Sunshine gone.

Hours later after Daphne has taken a power nap and a shower, she heads downstairs feeling so much better. She stops short when she finds everyone finds everyone in the living room…besides Ivory and her parents. It's not unusual that they are here in the main house but the atmosphere seems tense and she knows something is wrong.

Oh no, did they find out about her and Xavier?

"What's going on?"

Everyone's head snaps to her like they had completely forgotten about her, her eyes landing on Xavier whose eyes are on the floor as his leg bounces.

He's nervous.

Her eyes dart to Syd next who's staring at her with wide scared honey brown eyes, Daphne opens her mouth to repeat her question but just then Nesta and Corbin enter the living room and everyone turns to face them. Corbin is holding tightly onto Nesta as tears flow down her cheeks and his eyes are red, rimmed with tears. He looks at no one in particular as he nods once. Daphne doesn't know what happens next but her mother lets out a loud cry and Sydney's mother crumbles to the floor with a broken sob. Daphne's heart sinks to her stomach and she doesn't know for what reason but she can tell the nod from Corbin is not good news.

"What's going on?" she repeats, her voice much softer now. Scarder. "Where's Ivory?"

Sydney seems to snap out of whatever trance she was in and runs up to Daphne, gently grabbing her arm and dragging her upstairs again. Daphne allows herself to be dragged and once they are in her room, Sydney breaks down. Letting out a cry as she slides down the wall

"Syd?" Daphne sits down on the floor in front of her "Talk to me please."

"It's Ivory" she says through sobs "She's dead, Daph"

Daphne stares at her in disbelief as tears well up in her eyes "You're lying." Sydney shakes her head and Daphne moves away from her as her bottom lip starts to quiver "No, no, it can't be. Not Ivory." 

Sydney grabs her and pulls her in for a hug as they cry together. Their best friend. Soul sister. Their sunshine. Gone.

*

After a while when their tears dry up, they lay on Daphne's bed in silence and she breaks it by asking "What happened?"

Sydney rakes a hand through her curls and says "Apparently the surfers found a body at the beach this morning and they recognized her." her voice cracks and Daph reaches a hand out to her clutching it tightly as she continues "But the cops still needed her parents to identify her"

Daphne thinks back to when Ivory's parents came into the living room and her father's nod. It was a nod of agreement. 

It was her.

She swallows the fresh tears that threaten to fall "Do they know what exactly happened to her?"

Syd shakes her head "I'm not sure but I think the cops spoke to Nesta and Corbin. We should give them some space though"

God, this morning she walked past Ivory's room thinking she was still asleep but she was lying by the beach. Dead and all alone. 

She turns around to face Sydney "What happened last night?" 

Her face pulls in a grimace "I have no clue, Daph. I woke up next to Roman Dawn this morning in his hotel"

Daphne gasps and sits up "What the hell?"

"Yeah" she whispers and Daphne can tell that she's a bit embarrassed about it so she decides to share her embarrassment.

"I woke up to Xavier."

Sydney's eyes widen and now it's her turn to sit up "Xavier? As in like our Xavier? Ivory's Xavier?"

Daphne cringes at the way she's referring to him "I know it's weird but you can't tell-" she cuts herself off when she realizes she was just about to ask Sydney to not tell Ivory.

Sydney's eyes soften and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder "I won't tell anyone"

"Thank you" she says softly. 

A frown suddenly makes its way to her face "How did we end where we did?"

"I'm guessing we had way too much to drink at the bonfire last night."

Sydney blinks "We didn't go to the bonfire, Daph"

Daphne's eyes darted between hers "What do you mean? We went with Xavier to meet up with his friends down by the beach"

Sydney's eyebrows furrow "I don't remember anything about the bonfire but I vividly remember us dancing at a club."

What?

"There are no clubs in Faircoast, Syd." Daphne says gently.

Sydney blinks a thousand times like she just realized that "Right. I must be mistaking it with another night"

She nods before asking hesitantly "Should we go down?"

