It's been a week since I ended things with Scott, and I never felt so lost and broken in my whole life, it was worse than the first time I lost him. And Remi she keeps asking when daddy is coming round, I just can't bring myself to explain to her that he might not be here for a while.

Scott, hasn't even contacted me about Remi, Oliver has been messaging me I'm not sure what he knows or what Scott's even told him, but when it comes to co-parenting Remi, it all seems to be going through Oliver right now.

And sooner or later Oliver is going to intervene, because it's who he is and because he cares about us, but this is something kind-hearted Oliver Vaughan can't fix this time around.

I know that Scott is hurting, but there was nothing that I could have done to change it. I think about him all day, I miss him so much, we're lost without him which is stupid because we've been on our own for five years and we were okay, and we will be okay again eventually.

But this time the heartbreak is going to take a little longer to heal, because not loving Scott is impossible.

And I never thought that I would fall in love with him again, I never thought we would experience being a family, but I did and we did and our love changed and it grew so much bigger and stronger, and Valerie she took all that away with one simple threat. And I hate how powerless I am when it comes to her.

Pulling out of my thoughts as I hear my front door open and shut again, a shadow passes over me as I lay on the sofa, in sadness and self-pity.

"Right you know I love you but sit up and start talking Ella" I hear Oliver's voice demanded before I even move my eyes up to face him, locking my eyes on him and sat up and sighed.

"About what?" I ask dumbly, Oliver takes a seat in the chair, across from me and the coffee table. He looks at me, shaking his head clearly annoyed.

"Don't play dumb, it doesn't suit you" He shot at me, rolling my eyes.

"Why are you here Ollie?" I said to him bluntly, I don't need Oliver trying to fix this right now, I don't have the energy to uphold my lies today.

"I'm here because I'm sick of being a messenger between you and Scott-;" He broke off and sighed sadly, shaking my head, looking at him in defeat.

I know it's not fair to him to be stuck in the middle of our mess, but nobody is asking him to. I understand that Scott is his brother, but this also involves Oliver's mom, Valerie is messing with her own family just not mine and if I say anything, I risking two families, it's siltation nobody can win, so why even try to.

"Then just tell Scott to text me, and excuse yourself" I argued at him, rubbing my temples I feel a stress headache coming on.

"That's not even the point Ella..." He trailed off sadly and covered his own face with his own hands, for a second before removing them and moved his eyes back to me.

"My point is something happened with you and him, something big that left you both broken. And your miserable and so is my brother, talk to me." He pleads.

Shaking my head and just let my head fall in shame, as I break down crying.

What is the point of this? I did what Valerie wanted, but what's going to stop her from coming at me with this again. I thought I could do what she wanted and cry for a while, then move on without Scott but I can't, because it hurts too much to even think about him not being here with me.

I can't be the me I was before I was without him, and I don't even know why I'm trying, I thought I was doing what was right for Remi, and for him, but I will never really have my own life with Valerie holding this over my head.

And I don't want to live like this, waiting for her to crawl out of the nasty hole she lives in demanding something else from me.

I made a mistake giving into Valerie's threats, I need to fight her because I don't want to lose Scott, but I also don't know how to explain all this to him either.

Snapping out of my thoughts and moved my head back up to look at Oliver.

"I had to end it, Ollie, your mom threatened me too" I admitted the truth, Oliver looks at me a taken back by my confession.

"What did she threaten you with?" He asked me, still trying to understand what I was saying to him about his own mother.

"Something from my past, something that to a judge could have made me look like an unfit parent" I answer, Oliver stands up and begins walking up and down the room, I get why he's acting like this. I mean what son wants to believe their mother, is capable of destroying their sibling happiness.

"Why didn't you tell Scott any of this?" He shot out at me, as he stopped moving.

"Because it's just not me she threatening, she threatened to use things against Scott too. And he hasn't really been a saint these last few years..." I replied, just as he looks at me with a raised eyebrow and a funny look on his face.

"Oliver, she threatened to end his football career with something that she has on him" I added,

"One thing at a time, what exactly does she have hanging over you?" He says to me, shaking my head that thing that happened in my past, is the worst thing that I have ever done, and it's not something I talk about to people.

