"I'm your daddy, sweetie pie." replays over and over in my head as my heart sinks to the ground.

I pray to the God above that it isn't who I think it is.

The one person I thought would never hurt me and come after me like this is behind this.

I don't know how to feel hurt, angry, betrayed?

My blood runs cold as I stare into the now cold eyes that I once remembered to be a warm brown.

My once loving father takes off his hood and sends me a smirk. "Didn't expect it to be, huh?"

I take a shaky step back and jump when something crushes under my foot. Not taking my gaze off of his, I utter the only word that I can get out, "Why?"

Staring at me he advances to me and grips my chin hard in his hand, I wince back in pain, "You're so selfish," he sneers right in my face, "You killed my pride and joy, you killed Chase."

He whips his hand back and slaps me in the face; the impact causing me to stagger back and fall onto Mark, he lets out a groan once my body contacts his.

"I'm so sorry, Mark," I say, jumping off of him and standing directly in front of him, hiding him from my father.

"You killed my son, you left me with nothing. My wife is now a shell of the woman I used to know. You took my happiness away, and left me with nothing." he yells, grabbing my shoulder and pushing me onto my hurt best friend again. "Why do you think you are who you are today?" he asks, not getting a reply from me he continues, "because of me I'm the one who put you in acting, I'm the reason you have all your money... that makes it rightfully mine, you brat."

Shaking my head while tears pour down my face, "I am who I am today because I worked hard."

"Would you have become an actor if it wasn't because of me and your mother?"

I don't know how to answer that question; I mean yes my parents put me in acting when I was seven... I didn't have a choice if I wanted to or not.

But everything that I am today is because of me, I've worked hard and I've grown stronger since losing Chase. My parents left me and disowned me after Chase's funeral. They hated everything about me.

They left me. I didn't leave them.

"Cat got your tongue?" he grits out, "All your success is because of me, If you hadn't killed your brother I wouldn't be drowning myself with drugs, you piece of shit."

Slap after slap hits everywhere on my body, I wince and tears pool out of my eyes at a faster pace as I try to dodge each hit. Mark groans and weakly reaches out to me from where he sits on his chair.

Even when he's hurt, he tries to help me.

Such a sympathetic soul

My father throws his hand forward and pushes Mark's chair backwards, Mark lands with an enormous thump and cries out to me.

"You see how it feels having someone you love being hurt, bitch?"

I stand up on shaking and sore legs and face my father head on, "Did you forget I was there when he got killed? That he was my older brother, and I loved him?" I scream, not caring about the consequences.

Quick footsteps running into the room distract me and my father. Turning my head to the noise, I spotted three of his men running in the room. "Boss, we need to leave, we've been here too long."

"Leave I need to finish this," with a wave of the devil's hand they all walk away with smirks on their faces.

"I need to leave my lovely daughter, I took your card that is rightfully mine. You shall not speak about this to anyone, or else I will cause you more problems than you can count. Don't be alarmed if you see large amounts of cash draining from your bank account, it's just me." he pauses reaching out his hand and tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear, "Hopefully I don't see you soon, please get hit by a car on your way out." with that he gives me one last slap in the face and walks out of the room.

Not being able to get any words out, I spin around and run over to Mark. "Munchkin, can you hear me?" I desperately ask. Tears blur my vision as my gaze runs over the broken man in front of me.

Only getting a nod from him, my hands make quick work of the ropes that tie him to the chair, "I'm going to get you out of here, just hang on."

Once I get all the thick ropes unknotted I quickly grab his shoulders and connect our gazes, "I'm going to make you stand now, okay?" nodding he wraps his arms around my shoulder with a wince and a cry.

"We can do this, we're a power team," I grit out, slowing down my movements through the abandoned building. Making sure we don't step on something disgusting and not stable I move extra slowly as Mark drags himself at a snail pace wincing every time his foot contacts the ground.