Syd bites the inside of her cheek, looking just as uncertain as her before saying "Okay."

They head downstairs and are surprised to only find Daphne's parents sitting on the couch and speaking softly to each other "Where are the others?"

Her father turns to them "They went home." A rock forms in Daphne's throat "Sydney, I think it's best if you go to Woodsford."

Sydney nods before giving Daphne's hand a squeeze then walking out and Daphne joins her parents on the couch, her mom asks gently "Are you okay, honey?"

Her bottom lip starts quivering again and she shakes her head, her mother gently pats the spot between her and her father and Daphne immediately scoots between them. 

What the hell is it with mothers that have such a gentle soul that immediately makes you want to gravitate toward them? Not just her mother but Brianna and Nesta too.

"Do you guys know what happened to her?" her parents share a glance like they aren't sure if they should tell her but she squeezes out "Please tell me"

Garriet lets out a small breath "The cops suspect she drowned, because there was no sign of foreplay"

She frowns "Can't be."

Ivory was not an excellent swimmer but she could swim better than the average person, Daphne would know because she's on the swimming team and can't help but judge the way people swam. 

Jillian nods "Nobody quite believes that so the cops are going to open an investigation to find out what happened"

An investigation? That sounds serious. "But I thought you said there was no sign of foreplay"

She hates that she sounds like a dumb bitch right now but her brain is foggy and she can't make sense of any of this.

Her mother says "There weren't but we want to know exactly what happened to her. Not what the police think happened to her so they'll have to do an autopsy to see if she had any sickness no one was aware of." 

The idea of Ivory's body being cut open makes her feel sick to her stomach. 

Her father then pipes up "They are going to question you. Sydney too."

Her eyes widened "Do they think we had something to do with it?"

"No, no, they just want to know what exactly happened last night"

That's the problem, they don't know what happened last night.

*

"Thank you for meeting me"

"Of course." Xavier says and he takes a seat next to her by the pool, putting his feet in the water as well

Daphne stares at the water for a while before saying "I'm sorry."

For his sister dying and not being there with her.

"Thank you" his voice cracks slightly and her heart breaks even more, he roughly clears his throat "I'm sorry too"

For her best friend dying and not being able to protect her.

She clenches her hands into fists before dropping her head to his shoulder and he stiffens slightly before relaxing and in turn he drops his head on top of hers. "We were supposed to be there for her, Xav. We were supposed to keep her safe but instead we got drunk"

"I know. I know, Daph." he swallows before letting out a chuckle that's void of any humour "The cops questioned me like I was the one behind it. Me."

"Yeah, they got pretty suspicious about me too when I told them I have no clue about what happened" she sighs and lifts her head from his shoulder to rakes a hand through her auburn hair "I had to do a drug test. Syd too."

"So did I but that's a good thing, right? If we were drugged then that would explain why we don't remember."

She nods "They said they'll try to locate our phones as well. They probably said it to sound threatening but I genuinely hope they find it." she gives him a sideways glance "How's your parents?"

"Isolating themselves. Dad's in his office and mom in the bedroom. Fuck and Lilian doesn't want to talk to anyone but I heard her crying in the shower."

Her mouth downturns in the sad way it always does when her heart is breaking.

He lets out a heavy breath. "The police were here earlier to search Iv's room for anything."

She knew that, because she and Sydney watched through the living room window from Haarton are they entered and exited.

She hasn't yet been to Swanton. She fears she won't ever be able to step foot in that house again knowing Ivory is no longer there. 

*

Sydney is sitting on the couch next to her brothers, staring blankly at the movie on the television and startled when she feels a hand on her shoulder.

One of the guards, whose name she's pretty sure is Byron, removes his hand and gives her an apologetic smile "Sorry I didn't mean to startle you."

"That's fine, what do you need?"

"There's a guy at the gate for you. Says his name is Roman."

She scoffs "Tell him now is not a good time"

"I already did but he is rather apdament, and said he'll wait until it is the right time."

