Gracious

Chapter 2

A/N - we're back again 🫡🫡

TW - scenes some may find upsetting

Enjoyyy❤️❤️

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Out of all three-hundred-and-sixty-five days in the year, today was the one I hated the most.

I hated it so much that it made my heart ache and my agitation level spike to an all time high.

August 12th. She's 8 today.

We hadn't seen her since she was 3.

She'd started school by now, learned to read and write, made friends, lost teeth, probably learned how to swim and ride a bike, developed fears as well as dreams- maybe she knew what she wanted to be when she grew up, maybe she didn't. She'd gotten taller, more talkative, smarter, happier- and we'd missed every second of it.

I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly, praying the unshed tears wouldn't fall. I didn't have time to be upset when I had them to think about.

It was seven in the morning, and for the first time in a while I'd actually gotten a decent night's sleep; something told me that was a one off though.

"Zane!", I shot out of bed in an instant, "Zane!". I rushed into the twins room where I could hear the screaming as well as faint snivelling coming from; Alexander was nowhere to be seen and Xavier was standing in the middle of the room, tears streaming down his cheeks and a damp patch on his trousers- oh.

"It's okay, it's okay", I said softly, "look at me, it's fine yeah? Take off your clothes and go shower hm?".

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry", he whimpered, rubbing at his earlobe harshly, "I didn't mean to, I-,".

"Xavier", I said, kneeling down so I was level with him, "it's okay, calm down, it happens yeah?". His bloodshot eyes stared into mine for a moment until he inhaled and nodded slowly, his hand dropping from his ear.

"Yeah", he whispered, "but the bed-,".

"You don't need to worry about the bed", I shook my head, rising to my feet and pulling his sheets off of it, "it was due a clean anyway, go clean yourself up".

"Okay", he said quietly, giving me one last guilty look before disappearing into their bathroom and locking the door.

"What happened?", Alexander entered the room as if he'd just ran a marathon to get here, "where's Xav?". The shower started running on queue and he sighed in relief.

"He's fine, just had a bit of an accident", I held the sheets in my grasp and moved towards the door, "and where have you been hm?".

"Eating cereal", he shrugged, "I didn't wanna wake up you or the others, you all get mad at us on this day".

"Walk with me", I cocked my head and he followed as I descended the stairs, "what makes you say that?". He fell in line with me, staying put in the doorway when I reached the laundry room.

"You guys are always sad on Bella's birthday, but me, Xav and Chase can't be sad - we don't remember her", he said quietly, "so we stay out of your way". I quickly loaded the sheets into the machine and turned it on, spinning around to face the nine year old who was fiddling with his black T-shirt slowly.

"I understand how hard today must be for you too y'know? Even though you don't remember Isabella, you still miss her right?", I placed my hands on his shoulders which made him look up at me.

"Yeah", he nodded.

"And I promise, it's not our intention to push you three away hm? You don't need to stay out of our way, we're in this together yeah?", that got a small smile out of him, he even went so far as to wrap his arms around me and squeeze.