WANT (completed)

ch. 60 | Fury

ASA'S POV

"Can we stop beating around the bush for a second? One of us is going to have to explain this to Cassandra, and I want to at least be able to help her understand something. Anything," I remark, swiping my thumb across my lower lip in frustration. If she just found this out and had a panic attack over it, then she will most definitely have questions when she wakes up. "Why did you keep this from her? It's not like her and Blake had a good relationship. It wouldn't have changed anything."

My eyes flicker over Zac's face, watching his Adam's apple bob as he swallows in what looks like unease.

"Because it would have tarnished how she saw our mother. You don't know what it was like after our mom passed. Cassandra was a mess. We all were. But the one thing that kept her going was that she idolized our mom, and I...I couldn't do that. I couldn't be the one to tell her that our mom cheated on my dad, and that Cassandra didn't even get a chance to know him," Zac admits weakly, and I practically freeze at his choice of words.

Zac was trying to protect her? I don't know why that seems so out of the ordinary, but as an older brother, I don't know if I can say that I wouldn't have done the same thing if it was my own sister, Andrea, we were talking about right now.

"I...okay. But when did you find out?" I decide to ask my questions cautiously. I'm nervous suddenly, because I don't know if I can be the one to tell these things to Cassandra, because Zac is right. This likely broke her heart already, and knowing that Zac was trying to protect her would only make her feel even worse for the way in which she reacted.

"That night that Camara called you? That's the night that I finally opened up those diaries that my mom left behind. It's all in there. Everything."

"And Blake? He knew too?" I think that's the hardest thing to wrap my head around. Did Blake know this entire time that Cassandra wasn't his biological daughter? It's mind boggling to even think that, but I guess I can see it. She looks nothing like Blake, whereas Zac is the spitting image of him, but then again, that doesn't really mean anything either.

"He found out after our mom passed. I guess he read the diaries before I did? Honestly, we never talked about it like that, but when I confronted him to confirm if it was true or not is when he admitted to knowing, and that's also when he decided to push Cassandra out," I watch intently as Zac runs his hands over his face in frustration. "I was okay with Blake being the bad guy. I was okay with accepting the CEO role that Blake kept pushing on me if that meant that he wouldn't cut Cassandra out of his life completely, but he still did, slowly. Never directly, but in ways that were painful to watch. I never wanted any of this, but I also never wanted her to know about our mom."

I let out a shaky breath, leaning my arms on my thighs again and folding my hands together once more. Everything he says checks out. That night that Camara called me and Zac was drunk. Check. Blake treating Cassandra the way that he did and her not understanding where it came from. Check. But there's still so much more that is unanswered.

Why is Camara involved in any of this? That makes no sense to me. But it's as if Zac can read my mind, because not even seconds after I look back up at him, he's answering me.

"You know how they say that you keep your friends close, but your enemies closer? That was this. I'm not some guy who was interested in fucking around with my little sister's best friend, but Camara knew, and this was the only way to keep her mouth shut."

"But that didn't work, did it?" I mutter under my breath. Cassandra deserved to know, even if Zac didn't deserve to be the one who had to tell her. But Camara? That's low of her to say anything to Cassandra. At least in the way she did. It surely shouldn't have happened how it did, because Cassandra had a full on panic attack.