I breathe a sigh of relief once my eyes adjust to the beautiful sunlight of the outdoors. Stopping in my tracks, I suddenly realize that there is no source of transportation around here. The dicks took all the cars I spotted when I first came here. It doesn't surprise me they would leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere, turning my head to observe my surroundings further. I spot nothing but grassy fields.

"Hang in there, Mark," I chant encouraged as his head drops weakly on my shoulder.

Low mumbles leave his cracked and bloody lips.

I felt weak and sweaty as I attempt to keep this heavy man upright; I walk him to a tree and sit him down with his body leaning against the trunk.

In the distance I hear a loud rumble of an exhaust, I sit up straight and run as fast as my body allows me to towards the road.

My eyes spot a black mustang muscle car racing towards me, I stagger back as its tires squeal against the road because of its sudden loss of movement. I try to make out who's behind the wheel, the black tinted windows make that impossible.

The doors are pushed open suddenly and out comes to my surprise... Dante.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask, relieved but angry at the same time.

He shakes his head and walks towards Mark. He wraps his arm around his body and rushes towards the car where I'm standing with my mouth dropped open in shock.

He places Mark's body against the seats lying down and nods for me to get in the passenger seat.

Not wanting to be in the same car as Dante but having no other choice I get in and slam my door extra hard once I'm seated.

The car zooms off causing me to joint forward, slapping my hand on the dashboard to stop my body from jolting forward, I send a glare towards him.

"You want to tell me what you're doing here?"

Looking straight ahead, he grits out, "Your father asked me for his help in getting entail from you. At first I said yes and started dating you. The more I got to know you the more I started liking you once you broke up with me, your dad got pissed and threatened to kill me if I didn't shoot you and bring you to him."

You know the expression just rip it off like a bandaid, that's exactly what he did.

I snap my gaze to the side of his head, my blood runs cold now knowing Dante was also behind this.

"I wasn't able to shoot you so I shot Mark, I felt so bad afterwards that I fled. Your dad's a dick when I went to him and told him I didn't want to work for him anymore. So now I'm being hunted by him and his men." He finishes off, not taking his gaze off the empty, long deserted road.

Betrayal fills my gut as I try to keep the tears in my eyes at bay, "Why would you want to do this to me?"

Thick silence fills the car as he grips the steering wheel tighter, making his knuckles go white under the pressure.

"Why would you want to hurt me like that?" I repeat, the volume of my voice growing louder.

He glances over at me, his black hair falling over his eyes. He gives me the hardest glare he can muster and grits out through thin lips, "You sent my brother to jail."

***

Staring ahead of me with no emotion running through my veins, I fiddle with the ring that's looped through the chain that Chris gave me.

Not being able to keep my emotions in, tears trickle down my face. My entire world seems like it's crashing down on me.

I'm sitting in the spot I feel like I was just sitting in, staring at Mark's resting body in a hospital bed. Dante dropped us off at the local hospital and zoomed off when I got a nurse's attention. When the nurse asked me what happened to him, I said I didn't know I just found him like this. She seemed to believe me and didn't ask further questions.

After finding out the man I told everything too, was my crazy ex boyfriend's brother. It all made sense now, he had a brother that was high on drugs every day and had a girlfriend he was never introduced too.

I'm that girlfriend...

He explained to me he hated my guts after his brother was sent to jail; he wanted to get back at me for sending his only family away.

I screamed and cried the entire way to the hospital, the betrayal and horror running through every bone in my body.

Dante didn't utter another word after he told me his revenge plan. The last thing I sneered to him was that he's just as crazy as his brother.

I can't believe that Dante was my crazy ex's brother, and he wanted to kill me.

Nothing beats that. First my dad, now... Dante.

Through my tears the hospital door barges open, not having the energy to glance up, a familiar scent captures my attention, fingers grip my chin and my gaze connects with my favourite shade of brown, "Butterfly."

Poor Lola...everything seems like it's fallings apart.

I wonder what's going to happen to her and Chris, do you think he's going to be upset with her?

Makes sure to follow my insta every day I'm posting stuff about my books on there!

Peace out, till tomorrow...

Xoxo, Lexi