Cassandra wakes up on the bed neatly made on one side. She smiles at the sweet memory of laying down on the bed peacefully with her father figure. She always wished to spend some time like this with her mother, but her mother was almost never available to neither of her children. Louis was affected the most, she could see.
After all, his behavior was a reflection of what he’s learned from his mother’s absenteeism.
She changes into her clothes and discovers Framton had gone for work. Saying her greetings, she leaves the mansion as well, being driven back to another empty mansion.
She studies for a few hours, trying her best to gather notes from contacts and other sources.
In the evening, however, she gets a call from an unknown person.
“Hello?” She lifts the calls to speak.
“Are you really the daughter of Framton Johnson?” The person asks enthusiastically. Cassandra hears boyish chitters in the background, she notices the mischief.
Cutting the call at the speed of light, she switches her phone off.
Her social media profiles were blowing up with messages. She was growing a diabolical feeling over the circumstances.
It was still half an hour more until the brothers come back home. She knew she was alone at home and the sudden thought of someone breaking into the house made her shiver like a leaf.
Quickly locking every other area, she checks the unknown person standing outside the infamous Johnson sibling’s building. He was wearing an ID card, he was a student by his appearance.
Cassandra’s anxiety spiked when she saw a car pull up behind the male. The school students runs off before Nick tries to chase him. Nick threw his backpack into the lawn, chasing the male and successfully pinning him down to the floor. Alex, growing concerned about his sister runs to the porch. Cassandra opens the door, embracing Alex out of pure fear.
“I’m scared!” She yells.
“I know. We saw everything. Goddammit.” Saying, Alex takes her inside as he immediately dials the only number that strikes to him.
Their powerful elder brother.
“Yo Louis. Assign some security for us here man. People are going insane.” He says into the phone. The shivering girl looks around to find Zayn, but it seems he wasn’t amongst the brothers.
On the other hand, Zayn briskly walks towards an address he copied from the register. He knocks the door rigorously, tapping the doorbell like a maniac.
“Darla, It’s me!” He says, not wanting to get in trouble with her parents.
“Oh my God!” Zayn hears the girl gasp, he rolls his eyes.
“Oh my- wait!” As soon as the door opened, Zayn looked around and saw no elder around. He gripped the collar of the girl’s house shirt, letting his raw anger ooze out of his body.
“Did you reveal Cassandra is our sister?” He asks the girl.
“Wait! No! No one would believe me! Just think about it!” Darla frees herself from the male by force. She stares back at him with sharp eyes, suggesting she was innocent and held an explanation as well.
“Look, I know you know that I posted that shit on the website, you’re the head of social media and blogging anyway, but trust me! That simple news wouldn’t spread like wildfire and no! I didn’t fucking hire anyone to take pictures of her! I didn’t even know it completely myself, dammit!” She argues for herself.
“You’re lucky you don’t come into my suspect list completely. I’ll take care of your shit later. Attention whore.” Darla’s mouth hangs open as he begins to leave. She yells behind him as he jogs off to his house.
“Fucker! And I thought I had a chance with him…”
“Cassie! Cassandra!” Zayn roars as soon as he enters the house. He sees many people stationed out, in black uniforms and they must be security he assumes.
Louis was sat on the couch while he let the little girl sob on his lap, curled up in a ball.
“What happened…”
“Someone tried to sneak himself in. He’s a sociopath… um… he’s kinda from my batch.” Nick explains. Zayn slaps his hand on his forehead, swiping away the sweat building on his forehead into his hair.
“Z-Zayn…” getting to her feet, she slowly walks towards Zayn who quickly embraces her shaking body. He rubs her back, softly whispering to calm her down.
“She was really scared.” Dan comes to pat her head gently, Zayn hums.
Framton was caught up in tons of meetings for the day. Amidst his important meetings, his assistant comes into the meeting room to disrupt the flow. She lends him her piece of thought, she happened to pass by the lounge and hears the news blast in full volume.
In the evening, at around 5, Framton reaches the household and enters the door while thousands of close and distant pictures were taken by the rabid crowd.
“Louis, manage the audience, please.” Saying, the old man assigns the eldest a task. Nodding, he walks out with his phone in hand, ready to make all the calls.
While Louis managed the pesky audience outside, Framton approaches the girl while whispering softly to her.
“Where’s my little rabbit?” He asks. She lifts her hand and let’s the old man boop her nose.
“Here.”
“Good. I want to know if this is disrupting your peace and will to study.” He asks her, Cassandra looks at him and shakes her head. Wiping her residual tears, she goes back into her room while Alex and Dan followed her, to keep her company as she asked them before.
Framton turns to Zayn as he sees the old man giving him a disapproving look.
“Did you go to Mrs. Dawson’s?”
“Mrs. What?”
“Her classmate…” Sighing, Framton shows Zayn the clip of him holding Darla by her collar. It was recorded in the security camera.
“2 million to keep their mouth shut.” Framton says.
“Sorry, father.” After a few seconds of silence, Framton pats his son’s shoulder as well.
“2 million is nothing to me. But I want you to explain why you did it.” Says Framton. Zayn looks around as Nick glances at him with curious eyes. He explains his root for doubting Darla, openly and fearlessly.