Finding His Cinderella

Chapter 23

Leah
"Mom, I am fine."

It's funny how every time a human heart breaks, a lie needs to be told so that the people who hold you dear don't freak out.

Her voice breaks when she speaks. "You are far from fine! I trusted the boys, and specially Trevor that he'd protect you! And this is how you return?"

Right.

A mother can never see her child all sulky and red from crying for hours. When I checked my appearance in Hunter's car (God bless him for not mentioning Trevor on the way home), I couldn't recognise myself.

There were huge purple circles shadowing underneath my eyes, looking as pathetic as possible. My skin was breaking out, and everything about me just shouted BROKEN.

"Mom, give her some space. She just returned home," Sebastian frowns. I love him so much.

But Mom will always be Mom. She bangs the dining table with her hands and I flinch. Seeing this, Julian, who's sitting beside me, places a reassuring hand on mine and I feel some of the tension and exertion being sucked out of me.

I squeeze his hand, a silent way of showing my brother how thankful I am to have him.

"That's it, Leah," Mom snaps. "You're grounded." Who's shocked? "You are not allowed to go anywhere near Trevor." Deal. "And there will be no Hunter or Gunner or anyone coming in this house." Perfect.

Sebastian loses it before my other brother does.

"God, Mom! Don't you see her face? She's been through sh— so much! Let her be alone, I beg you," he growls, grabs my hand and pulls me out of the kitchen and upstairs into my room.

Slams the door shut.

"Tell me he isn't Zachary's nephew. Just—just say that my best friend in this whole wide world isn't from the same blood who hurt my sister, the one girl I love more than anything."

My lips quiver. How can I lie to my brother after he knows everything? I surely can't. But I hate to admit it, although my brothers the truth is probably written on my forehead in big bold letters.

"I'll take your silence for a no."

He has his back to me, so I cannot really see what expression is framing his face. I don't even want to know, because what kind of a sister can see their brother broken? Not me, at least.

"How do you even know all this?" I took a seat on my bed and stared into space.

He turned the doorknob, murmured, "Hunter," and left the room without even a glance at me.

Time passed. I didn't move. It kept on moving forward but I didn't.

Every day I went to school, but was never quite there. My grades dropped like a ball from height. When I sat in class, my eyes would sneak glances at the door in hope Trevor would appear and apologise to me, and I'd apologise back. But he never did.

A month passed by, and to say every minute was stretched into hours would be an ironic understatement.

It was a Saturday morning, my family and I were seated around the dining table eating breakfast. The mere thought of mood in my mouth made me want to gag, but I had to keep on a good show because Mom had been insisting me to see a psychiatrist. But did I really need a mental therapy?

Not really.

I just needed some more time to heal my wounds.

"Not hungry, Leah?" she asked.

I stopped stabbing at my pancakes and looked up.

"Not really. I ate quite late last night." Lie.

She doesn't seem to buy it, but decides otherwise.

Sebastian's phone vibrated on the table. He frowned at the screen and then his eyes went wide. For some reason, I didn't get a good feeling about this.

"What do you want, Trevor?" he snapped at the caller.

What?
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Not a great chapter but I tried 😬