Chapter 30! Thanks to those who have stuck around. It really means a lot to me. I don't any of you for granted. 💕💕

Even though Sotiria and Zipporah had arrived home on time, they had bigger things to worry about.

It was 9:25PM when they had arrived, with their curfew initially being 9:30. They were talking about miscellaneous things, with Darius, their older sister Satira and Kesiena waiting for them.

"Yeah, I know right?" Sotiria had said to Zipporah as they had arrived at home. "You'd think she'd have it all. Goes to show that you really don't know what goes on behind the scenes."

The most recent thing that the girls had talked about was about their friend Miracle who had tragically taken her own life last year. Zipporah had just remembered that today was her first death anniversary.

Everyone had thought that she had it all because her Instagram had always shown pictures of her on vacation with her parents or really happy or doing cool things.

It was all a façade though. She didn't get along with her parents at all. They would have argued just before a picture or video, maybe even after but nobody would have ever suspected that. She had three siblings although she would have rather been an only child.

What her photos had shown were smiles, but on the inside, Miracle was deeply depressed, with her parents not helping her.

She wanted to end it all.

She didn't feel like a miracle anymore. More so a burden, a liability or a tragedy.

She didn't tell her friends about her suicidal thoughts because when she did they had all thought she was attention seeking, until she hung herself at home when her family went out and left her alone.

The girls had been talking about Miracle for a while , with Zipporah closing the door behind her.

When she did, Darius folded his arms with Kesiena and Satira giving them dirty looks, catching them off guard.

"Are we late?" Sotiria wanted to know.

"No, you're not," Darius had answered, frowning. "It's 9:27. You would have had 3 minutes left."

"So what's the problem?" Zipporah had asked, confused. "Why do you guys looks so angry with us?"

"Because explain to us why Señor Rodriguez at the school your father works at dropped us a text that you went there?" Kesiena had shouted.

The girls didn't know what they were talking about at first, but then it had dawned on them everything that had happened.

Before they had entered Kaiden's accommodation, they obviously had to encounter security. The security guard they had met was known was Euphrates, who was reluctant to let them in because they hadn't actually gone to the school.

That was until Señor Rodriguez had realised that they were Darius' daughters, therefore telling Euphrates to let them in.

Long story short, he wanted to double check with Darius and Kesiena that they knew Sotiria and Zipporah were at the creative arts school.

"You don't need to do that!" Zipporah had accidentally snapped when Señor Rodriguez was about to ring them on his phone at his office. He stopped doing so, still sitting down on the table.

"They're not at home at the moment. They went out to a fancy place together. They don't want anyone disturbing them. Both their phones are on silent. They told us."

"And how long until they get back?" Señor Rodriguez had asked suspiciously.

Sotiria had instantaneously told him three hours, with Señor Rodriguez eyeing them up and down.

He had dropped them a text that they were at the library, if he wasn't allowed to call them.

Little did the girls know that he didn't just ask Darius if him and Kesiena knew that they were at the school.

He had also smartly told them everything the girls had said.

"When we tried texting both of you, and calling you, it went straight to voicemail because you guys had deliberately switched your phones off, or you left them on silent," Darius had snapped. "And had your mother and I been any more annoyed, we would have sent security to look for you and bring you back home."

"So not only did you lie to mum and dad, you lied about them too," Satira had chirped in despite the fact that this had absolutely nothing to do with her. "Now mum and dad are mad at both of you, and I don't blame them."

Goodness knew when she had arrived back from her friend's house, but Sotiria had secretly wished that she had stayed there for longer.

And not come back. She couldn't stand her half of the time.

Out of stress, Darius had told Satira to leave briefly because she wasn't really involved in this conversation.

"Sure, suit yourself, I'll see you guys later." She had commented as she had gone up the stairs. "But they can't go unpunished. I know if this happened to me, you would ground me for life."

They weren't even going to do without punishing them anyway, with all hell breaking loose when Satira had gone.

Kesiena had started the conversation with yelling what the girls were thinking.

They had lied about them, if anything they had probably lied about going to the library and studying too. That was until Zipporah had shown them proof that they were at the library.

Just not the one they thought they were in.

Zipporah had admitted that they weren't thinking, but Sotiria wasn't playing nice at all.

"Yeah, you sure as hell weren't thinking!" Darius remonstrated. "Both if you knew very well that the library we thought you were going to go to was on break when you asked. We didn't though, and you used that against us."

The girls didn't say anything, with Sotiria probably giving a bit too much attitude to her parents.

She wasn't normally like that.