Asshole.

She lets out a long sigh through her nose, ignoring her brothers questioning looks "Fine, let him through the back to the patio."

Byron nods before walking out and she stands up to follow him but stop when Adrian says "I don't think you should meet with strangers, Syd"

She gives him a gentle smile "It's okay, Roman is a…school friend and besides we'll be right here on the property."

Arian huffs softly "Don't be long or you'll miss the ending."

She nods before heading to the patio, she knows her brothers don't give a shit about the movie they are just scared to let her out of their sight. Afraid she might end up like Ivory.

When she reaches the patio, her eyes immediately land on Roman's dark hair then slide over his t-shirt and shorts. Her heart rate picks up when he turns to face her which is weird, because that has never happened before

"What do you want?"

He arches an eyebrow "What? No hello kiss?" when she continues to stare blankly at him, he lets out a heavy breath before softening his voice a tad "I heard about Ivory and I wanted to say sorry for your loss."

She swallows past the lump in her throat "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I know she was your best friend and I can't imagine how you must be feeling right about now so I'm here if you need anything."

Her eyes narrow on him "Just because we had sex once does not mean we're suddenly about to ride off into the sunset together, Roman."

"Oh, great we're on the topic of sex" he says dryly as he shoves his hands into his pants pockets "I was going to let you off the hook for bailing on me this morning but I think maybe we should discuss it yeah?"

She crosses her arms over her chest which pushes out her breasts and he forces himself to look at her face, he doesn't want to piss her off by letting his eyes wander "You and I were never friends, Roman so of course I was dumbfounded when I woke up naked next to you."

"Well imagine my fucking surprise when you called me to come to Faircoast"

She pauses and stares at him with wide eyes "What?"

"You called me last night. I have no fucking clue where you got my number from but you called and wanted to rub it in my face that you're going to hook up with a random surfer." he steps closer to her and she almost gets dizzy as his scent hits her, he smells so manly "I couldn't have that."

She stares up at him with her mouth slightly parted in disbelief "So you came to Faircoast?"

"Yeah" he says unphased. "Took my father's jet and had you in my arms in less than five hours."

Sydney doesn't know whether to be pissed off at the fact that she doesn't remember calling him or…giddy at the fact that he came just so that she wouldn't hook up with anyone. She wants to focus on the latter but she can't help the nagging feeling in the back of her mind

"And where did you find me?"

His eyes darted to her lips "At the beach, there was a bonfire and plenty of college guys who thought they were the shit."

Her lips twitch as she tries to fight off a smile, he's never one to sugar coat anything "Who was I with?"

His eyes searched hers "Do you not remember?"

"No, that's why I'm hoping you could enlighten me."

"Well when I got there you were with the girls but not long after that you and Ivory were gone. Daphne stayed with Ivory's brother there."

Her brows furrow, she and Ivory left? "And how did I end up at your hotel with you?"

"I actually spent a while on the beach, drank a few beers hoping to see you again but eventually cut my losses and headed to my hotel. That's when I saw you, I assume you were walking home from god knows where. We argued a bit about the shit we did to each other all year long" he bites his bottom lip as his eyes trails over her "Then we kissed. The rest was history." 

She stares at him with her eyes wide and her mouth open, absolutely dumbfounded. She's glad that at least someone has a clear mind of what happened the night before but to hear him speak about it while she doesn't know shit makes her feel…weird. 

His slight smirk fades "You really don't remember?"

She slowly shakes her head "No."

His jaw clenches "Are you saying I took advantage of you?"

"What? No!" she rushes to say which makes him relax.

She may not remember what happened but she knows for sure that she and Roman have always had sexual tension, she's surprised it took them until last night to finally get it out of their system. 

She opens her mouth to ask him more questions but then she hears "Sydney" She turns to find Daphne watching them and Sydney's heart rate picks up at the look on her face "The cops found something."

Sydney lets out a small gasp and turns to Roman "I have to go, I'll talk to you later okay?"

"Okay."