"Mom please don't go" I begged as I followed my mom and brother Noah down the stairs as my mother carried her suitcase behind her "Dad do something!" I shouted to my dad as he sat in the lounge in his crumpled suit holding a whisky glass in his hand a piece of paper lay at his feet.
My dad just looked at me his face void of any emotion and I knew then that he wasn't going to fight this "Let the whore go" he muttered as he picked up the paper that held my baby brother's paternity on it, he wasn't the father.
My parents were in love once but somewhere between my dad becoming one of the top lawyers around and my mom creating a fashion line something had gone wrong, my dad began to drink at work and my mom started fucking the gardener, she wasn't the only one with the affairs but unfortunately she was the one who had a baby that wasn't my dads.
I glared over to my dad as he began to burn the paper using a his no #1 dad lighter Noah and I had bought him for fathers day, hearing a sob come from the one person I'd die for I turned quickly "Noah" I whispered as I got to my knees in front of him.
"Don't cry baby, it'll all be ok" I lie as I give him a watery smile as he throws his arms around my neck, I gripped the small boy into my arms wishing that we could be together forever, that our parents hadn't fallen out of love and into toxicity but this wasn't a fairytale and we weren't due a happy ending.
Feeling Noah being pulled from me I looked up to see my mom looking down as I stood "I'm begging you" I tell her but she casts one more look at my drunken father before turning, her nose sticking up in the air like she was better than him.
"What about me?" I call to her as I follow her out of the doors where neighbours had started to come out of their homes to look at the scene in front of them, the most prestigious family in the town were finally crumbling.
"You're just going to leave me here?" I yell as she puts Noah in the taxi where he sticks to the window watching me with his big blue eyes "I know I'm not perfect..." I started but she turns to me her eyes equally tearful as mine "I'm sorry" she whispered before getting into the car without me.
"No" I whisper and run down the steps to the road but the car had already started to move "Noah!" I screamed as I saw him bang on the back window wanting me "Noah!" I cried out when I fell to my knees as the taxi got smaller the further away from me it got.
I let out a small scream as tears ran down my face "please" I whispered brokenly as I openly cried in the middle of the street knowing it was likely I would never see my baby brother again "Cassandra?" a voice cooed gently, I looked up to see my elderly neighbour calling my name bringing my back to reality as I noticed everyone was now watching my breakdown.
Picking myself up I ran back into my house as the fire alarms rang out from my dad burning all the paternity tests "Dad" I muttered when I noticed he wasn't in the lounge any more, following the smell of burning I walked past the stairs and down the hall to where his study was.
"Dad" I called out again walking through the door watching him stumble around throwing things on the floor and lighting a match, looking closer I noticed he was about to burn pictures of Noah "Dad no!" I shout when he drops the match onto the pile.
Grabbing a throw blanket from the back of the couch in my dad's office I threw it over the pile and put out the fire hoping he hadn't just burnt every picture of Noah we had ever taken "What the fuck is wrong with you" I scream in my dads face after I finally put out the fire but the alarms were still ringing out.
Dad's face dropped and his eyes morphed into a look of fury I had never seen on him before unless it was directed at my mother "Don't you raise your voice as me Cassandra!" he yells as he drinks out of his glass obviously aiming for drunken amnesia.
Taking the glass out his hand I threw at the wall behind his head knowing I had just sealed my fate but I didn't care there was nothing he could do to me that was worse than taking the only person I every truly loved out of my life.
Screaming I felt the burn on my cheek before realising I had been hit "Bitch" he yelled out as he pushed me into the wall and walking passed me as I slide down the wall to the floor where I stayed sobbing even after I heard the front door slam, he was gone.
Remembering the pictures I crawled over to the blanket and hesitantly pulled it off the now charred pile "No" I mumbled to myself as I dug through the pile trying to find something, anything that hadn't been destroyed.
Brushing away the ashes I sighed happily when the pictures at the bottom of the pile hadn't been touched by the fire, gently picking them up I looked at them with a smile remembering when they were taken.
I had a baby picture and his kindergarten picture that was enough to keep me happy but as I stood another picture dropped out between the two, leaning down to pick it up I gasped tearfully when I realised it was a picture of the two of us smiling happily with our arms wrapped around each other.
Sniffing I carefully cradled the pictures in my hands as I walked up to my bedroom trying to ignore the sting on my cheek and the pain in my heart as I lay back on my bed holding the picture of the two of us above my head "I'm sorry".
Curling up on my bed I finally let the sobs wreak through my body knowing that when I stopped everything would be different, the perfect family illusion would be broken and the town would talk about how the lawyer and his wife ruined themselves, their children, leaving them nothing but empty and broken.