Gracious

Chapter 4

A/N - 700 reads already ❤️

Shorter chapter but a chapter nonetheless🫶🏾

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"Happy birthday to you!", Caleb blew out the candles on his cake and we all cheered, our now 13 year old brother staring back at us with a grin.

"Officially a teenager", Prescott shook his shoulders, "you feel older?".

"I feel the same", he shook his head, "do I get to swear now?".

"You swear regardless", I muttered and his grin widened, "are you all having cake before school?".

"What kind of question is that?", Xavier frowned, trying to grab the knife out of my hand, I moved it back and glared at him, "sorry".

"The cake looks too good to be cut", Chase admitted and part of me agreed. Prescott had made Caleb's cake- it had white frosting all over it and was covered in food colouring splatters to look like paint, he was nothing short of talented when it came to baking.

"Well too bad", Caleb reached across the cake and took the knife from my grasp, stabbing it straight into the middle.

Give me strength.

Prescott pinched the bridge of his nose and watched as our brother cut a huge slice, dropping it onto a plate and handing it to Chase.

"Biggest slice for my favourite brother", he said and the twins gasped, me and Prescott just smirked.

"That's not fair!", Alexander exclaimed.

"Why am I not your favourite?", Xavier asked.

"Because I am", Chase stuck out his tongue and took his plate over to the sofa, "I have a present for you Cubby".

"We do too!", the twins announced, trying to be level with Chase.

"We'll have to do presents after school", I told them and they groaned, "eat your cake, I gotta drop you all in ten minutes". I left Prescott cutting the rest of the slices and took the short walk to my father's office, my hand hovering over the handle before I pulled, stepping into the one room I actively avoided whenever I could.

I hadn't stepped in here since the night he was arrested.

I shivered, closing the door behind me and just pausing for a second, taking it in. It looked the exact same as I last saw it. I don't know why I was expecting it to look drastically different, nobody was to step in this room when Santiago was here, and there was nobody who wanted to enter now that he was gone.

Papers thrown all over the desk, pens too, his gold cufflinks were placed there; I stepped closer and picked one up, rubbing it between my index and thumb. I don't know what had made me gravitate towards this damned room, why I was standing here, staring at all of the shit my father had left behind- not a clue what to do with it.

He was a well known man, a sick man, an important man, and the news that he was inside was spreading. I'd been stopped by someone in the fucking streets yesterday asking if I was now managing shipments of weapons on his behalf- I may or may not have sent him in Marco's direction, I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear about that.

"You idiot! That's on my T-shirt!", and back to reality. I placed the cuff link back where it was and exited the room swiftly, not even glancing back as the eerie atmosphere gave me one final chill down my spine.

"Just go and change Xan", Prescott was pinching the bridge of his nose, facing the twins who were the only two standing, Xavier with an amused expression on his face and Alexander scowling- nothing new.