Back at Zayn’s house, he dropped Cassandra at her house while he went to his with too much on his mind. He needed to share every bit of information with Cassandra later, but he has to assimilate it by himself first.
The man approaches his father. All wrinkly and old as his mother was absent from the family picture as always.
The old man smiles and welcomes Zayn to sit on the couch but it doesn’t go as planned. Zayn swiftly removes his coat, punishes his poor bag by thrashing it to the floor and starts pacing around the large hall.
“Zayn. Calm down first.” Says the dad.
“Dad. I can’t calm down. I don’t know why, but I can’t fucking calm down alright!” Yells Zayn at his own father. Upset over the how he yells at his old man, the father furrows his eyebrows and sighs.
“Zayn, I know Dan was someone I kept a secret from your mother. I know it’s nothing special to talk about.”
“Dad. You fucking had a relationship with your own fucking sibling!? What the fuck!?” (Ironic)
The old man felt his stomach churning.
“You were gay for each other!?” Zayn starts climbing on the old man, blaming him.
“What the fuck was wrong with all of you!?” Yells the 35 year old man.
“Do you even understand-” as Zayn was screaming his heart out, one single slap shuts him down at once. His father never once yelled at him nor punished him. He, was neither participative in his son’s life nor cared about him. For him, Zayn was just a showpiece to show to the society that he was a MAN.
That he can pleasure and woman and grow a baby out of. And not just some old freak who was shamed by the world because he fell in love with his own brother.
Now, the old man has to reveal the truth. It was inevitable.
“Son,” he lifts his hands clad with old style jewelry. The style matched so well with the man who just died in the middle of the road.
No wonder they were brothers.
“I am Nick Johnson, one of the five Johnsons who were adopted son’s of Senior Johnson Framton. Yes. Framton was our father. Framton was your grandfather, Zayn.” Says Nick.
Zayn stops breathing for awhile.
Framton Johnson, he said?
Framton Johnson, as in the business legend of the past?
Of course the world knew about him.
His biggest mistake in his life was fathering all these young kids together.
Then… how about Cassandra of the past?
Why was she forgotten so quickly? She too was one of the Johnsons, one of the most honorable girls with the most honorable death received.
Why was she never shown in the picture?
“We… also had a sister.” Says Nick. His head held low and his stomach churning incredibly.
“A… sister you say?” Asks Zayn, double confirming because his senses weren’t working anymore.
“Y-yes…” out of the blue, Nick felt a slight spasm in his chest. He felt something pinching towards the left side of his chest. He falls to the ground, holding his chest.
A few tear drops did no justice in saving his life.
For Zayn, everything happened so quickly that he wasn’t given enough time to hid goodbye to his biological father.
He wasn’t even told the names of his uncles, rather not said how he was named after the one who betrayed them and flew away to find their sister.
Things were overwhelming for him.
He couldn’t cry. He couldn’t scream at anyone.
His mother would never care to give a damn, he thought. But she too cried upon seeing his dead body. What was this?
Why was he so awfully wrong about his own parents? His own family?
There were so many secrets left for him to dig out.
And at that moment, Zayn didn’t dial the ambulance nor the police.
He dialed…
“C… Cassie?” His meek voice scares the poor girl.
Cassandra was at her family’s dinner table, for once enjoying a nice dinner night with her mother who wasn’t drunk after work. The warm Christmas eve was to begin, but she received her boyfriend’s phone call saying,
“Please hold me, Cassie. I- I think I’m going mad.”