It was just that she was tired of them pointing fingers at them when their fingers weren't even clean themselves.

"Like you two are perfect yourselves," she had argued back. "Dad, you literally kept a lifetime secret from mum which had destroyed the whole family today. Mum, don't even get me started on you. You've told dad every bad thing you've done but even then, don't you flipping have a go at us because everything you've done combined is a lot worse than us lying to you and about you!"

After the word flipping, Sotiria had gradually started to raise her voice, with Kesiena slapping her after she had finished her sentence.

Darius and Kesiena didn't slap their children at all, only when they had really messed up somewhere.

This was way beyond a mess up though, and Sotiria deserved that slap. No way could she have talked to them like that and gotten away with it.

"And there's plenty more where that came from if you don't watch your tone!" Kesiena said after she had hit her. "What's gotten into you? And Zipporah? You were never like this."

The conversation had ended with Darius grounding them for a month.

Kesiena had also added that they had to give them all of their electronics in the next five minutes otherwise their punishment length would have doubled.

They would have been forbidden to go to their Aunty Rosalia's wedding on Sunday as well, however Darius and Kesiena didn't want people asking questions.

Not just that - they were going to be bridesmaids. Their Aunty Rosalia didn't have any daughters, only two sons, so she had decided to make them bridesmaids as they were the closest people she had to daughters.

They had to go bridesmaid shopping tomorrow (especially for dress fittings) which was going to be done early, then they were going to help their Aunty with the wedding.

Everyone was waking up at 10AM sharp and if the girls weren't awake by then or before then? Bigger trouble for them.

As the girls had gone upstairs, Kesiena had sighed, facepalming herself.

"Gosh, since when did our daughters become so rebellious?" She had complained. "Are we bad parents or something?"

"We're not bad parents, it's most likely the people they hang out with." Darius had assured her. "Some students I teach are extremely rebellious either because their parents are too lenient or way too strict. I know we're a fair mixture of both. So it's definitely on them."

Kesiena had always told her daughters that it was better to be alone than in bad company.

Did they listen?

Zipporah did. Sotiria didn't, she didn't want people asking questions. Satira definitely didn't. She had almost gotten drunk today.

Darius had to come and pick her up from her friend's house when he had found this out.

Satira's friend's mother had told him about what had happened. Not just that, one of Sotiria's friends had posted everything on her private Snapchat story secretly.

She most definitely wasn't the only one at her friend's house today. There were like 5 of them.

"At least you've got one daughter that's well behaved," Satira had beamed, giving them her sisters' electronics because they didn't want to do so directly.

Plus they didn't say they had to.

"You're no better, you almost got drunk," Kesiena had reminded them. "Although, we do want you to do us a favour."

Satira wanted to know what it was, with Darius letting her know that him and Kesiena wanted her to keep a close eye on Sotiria and Zipporah.

If they had done anything that they weren't supposed to do, then she had to report to them immediately.

"Understood?" Kesiena had double checked.

"Understood."

"And if they do something you don't tell us about," Darius had continued. "We'll have to extend your punishment as well. But we don't want to do that."

Speaking of doing something that they weren't supposed to be doing, the next morning, Zipporah had caught Sotiria leaving the bedroom early.

They were supposed to wake up by 10AM latest, but Sotiria was already awake by nine, and since her sister was a light sleeper, she had heard her.

"Where are you going?"

"To save Jackson."

Was she kidding?

She had literally gotten grounded just yesterday and she still wanted to go to Silvercloud Holding Centre to rescue her brother that didn't even know she had existed.

And who may have still had a huge grudge on their whole family due to Darius putting him in a coma a few years back.

"Sotiria, are you joking? I don't know what's gotten into you but this is a really bad idea." Zipporah had whisper shouted, rubbing her eyes. "We have a wedding tomorrow. Plus you'll get into even more trouble for not being there. Which is way more important than this whole thing put together."

"The wedding can wait," she had stated, but it couldn't really. "I don't care what mum and dad think anymore. Besides, I've already promised YSHM that I'll be there. And it's not exactly like we can tell then we can't go. Mum and dad confiscated all our electronics."

Wow.

She was really doing this.

Groaning, Zipporah had reluctantly told her that she was going to come with her. She had had her shower, with Sotiria rather impatiently waiting to her.

She was only going with her because she didn't want her to get hurt. That was the only reason why. If she hadn't cared about her so much, she would have left her alone.

If they had thought that they would have just gone like that though, they had another thing coming.

Why?

Because they had to face Satira.

Who wouldn't really have let them leave the house.