010

Getting home after spending the whole day outside with Wembley, Chase was greeted with a strong odor of burning food that he flew into the house to find out what was happening.

Getting to the kitchen, he pushed the door open, only for smoke to welcome him in and he began to cough.

Relieved that it wasn't the house that was burning as he had thought earlier, he proceeded into the kitchen and then pushed the windows open before proceeding to open the door so that the smoke would get out.

About half an hour later, he snapped his head upwards, he had just remembered Zara who was now living with him.

Facepalming himself, he began to look around the house, searching for her since she wasn't in the kitchen.

When he got to the rooms, he started checking them one after the other until he started hearing sobbing sounds emanating from one of the rooms.

With a speed he never knew he possessed, he reached out for the door handle and then pushed it in, revealing the coiled-up figure of Zara at one corner of the room.

"What happened?" He asked, crouching beside her with his hands resting on her shoulder.

"I tried making dinner." She muttered, her head still caged in between her thighs as she sobbed.

Tossing his head to the side, Chase began to rub his neck. He wasn't surprised with what had happened because it was the same with Raven. He had already concluded that the Bernard's girls were not capable of performing any chores.

"I'm sorry, I should have returned earlier to make dinner," he said after a long silence.

Now on his feet, he pushed his hands into his pockets and then swirled around in readiness to leave for the kitchen.

"I will come get you for dinner." He said. When she didn't respond, not as if he was expecting a response from her, he took his leave.

About half an hour later, he was done with dinner. He didn't have to go fetch Zara because she was already at the table waiting for dinner.

Just like he did when he served Raven, he stood aside, waiting for her to eat and then he would clean up before having his dinner.

Zara on the other hand was waiting for him to join him at the table. Her patience was weaning out with each passing minute and to make matters worse, her stomach was rumbling.

When she couldn't bear it anymore, she hit her fists against the table, and at once Chase appeared by her side with his head bowed.

Raising her brow at him, she asked, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm sorry, I should have…"

"Now I understand your awkward behavior." She interrupted, making Chase raise his head in her direction as he wondered what she was driving at.

Smiling broadly now, she said, "Please sit, we need to talk." Reluctantly, he took his seat, his gaze never leaving her for a second.

"Was this how Raven treated you?" She asked, biting her bottom lips as she stared right into his eyes. The only thing she was feeling towards him at that moment, was nothing but pity.

She could only imagine what her mother and Raven had made him pass through just because they hated him and the part that baffled her the most was that they didn't have any tangible reason to offer when asked why they hated him.

"First off, I wanted to let you know that you're the head of this home but before we start thinking of making a family, I must have graduated from the University, that's three years from now, and also, you should be financially stable."

The look on Chase's face while she was speaking made her burst into chuckles as she stared back at him.

"I might be from Bernard's family but trust me when I say I'm not like them. I have no grudges towards you and I came to you for help, not the other way around."

"Your mother, aren't you going to get punished for going against her?" He asked the question that had been ringing in his head since the previous day.

"Nope. I know she will try to pull some strings but I will bypass them all and I want you to be by my side at all times. I'm going to do that too, I promise." She said with her hand on her chest as if she were pledging.

Not knowing what to say or how to react to this, Chase dug his hand into his hair and then leaned against the chair with a low sigh escaping from his lips.

"I promise not to hurt you like Raven and my mom did." Zara cried. She feared that he was going to turn her down.

"I never…"

She didn't allow him to finish speaking before she pushed her car keys towards him.

"You can have it… I will make use of the transit."

Chuckling lightly, Chase couldn't help but tilt his head to the side. Never for once had he thought that a member of Bernard's family would be so desperate and would want his help by all means.

Seeing that Zara was on the brink of tears, he raised his hand above his head in mocking surrender, "Fine, let's be a team."

"Really?" She asked, her eyes widened in excitement.

"Yeah. Let's be a team." He repeated, pushing her key back to her, "You need it more than I do."

"Okay… but… what are you going to do about your job?" she asked, taking a bite of the cold beef in front of her.

"I will search for one, you don't need to bother about me. If you're thinking of how we're going to live off until I find a job, I have some money saved up that can scale us through." he reeled.

Grabbing his cutlery, he wanted to dig into his meal but he halted suddenly and with his gaze fixed on her said, "I need your account details so I will send your weekly allowance."

Angered by this, she hit her fists against the table, wearing a deep frown, "I'm not Raven, don't you get it?"