A/N: Redone version of the first chapter. Sorry for literally hardly ever posting a new chapter, sometimes life takes you on a ride you can't pass out on. Either way the actual second chapter should be posted by this weekend, I promise. It is already done, I just need to change a few things and it'll be up.

I hope you can forgive me.

Please enjoy :)

Perfect Victim

Chapter One

Don't Look Back

"She's beautiful…" he whispered.

She snuck a quick glance at him and kept staring at the dark room; the only light was coming from the hallway. She had his beautiful blue eyes and her dark brown hair. She smiled and grabbed his hand.

"She looks so much like you, it's truly amazing," she whispered smiling up at him.

"Let's go to sleep, Gabs." He said pulling her into a bear hug.

They laughed, trying to be quiet so they would not wake up Madeline, their one-year old daughter. Troy picked Gabriella up and stared deeply into her brown eyes. He saw everything they had gone through. Their high school years; when their friends tried to break them up. Their college years; when they grew apart but remembered why they loved each other. Their wedding; when unexpected people came to the wedding and drama from previous years flowed back. Everything had turned out fine, thankfully, but it sure had scared half of the people in the wedding that knew of her.

Sharpay Evans had showed up to the wedding reception, nobody knew how because she needed an invitation to get in and neither the groom or bride invited her. Everyone thought she had come with Ryan, her brother, at first, but as soon as he saw her he quietly apologized to Gabriella and had said he had not seen her in a year or two.

She had worn a little black dress by Chanel that had a bow in the front, a pair of black Louboutin stilettos, and a black headband on her perfectly straightened blonde hair; he only knew this because of Gabriella, of course. She had been freaking out and over analyzed everything about Sharpay. With Sharpay was a handsome, tall, man who walked in sync with her. However, Sharpay had left quickly after she went to drop off a little black bag over by a table that had some presents. It was later revealed that the bag held a black box with a beautiful teardrop-shaped diamond necklace. Everyone had been confused to say the least.

The girl hadn't even said goodbye.

However, after the wedding nothing really threatened to separate them, especially after they found out they were expecting a baby girl. Troy had been so excited he jumped around all day with Gabriela close behind him, laughing at his silliness. When Madeline Bolton was born, in October 31, 2011, all their close friends had been there for the happy couple. She was a beautiful baby girl, with her father's blue eyes.

Father.

Sometimes Troy still had to stop and think about that. He was so happy with his family and he thought there was nothing that could take this happiness away from him.

Troy carried Gabriella to their bedroom, laid her down on their bed and kissed her nose.

"I'm going to take a shower, I'm still stinky from practice," he winked at her.

She just nodded and laid there for a while, waiting for the water to start running. As soon as she heard it she shot up from the bed and silently raced downstairs, careful not to wake Maddie up. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she made a sharp left turn into the living room. She turned on the bright lights and lightly jogged to the other side of the room towards the closet door. When she opened it she found exactly what she was looking for: a red bag with black lingerie inside it. She had planned this for over a week, to surprise Troy and get wild, for once, and she was excited.

She smiled to herself, picked up the bag from the floor, and closed the door. As she walked back towards the light switch she noticed something outside the window moving. She looked around suspiciously and headed towards the big Victorian window.

She dropped the bag silently and leaned over to hear for any sounds of another person outside. Gabriella slowly looked down, where the cool tile floor and the soft gray curtains met, and saw a shadow move. She narrowed her eyes and moved the curtain in a quick motion, but there was nobody there. She looked around again, as if the person was inside and closed the curtain. Picking up the red bag resting on the floor, she made her way over to the light switch again; however this time quickly turning off the light and making her way back up the stairs.

When she was in the room again, she quickly stripped and put the lingerie on and hid the bag under their perfectly made bed. As if on cue the shower had turned off. Gabriella smiled and let her brown curly hair cascade down her back. She power walked towards the door, standing next to it.

When Troy opened the door he frowned, Gabriella was nowhere in sight. He slowly closed the bathroom door and walked towards the bed, slightly worried.