"It doesn't matter-;" I began saying but he cuts me off with a firm look.

"If I'm going to help you with my mother, I need you to be fully honest with me"

Taking a moment to just look at him and simply nodded my head and sighed.

"A few years I got into some trouble, it was just after Remi was born and we had just moved to Los Angeles-" I broke off for a moment and took a deep breath Ollie stayed silent, waiting for me to carry on with my story.

"And my friend from San-Diego came down for a surprise visit, that night she convinced me to go out with her, my mom was out of town, so I called my babysitting and we went out;" I sighed and shook my head.

I've always been a good person, a responsible person, who always considers her options and what actions could have consequences.

"What happened next?" I hear him ask me, throwing my eyes from Remi's room where she was having a nap, then looked back at Oliver.

"When it was time to call it a night, my friend Alyssa was drunk and she was going to drive her car back, I grabbed her keys, I tried to get her in a taxi but she was hell-bent on not leaving her car there, I don't even know why she insistent we drive in the first place-;"

My mind flashes back to that night, we should have got a taxi to the club there and back, but she wanted to drive and she wouldn't listen to me.

"Anyways I took her keys and I drove that night, because I was soberer than her or at least I thought I was, I ran a stop sign, ended up getting pulled over. because I was underage, plus over the limit, I was arrested-" I confessed in shame,

nobody should have been driving that night, but if I didn't Alyssa would have, and she was drunker than me, something a lot worse could have happened.

"I was charged with driving under the influence, I was released on bail the next day. Got three years' probation and put on a DUI program-;" I broke off and met his gaze, as I kept my tears of shame at bay.

"the worst part of it all, was that my mom was out of town, so as I was sat in jail Remi was placed in a foster home for the night until my mom could get back" I cried ashamed of that one moment in my life.

"Ella-;" Oliver started to say, cutting him off with a wave of my hands.

"I carry that night with every day because I'm ashamed. After that I really grew up, I focused on Remi and building my business. I followed my probation, got cleared by social- services and I haven't had a drink outside my house in four and half years, and when I do drink, I have no more than one beer or one glass of wine" I explained, I can feel Oliver's eyes on me.

"And this is what my mom's holding over you, did she threaten to take Remi away from you?" Oliver asked me with disgust in his own voice, I see anger in his eyes, something that anyone rarely sees in Oliver because he's a calm person always has been.

"Yeah and Scott too, if I didn't end things with him. So I did because I was scared that I would lose my daughter, and your mother could make that happen even if the law was on our side, and that's not even taking in what she could do with Scott's livelihood" I answered, Valerie, is a resourceful woman she would find a way to hurt me and Scott by using Remi.

"You need to tell Scott, and then we're going to fight my mother" He announces to me, shaking my head and sighed, before looking at him that's not what I want.

"It's not that simple Oliver! This is yours and Scott's mother we're talking about, she's your family" I argued, Ollie shakes his own head this time.

"No Ella, she stopped being family when she made you break my brother's heart, by using his own child in the process, along with threatening to destroy what he's worked hard for," He said,

"If I tell Scott she's going to use everything she has on us you do know, that right? .... You include now" I replied with sadness, if Oliver gets in the middle of this, she's going drag him through the mud with Scott and me, it's not fair to him this is my mess.

"Let her try, she's not the only Vaughan who has power-;" He broke off and smiled at me for a moment before his face turns serious,

"You're not alone anymore Ella, Scott, and me, we will fight for you and Remi, but you have to fight too-;" He added with sadness. Taking in his words and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Your right I have to fight, but first I have to fight for the man that I love" I announce and got up from the sofa, turning back around to him.

"Can you look after Remi? I have to talk to him" I asked him, he nods.

"Yeah sure, go and tell him everything" He replies to me, nodding my head with a small, yet sad smile, before grabbing my keys and phone, then headed out of my house and towards my car.

I'm going to fight for the man that I love, and beg for forgiveness. I just hope Scott can forgive me for not being honest with him sooner.

Because now I take it all back, Valerie doesn't get to win, she wants a fight, she will get one.