This isn't helping by The National and Phoebe Bridgers

I cannot believe what you get away with, you find beauty in anything.

"Gray?" I speak softly, wiping away the two tears on my own cheeks. What Grayson feels right now is more important than my own sadness. 

I turn around and see Grayson Davenport Hawthorne looking pale. His eyes don't even glance at me, all he can focus on is Emily. 

I step forward and he steps back. His eyes squeeze shut. "Paris, you should.." Grayson forces himself to breathe. He forces the air in and out of his lungs, squaring his shoulders. 

"I'm not safe to be around right now, P." His voice comes out as a quiet whisper of shakiness. 

It now becomes clear to me that he thinks he's hallucinating. I close the space between us and place a hand on his shoulder. Whenever things feel like they aren't real he taught me to feel his heartbeat to know things were still real, by placing a hand on his shoulder I'm telling him he's here. He's real. I'm real.

"Hey." I speak gently, like I'm talking to a child. "Hey, look at me Gray." I nod calmly. 

His pained eyes open and meet mine, I can see the tears he is fighting lined on his waterline. He looks into my eyes desperately, like I'm the only thing that he can trust right now.

"That is not Emily. And you are not hallucinating." I confirm. His eyes flick behind me to Eve.

"I see-" he trembles. I place a hand on his cheek and turn his gaze back to me. "I know. I know Baby." I speak sadly as a tear threatens to slip out his silver eye. Grayson doesn't like to feel weak, he doesn't like showing any weaknesses. 

"It's Eve. Remember? My sister. Toby's other daughter." I remind him. 

"She looks like-" His eyes scan my face desperately for answers. 

"I know. But she isn't. It's just a family resemblance, same reason why I look like them as well. It's not her." I insure him. 

His eyes blink quickly until they rid of the glassy cover threatening to spill over. His face returns to his usual composed one. 

"Look, I don't know what this is. But it's been a really long week. I'm filthy, I'm scared." Eve interrupts us. 

I tilt my head at the strangers arrogance, the nerve she had to interrupt my Grayson when he was so clearly vulnerable. 

"So are we going to stand here and cry some more or let your security guards figure out how the hell they're gonna get Toby back." Eve turns to Avery.

I open my mouth to fire something back about how insensitive she was being but Grayson interrupts me. "You're hurt." He comments, looking at her sadly. 

"I'm pissed." She replies.

"Come on. You can use my shower." Avery gives in with a sigh.

Avery led us all up to her en suite, likely so she could keep an eye on Eve. 

Eve enters the bathroom. My eyes land on the shirtless Jameson laying in Avery's bed. 

Jameson looks fine, like his dead ex girlfriend didn't just walk passed him. But I know him, and I know that's just a cover. Beneath his poker face I know it's hitting him just as much as Grayson, who is staring daggers at the bathroom door.

Grayson's eyes don't dare leave the door, he's in a haze. 

"Tell me everything, Heiress." Jameson says, immediately swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing the second the door shuts.

"I don't even know where to start." Avery sighs. Jameson walks to Avery, "Tell me what you need Heiress." He says kindly. 

I can sense the jealousy running through Grayson's veins, but I don't feel particularly jealous of his jealousy as I feel the same pang of jealousy in the depth of my stomach.

I can't help but let my eyes wander Jameson's body. Still as lean and perfect as ever.

"Put a shirt on." Grayson pries his eyes from the door and snatches a shirt laying on the floor, throwing it at his brothers face.

The look Jameson sends Grayson is almost comical. 

Through all my emotions I find a voice in me to speak up, "It's Toby." My voice quivers.

"What's wrong with Toby?" Jameson crosses from Avery to me, he intensifies our eye contact deeply. I feel a little intimidated by him.

"He's been taken." Avery finishes. She notices my struggle to continue the story and does it for me, she tells them both all the details they've missed out on.

When Grayson hears what's happened he places a comforting hand on the small of my back, one that thankfully goes unnoticed by the other two in the room.

"Eve wasn't able to give Oren a lot of details. He's putting together a team to run recon on the abduction site, but-" Avery informs them. 

"They're unlikely to find anything at this point." Grayson finishes. 

"Convenient, that." Jameson scoffs. 

Grayson stares icy daggers into him, narrowing his eyes into small slits. "What?" Jameson asks his brother. 

"I'm just saying that all we have right now is the story of a stranger who showed up on our doorstep and talked her way inside." Jameson justifies. 

Grayson's hand departs my back and he crosses his arms angrily, "You don't believe her?" 

Jameson shrugs, "What can I say," his eyes look from Grayson to me for a moment, "I'm a suspicious bastard." 

Or maybe he just sees Emily and finds it hard to trust her after all the lies she fed him. 

"I don't think she's lying." Avery tells him. His gaze turns to her kindly, "You wouldn't." He speaks softly. 

"And neither," he turns to Grayson, with a very different tone "Would you."

His gaze makes its way to me as if waiting for my stance. I sigh, "I don't know what I believe, but I know that's my sister, and if she's saying my Father is missing I'm better to believe her and be wrong than not believe her and be wrong." I say.

 I can feel Grayson's stare on the back of my head, Jameson's looking too. 

"At a minimum, we owe that girl our protection." Grayson speaks up.

"Because of the way she looks?" Jameson argues. "Because she's Toby's daughter, and Paris' sister. And that makes her one of us."

That makes me one of them. Eve is a Hawthorne, just like me.

"Can we please just focus on Toby." My voice shakes. Grayson steps back, something about my tone makes him stand down.

"Pretend for just a second you trust Eve. Pretend she looks nothing like Emily. Pretend she's telling the truth. Just humour me for one second and pretend.. Other than Oren's search, what's our next move?" I say, turning my attention to Jameson. 

"Motive." Jameson answers eventually. "If we want to know who took him, we need to know why they took him."

Avery nods, "They want something from him. They want to use him as leverage. Or they want to hurt him." 

My breathing hitches at the thought. Someone kidnapping my Father with the sole purpose of hurting him. 

"There has to be something we're missing." Avery sighs. "You mentioned the person who knocked Eve out went through her pockets." Jameson comments. 

"They were looking for something." I finish. 

Avery freezes, she whispers her next words. "The disk." 

Then all of our attention snaps to the door where Eve stands in only a towel, her long hair drips down to the floor every few moments.

Grayson tries desperately to not look at her, Jameson looks to me averting his eyes from Eve. 

"Did you need something?" Avery asks her. "Bandage." Eve replies plainly. If she is even remotely conscious about standing in front of four strangers in only a towel she doesn't dare show it. "My cut split open in the shower." She informs us.

"I'll help you." Avery agrees before Grayson can.

The two of them enter the bathroom together leaving me alone with Grayson and Jameson. I sigh and sit down on the foot of Avery's bed.

Jameson paces back and forth, Grayson's jaw is clenched so tight it could snap. He stares at one spot on the floor and doesn't blink or look away.

"Stop." Grayson snaps when the breeze Jameson is causing gets to him, his eyes still not averting that same spot. 

We're all processing this differently. They've just seen their dead ex girlfriend, I've just met my sister and been told my father is missing. 

"You should get her clothes." Jameson turns to me and stops in his tracks. 

"Why me?" I question. "You probably wear the same size." He shrugs. "And what makes you think that?" I challenge.

"You're almost identical. You're the same height and size." He justifies. 

I stand up and start to leave, "My boobs are bigger." I comment before walking out.

(a/n. Double upload!! Falling asleep at my desk rn. Fridays are so draining. Have a good night – or day.)