"Nice towel you got there, Bolton," a soft voice purred

Troy smiled knowingly and turned around, letting his towel drop to the floor.

"What I have under the towel is even better" he said, smirking and walking over to his wife in sexy lingerie.

She waited on the couch for her date who was taking an awful long time to get back from the bathroom. His house was modern and had the white-brown color themes. She loved this house especially because it was on the beach, the sunsets and sunrises were beautiful here. Even now she could hear the waves crashing into the sands of Malibu. She stood up and impatiently started walking around the white living room, her white Yigal Azrouel chiffon dress falling softly around her tan legs. Her Steve Madden black Gladiator heels clicking softly under her.

She heard him open the bathroom door and she counted the steps it took for him to get to the living room, where she stared out at the beach below her. He slowed down when he got there and she could feel him staring at her, getting closer.

"Hey Shar, sorry I took long" he said.

"It's okay," she turned around and smiled lightly, "but I think I should get home now, I mean, I'm hungry and I don't want to bother you-"

"Hey, hey…it's okay," he said interrupting her sweetly, "you know I'd do anything for you."

She smiled broadly now and walked over to him. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. He kissed her slowly, and pulled away, looking at her smiling face. He started walking over to the kitchen to get them something light to eat but did a double take as something on his right caught his attention. The hidden drawer in his wall was open and his gun was missing.

He stopped walking and slowly turned around, suspicious, only to find her wearing his leather gloves and aiming his own gun at him. Her face was cold, no emotion crossing her face.

"Sharpay, what are you doing?" he said slowly putting his arms out cautiously, as if to warn her it was not a toy she had in her hands.

One of her eyebrows raised and she smiled a mocking smile, suddenly he understood.

He looked at the hidden drawer that looked like he had specifically been looking for the gun.

"Don't move, sweetie." She said as she herself moved to his left side, getting close to him.

"Don't do it. Please, I told him I was going to pay him, I just need more time."

"More time? I already have your money. And if it isn't enough, they'll come looking for valuables. We're not stupid, babe." She said calmly, as if she were talking about the weather.

"Then what's the point of this, Sharpay? Why not just let me go?" she laughed a throaty laugh and pulled the trigger.

He fell to the floor. A single bullet to the brain. No signs of struggle, the perfect picture of a suicide. She walked over to him and put the gun in his hands and then walked back towards the living room coffee table, where there were two glasses of whiskey. She took her finger and pushed his glass on its side, as if it had fallen, leaving her glass right next to his.

She walked out of the house, the leather gloves still on her elegant hands, and walked over to her car that was parked in front of the beautiful house. She opened the door to her black Audi A7 and took them off, dropping them on the passenger's seat. She turned the car on, and drove off into the rolling streets.

They sat silently in front of the fire, watching as the black pair of leather gloves burned. The smell of liquor wafting in the air.

"I didn't really want to do it, he was sweet. I really like these heels he bought me." She said quietly

"I know you didn't…how's your brother?" the handsome man asked.

Sharpay looked at her best friend and roommate, his black hair and black eyebrows only making his sky blue eyes more stunning. She had always told him he looked like a Husky. He was wearing his PJ's because she had woke him up asking him if he could help her burn the evidence. John was her only friend, they started only as a "team" but Sharpay started to trust him and that is how their friendship bloomed. That and he is the only person she was allowed to have a relationship with, not a romantic one of course, but one nonetheless.

"Fine. They told me he was going back to Albuquerque with Zaira for the summer." She said without looking at him.

The Company did not allow Sharpay to have contact with anyone from her past, she had to start a whole new life, therefore she had not talked to her brother in more than two years. However, they let her have people check up on him constantly and she took full advantage of that. She knew that Ryan had met this beautiful model waiting to talk to a magazine's editor-in-chief. He had been looking for a job to write controversial editorials, which he got, and she had been on a go-see. Her name was Zaira and she was born in Australia. Sharpay wished she could meet her, but she knew it was impossible. There was no way they were going to let her go see her brother, because rules were rules and she was not one to break them.

"I'm sorry, I wish you could go and visit them all the time," John said, bringing her back to reality.

