The drive was all too familiar- transplanted palm trees to make the area seem beachy even though we were hours from the water, rough neighborhoods that gave way to nice sidewalks and newly updated roads and signs.

The homes became more extravagant the farther into town we drove, and soon we found ourselves in front of a traditional split level with a walkout basement, the place that I once considered my safest place reduced to a description of architecture.

This place hadn't been my safe haven since fourteen years old and a naïveté that rivaled even the most gullible people in the world.

I didn't think anything could touch me, I was invincible...until I wasn't anymore.

I shook myself out of my melancholic reminiscence and locked eyes with Emmett who had taken his place in the passenger seat of Lucas' car while I opted for the back.

His blue eyes were filled with sympathy and understanding, like he related to complicated family pasts more than most, which he very well might have- I didn't know his story, but he also didn't know mine, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"Okay Lydia, you gonna get out first?"

I gulped.

"N-no, you guys can get out first..." I trailed off, the memories of this place threatening to drown me if I wasn't careful.

My mother always assumed that it was her fault that I never wanted to come home. She always thought that it was Nate that drove a wedge between me and my family when in reality it had been there long before Nate had ever came along.

The wedge walked in our house and sat down right in the middle of our living room, laughed with my parents and acted like a decent human being, until that wedge did something that no one ever expected a decent human being to do...

I could feel the panic attack rising in my chest, the tingles in my fingertips trailing up my arms and extending up my neck to my head, tightening my esophagus as it did so.

Something else, I had to think of something else...

Rafael. That one would work. Get justice for Marnie by destroying Rafael in the process, take him down for Marnie, justice for Marnie. Revenge...

My heart calmed down by a few beats a minute, although the clammy feeling never left my clutched palms.

"Lydia?"

I flicked my head to the side to see Emmett and Lucas standing in front of the opened door in the backseat, both staring at me with concern etched in their eyes.

"I'm coming, I just n-needed a minute."

I extended my leg out of the car with the long thin navy blue sundress tickling my ankles as I did so.

Lucas and Emmett were both dressed in nice thin material button ups and nice jeans, albeit a bit more formal than a normal family dinner would have been, but since I hadn't seen my mother or father in over a year I figured this was the occasion for it.

I had to take a few deep breaths to keep my mind focused on the issue at hand, but when that front door opened revealing my dad, all of my resolve left me in a flurry and the tears strained against my eyes.

The hug he crushed me in was suffocating but so welcomed. I didn't mean to punish him with my absence, but the memories were so overwhelming, so unraveling, that even the thought of home brought on the harsh reality that I wasn't protected then, so how could I be safe as an adult?

I knew the thought process was royally fucked up, but it was nearly impossible to change those irrational fears and intrusive thoughts, no matter how much therapy I attended.

"We missed you so much," he said into my hair, and I realized that my grip on him was just as tight on him as his was on me.

"I missed you, too."

I made a vow then and there to not stay away from my family any longer, no matter how much pain it might cause me.

We pulled apart and the emotion shining back at me in my father's eyes was almost soul crushing.

He was remembering, too. Maybe even realizing in that moment why I'd chosen to stay away for so long.

"Come on inside, there's someone else that you need to say hello to."

I sucked in a deep breath and followed my dad inside the foyer, barely aware of Lucas and Emmett behind us as my mother's form came into view.

That dark hair cascading down her back was so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time. We shared the same high cheekbones, the same olive skin tone, the same large, round eyes.

We shared so much, yet had so little of a relationship.

The house smelled exactly the same, the scent of burning sage wafting around me in waves.

It was a scent that I'd grown so accustomed to that the memories it brought back were thankfully happy, the ones of us baking cookies in the kitchen or settling down for a movie night.

"Mom..."

"Ahyoka."

I stiffened at her given name for me, the Cherokee term that I hadn't heard in years.

She stopped a few inches away from me, her arms out at my shoulders so she could study me closer.

