Gracious

PART 1 - Chapter 1

A/N - well, well, well - for the first time...enjoy❤️❤️

~~~

Zane

Fuck him.

That was only the beginning of what I had to say about my father, but in the shocked state I was in, they were the only two words I could conjure - fuck him.

Fuck him for bringing us up the way he did, fuck him for traumatising us, making them cry, making us scared. Fuck him for every last bruise that had been placed on our bodies, every scar that had been permanently left on our skin.

Fuck Santiago Delgado.

I stared at the door that had slammed a good two minutes prior, the image of my father getting dragged out of it replaying over and over again to the point where my head pulsed and my throat grew dry. He's gone. He can't hurt them anymore. My fists shook at my sides, the urge to hit something growing more and more prominent as the reality of my situation sunk in.

They were all I had left - I was all they had left.

One thing I could say with confidence, although I'd never admit it aloud, was that my father was the one person on this planet who I could genuinely say I feared. But now he was gone. Thrown into the back of a police car and hopefully to be tossed into a cell, never to see daylight again. I knew things weren't that simple though.

"Oi", a hand on my shoulder made me snap out of my trance and look down at Prescott; his head barely reached my shoulders, something that agitated him greatly, "you okay?".

For a 14 year old boy, he was extremely mature for his age- too mature for his age; take a guess on why that was.

"I'm fine", I unclenched my fists and faced him fully, "I should be asking you that Prescott". Of course he wasn't okay, nobody under this roof was okay, but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to start up a conversation about something like the fucking weather. He rolled his eyes, pushing some of his blonde hair out of his face; he, Caleb and Chase had inherited our mother's natural colour while the rest of us took our father's - almost resembling the same colour as charcoal.

"I'm fine", he repeated what I'd said and cracked his knuckles, "uh, the twins and Chase are awake upstairs, I think they heard everything". That didn't shock me in the slightest, all three of my youngest brothers were light sleepers - of course they'd heard all the commotion of their father getting arrested.

Caleb on the other hand, he slept like the dead.

"And Caleb?", I asked, cursing myself for allowing the boy to witness the events that had unfolded no more than seven minutes ago. He glanced over his shoulder briefly, his blue eyes meeting mine once again.

"Watching tv", he replied, "I'll watch him, they need you upstairs". They need you. I had a feeling I'd be hearing that sentence way too much from here on out - like I said, I was all they had.

~

I found Xavier, Alexander and Chase in the hallway upstairs, the way the three of them were huddled together and looking so confused made them look more innocent than they were. Chase was wearing a brown T-shirt and white pyjama trousers, his hands in front of him protectively.

Xavier was in a white T-shirt and red trousers, he looked the most wide awake out of the three of them which wasn't surprising; getting him to sleep was near to impossible nowadays. Alexander was in all black from head to toe, the only thing standing out was the teddy bear (ironically named Ted) that he was holding against his chest tightly.