who was a legend and hero in both her brother and mother’s eyes. Arriving just in time for Jesse and Angie’s wedding, Cassandra had no idea that a trinket she brought with her from Paris was the key to unlocking the mystery of Jesse’s twenty year disappearance.
A stuffed elephant her mother had given to her as a child was actually the hiding spot of a rare, uncut diamond. Criminal mastermind Robert Gardner was in pursuit of the diamond. He imprisoned Jesse, wrongfully thinking he knew the whereabouts of the diamond. In reality, John Remington had hidden the diamond in the doll and given it to Angie after Jesse’s supposed death. Robert found the diamond while rummaging through Cassandra’s things during her mother’s wedding. He began a shooting spree to secure his exit. Cassandra would have been shot if not for the timely intervention of Greg Nelson.
Cassandra fit in well with the Pine Valley teen scene, becoming fast friends with Colby Chandler and dating Dre Woods. Colby drank entirely too much during her 18th birthday party at the Chandler cabin, forcing Cassandra and Dre to end the festivities early and get her home. While speeding home through the dark back woods, Dre ran into something in the middle of the road: Richie Novak. Realizing they may have killed someone, they all agreed to never speak of the matter.
Soon Richie’s death made the headlines. Petey Cortlandt noticed the blood on Colby’s bumper and realized the three may be responsible for the murder. The secret pushed a wedge between Cassandra and Jesse, who was recently named chief of police. When the truth came out, Cassandra lashed out against her family.
An autopsy of the body exonerated Cassandra for Richie’s muder. He was already dead when the teen’s hit him with the car. Seeing how quickly Angie turned on her and took Jesse’s side, Cassandra became uncomfortable living in the Hubbard home. At first, she threw around the idea of running away with Dre. Realizing how much she wanted to make things right with her mother, Cassandra instead decided to return to Paris and live with her father, hoping someday she and her mother could repair their relationship.