"Then I look pretty good for a dead bitch." All heads snapped toward the direction of the hushed voice. Rayland was trying to wipe her eyes but she looked like she was in a tremendous amount of pain trying to lift her arm.

Jaylen was the first one out of everybody to react as he ran over to the bed and suffocated her in a hug. She hissed in pain and he was immediately escorted off by Jaxon.

"Hey... How y'all doing?" She asked with a bitter chuckle that she immediately regretted as a huge wave of pain rolled through her body. Paul ran out of the room to get her doctor while the brothers remaining looked at her in shock. How can she joke in a time like this?

"Don't ever scare me like that again." Liam gave her a gentle hug followed by Micheal, Jaylen, and Jaxon. Jayden watched one by one as all of his brothers hugged her, remembering when she first got here, nobody wanted her here. They made her an outsider.

How much they have grown as people and as a family, was all because of her and she didn't even know.

He slowly walked towards the bed, cautious to spark any reaction. He wrapped his arms around her and whispered something in her ear so only she could hear.

"I'm sorry, Ray."

She tried to her shocked face but she couldn't help how her eyes widened in surprise. That was the first time they hugged or the first time her called her Ray. He walked back to his set just in time that the doctor and Paul came into the room.

"Hey Rayland, how are you feeling?" A different doctor asked.

"Like I got run over by a truck." She groaned, the doctor smiled and wrote something down on his notepad.

"I'm going to put some pain medication in your IV which is going to make you a little drowsy, okay?" The doctor asked and that's when she realized the wire running from up her arm.

She nodded ready for her pain to come to an end, physical pain at least.

The medication worked pretty quickly, within ten minutes, she was lightly snoring with drool running down her face.

"May I talk to the guardian outside please?" He asked, Paul got up from his seat and followed the doctor outside of the door.

"Okay, she should be free to go within the next week, depending on how she heals." He confirmed, Paul nodded in relief but he could tell that there was a big 'but' coming.

"But," There it was. "There were some bruises that indicate she was abused anywhere from a few years ago to a few months ago. I understand she was also in a car accident a few years ago but none of the scars are caused by it. Did you know anything about this?" Paul's heart dropped.

Rayland was abused? He couldn't even fathom the fact that his stepdaughter was physically abused. He was praying that Linda wasn't the one that did it, even though he knew she didn't treat Ray very well.

When he met Linda, she was a sweet soul who he thought could never hurt a fly. They met at a restaurant when Linda ran into Paul and made him drop his drink on his white shirt. She apologized and offered to pay for the drink and the shirt but he politely refused.

They kept in contact for a few weeks and that's when he officially asked her on a date. They continued to date for seven months until they got married. That's when she started to change.

She was barely home, started calling her niece names, and would rarely even talk to her husband. Blake eventually came to his dad about the conversations that Linda and Ray had in Spanish that they thought no one but them understood. He wasn't fluent but it was enough for him to identify certain words and they were terrible.

"Excuse me, sir?" A voice interrupted him, he suddenly remembered his surroundings and the circumstances and quickly excused himself to the bathroom.

"I want a bagel, now." She slurred. Rayland had finally woken up but it was obvious that she wasn't her usual self.

"I'm sorry pumpkin but you can't have solid foods right now. You want something to drink?" Liam asked for the tenth time. She had insisted on eating her favorite food; bagels.

"Bagel!" She cried. They thought she was being dramatic until they noticed real tears flowing down her face. Paul walked into the scene but immediately stepped out after hearing her cries.

"How about you can have a bagel as soon as we get home, alright?" Micheal asked, in less than a second, Rayland's tears were gone and she had a giant smile on her face.

They had been dealing with her unusual mood swings ever since she woke up. One minute she was balling in tears, the next she was smiling and practically dancing in her bed. Jayden even asked 'Can I have whatever she is on?' which caused him to get a lot of weird looks.

-

"Can I speak to her alone for a minute?" Lana came in, the brothers left the room which left an obvious tension still left standing. By this point, the loopiness of the medicine had worn off and she was almost back to her normal self.

"I need to talk to you about something. I want you to know the truth." Rayland only nodded, not having any words to add on.

"I never wanted to leave you, I had to or I would lose you both. I didn't take Ryan because I 'loved him more' or loved you any less but because Raymond didn't like Ryan as well as you, you knew that." She spoke but Rayland only nodded, intrigued in where the story was going.

"I got a note the day your... father and I were fighting from you know who. He threatened to kill the whole family if I didn't take one of you without leaving a trace. Your father didn't have a clue- just the next day he found out we were gone."

"I- I regret even believing that bullshit." She chuckled but it wasn't a happy one, more like one that had to be done or she would be in tears if she didn't.

"You were right," Lana was surprised at her, that was the first time she spoke since she had walked in the room. She didn't dare interrupt.