"I knew he couldn't break your spirit. I won't say 'I told you so', I'll only say I'm glad I was right, I just wish it hadn't hurt you in the way it did."

"Thank you, I guess."

We stared into each other's eyes for a few more moments until she pulled away, satisfied at what she'd found there.

"Let's eat!"

"Lucas, who is your friend?"

My father met Emmett on the way to the dining table and was indifferent to him until Lucas brought up the fact that he was being scouted by the Patriots and then they were best friends.

My mom's favorite pasta was served and I assumed everything was off to a good start until my mom asked what brought on this sudden need for a family dinner.

"You didn't tell her?"

My father's eyes were wide as saucers when my mom's famous stare pinned him down and I had a feeling he wasn't going to be hearing the end of this for a while.

"A mutual friend of ours was hurt by a pretty powerful guy and I didn't know who he was and we went out on a casual date a few days ago. I stopped all contact with him once Emmett told me who he was and what he'd done. I was going to go over everything with dad and Emmett about it," I told her, but this only made her angrier.

"Oh, so you're telling me that you got involved with yet another man who was wrong for you? Why wouldn't you just let me set you up with that nice boy from your school after everything happened? But no, you had to make that same mistake over and over again. First Christian, then Nate and now this man!"

At the sound of his name a ball of pure hatred began spinning in my stomach and I almost ran to the bathroom to throw up the dinner that my mother had just made.

"We both know Christian wasn't a mistake. A mistake implies a decision to be with someone, and that is not what happened and we all know that."

She realized what she'd said before it was too late and a grim expression crossed her face.

"That's not what I meant, you know I didn't- Lucas, you know I didn't mean it like that right?"

"I don't know mom, kinda sounds like you did."

My mother had always been so callous regarding the subject, and she'd never truly told me that it wasn't my fault, regardless of the numerous police officers and even her husband telling her otherwise.

"It's okay, I don't want to fight, tonight isn't about that anyway. I'm done with dinner, I'll be in the den when you're ready to talk dad."

My dad didn't hesitate in picking up his plate and following me to the den with his plate in hand and I noticed my brother and Emmett following suit, leaving my mother alone at the table.

I never said I hated my mom or that she was an evil person, her actions were just so close-minded and I never understood her reasons for doing things.

Maybe she deserved to be left sitting alone at her dinner table while her husband followed her kids, she needed to think the things she'd said over the course of her life and the things the spoke to her children. Surely she couldn't really believe those things in her heart?

"Okay, so let's begin. When did all of this happen?"

Endless questions piled on top of one another until I felt myself growing tired. I snuck a peek over at Lydia in the corner picking at her nails and tapping her foot on the ground, a sure sign that she was anxious.

I noticed how terrified she'd been to come inside her own house, but once she had her tearful reunion with her father I thought everything would be fine. Guess I wasn't as good at reading situations as I thought.

The blow up in the dining room was beyond awkward but I kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to become a part of the drama that was so obviously brewing in front of everyone's eyes.

"So, is Marnie able to come forward and publicly point the finger? You know with someone as powerful as this man, it would be hard to get him without either a full on confession or a good trial with witnesses and the accuser who actually wants to testify, otherwise you'll have no case."

I thought back to our plan on getting Rafael on my phone recorder confessing everything, but I'd have to poke and prod at his nerves a bit before he would really give anything incriminating away.

"Don't worry about that, she's definitely compliant in putting Rafael behind bars for what he did."

I didn't imply that we were likely to get a full confession from him, otherwise he would definitely try to get our plan out of me and probably talk us out of it.

Lydia's mother appeared in the doorway and we all looked her way.

"Adsila, what is it?"

She looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

"I need to speak with Lydia, please."

I noticed this time she used her usual name, instead of the one she'd first greeted her with, Ahyoka. It was beautiful.

Lydia rose from her spot on the chair and followed her mother into the entryway of the home, and soon after a knock sounded at the door.

"Oh hell no."

Those were the words that I heard before all hell broke loose.