"It's alright," she smiled, "there's nothing that can be done now."

After everything had been burned and cleaned Sharpay and John sat on the couch silently facing the beach of their Malibu home. Watching the waves crash against the shore calmed Sharpay. She took off her shoes and tossed them to the side, while tucking her feet under her. She always tried her hardest not to think about her brother, or the life she left behind in New Mexico. No one would recognize her if she went back anyways, everyone would say she changed for the worse even though she was pretty bad to begin with.

Sharpay had started her musical theater major in New Mexico but then something life changing happened, she met the man who changed her life and was responsible for her being where she was today. She was lonely, her brother barely called her, she really had no friends and she hated everything about her life. She had been depressed.

He met her that fateful night when she went into the local CVS to buy some sort of Tylenol or Ibuprofen. She had planned to kill herself that night.

She slowly walked into the CVS, sniffling and wiping her nose. She could feel her Ugg boots dragging on the floor, wearing them out, but she did not care. She didn't care about anything anymore. She hated herself, she hated everyone around her and everyone around her hater her. Why else would Ryan not call? Why else would everyone else ignore her? She had even called Gabriella to see if she picked up, but of course she hadn't. No one had picked up.

She felt herself start to cry again, the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach expanding within her. She quickly wiped away the tears with her black oversized sweater. Sharpay walked to the medicine section of the store and looked and looked for the Ibuprofen. She started to get frustrated and just simply grabbed two bottles of whatever painkiller she found first with trembling hands. She pulled herself together, trying to stop the shaking and dragged her feet over to the counter. She paid and left the store in a rush.

The drive over to the City Park had been a blur because of the tears falling freely now. She just wanted to die, end her life right then and there, and she was not going to back out. She parked halfheartedly and pulled out the bottles from the white and red bag. She stared at them for a while and then opened the first one in a swift movement. She felt herself pour all the red little pills onto her small hand. If one of her friends came right now and told her she was being an idiot she would stop, she would try to live. But no one would ever show up and she had come to accept that fact.

She felt her hand go up to her mouth and she threw her head back when at least five pills hit the back of her throat. No one could stop her. She did the same thing with another five pills. Her whole body was shaking with sobs when she was pulling her hand towards her mouth again, and suddenly the door opened forcefully.

"What are you doing? Stop it!" the man had said when she tried to fill her mouth with pills again, "stop it!"

"I'm gonna get you to a hospital don't worry, you'll be fine. There shouldn't be a reason for you to do this to yourself." But Sharpay wasn't listening to him.

She looked up at the man trying to see if it was Ryan. But it wasn't Ryan. The man was wearing a suit and had blood on it, she could see it on the white shirt and even on the black tie. She saw the bluest eyes and the darkest hair she had ever seen on a man, making a beautiful contrast. Then, she slipped out of consciousness.

Sharpay remembered when she woke up the next day in the hospital. He had been wearing slacks and a plain white tee, the blood gone, although she could see a little of red under his chin. He had told her what happened, how he saw her from his car and how he couldn't let another person kill themselves- his sister had committed suicide. He stopped her and took her to the hospital. He promised that even though he did not know him, he knew her. And he was going to help her get through this, and change her life forever.

And John had changed her life forever. She thanked him every day and thanked any and all the gods out there for sending an angel down to help her, even though if anyone knew what they did for a living they would not really be considered angels.

Sharpay looked at him. He was staring into the fire, his hands on his chin. He noticed Sharpay staring and turned to face her slightly smiling.

"I hate this. I wish I could just disappear for a few months and start a life where none of this had to happen."

"I know, Shar. But, this whole thing…it's bigger than us, we can't stop it from happening." He looked at her with unreadable eyes. "Let's go to sleep, you need to stop thinking these things"

He helped her up and took her to her room, where she closed her door. He looked at it and shook his head, getting this feeling in the pit of his stomach that something bad was going to happen. It was starting at that very moment.

Sorry, again, for the huge delay. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and like I said before the second chapter should be up anytime from Friday to Sunday :)