Playing Poker [BEING REWRITTEN]

8| 23 Hours

Third Person

23 hours.

23 hours since Rayland had been seen by any of the Brown brothers.

23 hours since any of the brothers had gotten a wink of sleep.

All of the brothers anxiously waited for the arrival of their father and his wife. They didn't know what they were going to say to them when they discovered the new edition's disappearance. All of their stomachs dropped when they heard jiggling of their Dad's keys in the doorknob.

Seconds later the door opened revealing their father and his wife, permanent smiles etched on their faces. The brothers knew their smiles would drop when they heard the news, they decided not to tell them until they had to.

"Hey boys." Their father happily exclaimed, his arms wide open. All of the brothers hesitantly pulled their father into a group hug. He seemed to notice the absence of his stepdaughter quicker than the boys expected.

"Where's Rayland?" They all stiffened at the name, of worry and jealousy. Paul was never very observant of his children, he believed they could take care of themselves. He was always caught up in work, he never noticed all the stress all of his children were going through.

"She's... she's asleep upstairs. Yeah, asleep." Micheal stuttered out, his brothers refrained from facepalming.

"Oh okay. I'll get dinner started and we can wake her up." He said, not noticing the uncertainty in his oldest son's voice.

Once he made it to the kitchen, all the brothers worriedly glanced at each other. Paul finished cooking dinner and headed upstairs.

"Heyyy, dad. Whatcha doing?" Jaylen asked, stretching out his words. His Dad would be suspicious but Jaylen's personality was suspicious enough.

"I'm going to wake up Rayland, can you get your brothers for dinner?" Paul asked the youngest triplet. Jaylen panicked, he could not let his Dad step foot in that empty room.

"Wait." Paul stopped abruptly in his tracks with his eyebrows furrowed. "Jaxon needs help... walking... the fish." Jaylen immediately regretted what he said as soon as it came out of his mouth. Paul couldn't help but laugh at his son's attempt at abn excuse. "Good one son." He laughed and continued upstairs.

Jaylen sprinted into the living room to find his brothers watching television. He grabbed the remote off of the coffee table and quickly turned it off. Despite the protests of his brothers, he quickly explained the dilemma he faced. All the boys quickly rushed upstairs but they were too late. Their father was standing in the doorway of their stepsister's room. They all visibly paled and waited for an ass whooping. To their surprise, their father quietly stepped in her room, stepping closer towards the limp figure coddled in a blanket.

He took another step forward before carefully plopping on the bed. He carefully rubbed her back in circles to wake her up. She quickly sat up, almost as if she was never asleep. The boys rushed in which startled the girl. Noticing the girl's fearful eyes, Paul asked all of sons to leave the room but he didn't realize this made her even more frightened. If he tried anything with his sons in the room, at least there would be witnesses. She tried not to let fear show in her face but her emotions betrayed her.

"I'll be right back." Paul said as he left the room. He came a few seconds later with a white bag in his hands. He hands the bag to Rayland as she carefully eyes the bag. She takes a peek and is immediately shocked by its contents. She pulls out a black phone box and a black phone case. She promptly handed her stepfather the bag back, constantly repeating she couldn't accept it. Paul shakes his head and chuckles at her.