"He killed Raymond, shot me. Who knows what he would've done to you and Ry. I'm glad you two were safe." Ray tried to smile but she knew it would've been fake.

"I have good news though, he was arrested the other day. He's not coming out for a long time." Lana smiled, hoping she would be thrilled by the news.

"I don't care that he's in prison." Her blunt words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them but it was the truth. "Prison doesn't take back what he did. Dad's dead, I almost died. All those years of abuse don't- don't get taken back because he's rotting behind a cell."

"It doesn't change anything. He still haunts me."

Lana only sighed, feeling guilty that the fact her daughter was even in this situation. And she blamed herself.

"Why is- was he after us anyway?"

Rayland walked into the dingy room, covered in mold and grime. The stools sat in rows, some occupied, some empty. As she walked further into the room, the more anxiety grew in her chest. She started to question why she was even in here in the first place. She hadn't seen her aunt in three months, not since she's been released from the hospital. If she thought about it, she hadn't seen anyone except for her Mom and brother.

Why did she even want to visit the woman that contributed to her pain?

She kept reminding herself, 'I'm only here for the truth, not for her.' Even if it was a lie.

The familiar face stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone else was covered in tattoos, had their hair in tight braids, and had at least twenty extra pounds of muscle. Linda sat on the other side of the glass, scrawny with a ponytail that reached her shoulders. She didn't have tattoos or a permanent glare on her face but instead purple bruises and prominent eye bags.

Rayland took a shaky breath before slowly sauntering to the chair, picking up the black telephone that was hanging on the side of the wall.

"Five minutes." The voice startled her, the female officer stood by the doorway watching her every move.

She held the phone to her ear, waiting for her aunt to speak.

"Your Mom, Your Dad, Darren, I, we've all been friends since birth. We were inseparable, did everything together." She let out a watery laugh. "Darren had the biggest crush on my sister and asked her out in highschool. She said no in front of the whole school, he was humiliated. That didn't stop him." She started, Rayland had a pretty good idea where this was going so she didn't interrupt.

"Lana and Raymond were closer than all of us and in junior year, they started dating. Somewhere along the way, Darren got jealous so he... used me. I thought he really liked me but he always looked at her differently." She tried to feel sympathy for her, she really did but she couldn't feel an ounce. Why she let him put her through that , Ray had no idea.

"One time he asked me to try to break them up. I obviously said no and he broke up with me, he said and I quote, 'You'll always put her over me.' I mean, of course I would, she's my sister, my twin." Rayland understood. She would do anything for her twin, she has. At this point, Linda had tears running down her face while Rayland tried her best not to show any reaction.

"He just- he changed. He started becoming possessive of her and- and he would always try to be alone with her. It was scary. He even tried to- I don't want to talk about it. We all decided once we graduated, we would move, get away from him." She knew where it was going, even though she was starting to rethink her decision of coming here in the first place.

"And for a while it worked, we hadn't heard a word from him in six years. All of a sudden we started getting weird threats in the mail. We tried to move again but it was too late. He already found us."

"Why'd you date him a second time?" Ray asked, that was the last piece to the puzzle. If this story was true and she was worried about her safety, why would she willingly bring her into harm's way?

"I had to." Linda breathed out, her voice low and eyes closed. "He threatened me, threatened you, I had to, for us."

For us, really? It didn't seem believable to Rayland that her aunt would give up anything for her. She has openly expressed her dislike towards her niece so why would she try to protect her? There was still one question that needed to be answered.

"You claim you did this for me- for us." Linda vigorously nodded. "Then why do you hate me?" She questioned with her head down, blocking her view of the sad look she was being given by her.

"I don't hate you, I've never hated you." Rayland scoffed and turned her head away.

"I didn't want to like you, didn't want to get attached just in case... well you know what happened." She motioned down Rayland's stomach, she became nauseous.

"You can help me get out of here, please help me. We could fix everything. I promise I don't hate you." Ray could hear her pleading voice through the phone but she didn't care. Everytime she was pleading for Linda to help her, she ignored her, insulted her, and made fun of her. She pleaded, but she was never saved.

Rayland slowly stood up from her stool, the tears were starting to gather in her eyes and she was not going to let Linda see her cry.

"Ray! Ray, come back. Please." She could hear the desperate cries despite being disconnected from the telephone. The last thing she saw was her aunt being dragged by a police officer, still begging to be saved.

Where was she when Rayland needed saving?

But she accepted that Linda didn't help her, she accepted that Darren was just an awful person, and she accepted the fact that she was separated from her other half and her Mom.

But most importantly, she accepted that she didn't need to be saved. She needed someone to help her save herself.

And she found those people six months ago and they were waiting for her to come .

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2187 Words

I am sad to announce that this is the last chapter until the epilogue. *sniff sniff

Any thoughts?

Do you think Rayland should forgive Linda?