A/N: The flashback scene at the start of this chapter might be triggering, as there's a more explicit depiction of Don's abuse of Sharpay. If this is triggering for you, please skip it. Your health is more important than my story!

"I don't get why you're so angry."

Sharpay crosses her arms over her chest as she raises her eyebrows, tapping her foot as she anticipates an answer.

She's frustrated. Her relationship with Don had been so good in the beginning. He had been so romantic and charming and he had made her feel like she was on top of the world. She had fallen for him so deeply, so quickly.

But lately, all they've done is fight. About stupid little things like her spending money on a new dress without consulting him or forgetting to do the dishes, but also about bigger things. About his business being more important than her, about her own ambitions – she's not willing to let go of her dreams of Broadway yet –, about the fact that Don doesn't like her family and he doesn't want her to meet his.

He is completely wrong for her.

Seeing the fire light up in Don's eyes, she glowers at him. That fire used to excite her, but now, it just frustrates her and truthfully, it makes her feel slightly uneasy.

"Why I'm angry?" he hisses, his voice dangerously low. "You went behind my back."

Sharpay's glare is unrelenting as she refuses to show him any vulnerability.

He should be happy for her. She has a callback for Broadway. She's so close to that spotlight she's wanted for her entire life. She can practically feel it.

This should be a celebratory occasion, not the cause of a fight.

"I knew what you would say if I told you," Sharpay states coolly, "It's not like you're good at hiding that you think my ambitions are stupid."

"I don't think that," he snaps, stepping forward into her personal space as he grabs her arms. "I just think that it's not as easy as you think. I don't want you get to hurt."

Sharpay scoffs as she attempts to keep a straight face. He's holding her way too tightly and his nails are digging into her forearm painfully.

"Right now, you're the only one hurting me," she says as she tries to pull her arms out of her grip.

Don's eyes lighten a little bit, an apology swimming in his dark depths, and he grimaces as he lets go of her, turning swiftly and marching into the kitchen.

"You're not going to that callback."

Rage boils inside her and stomping her foot childishly, she follows him angrily. "Who are you to stop me?"

Bracing him against the kitchen sink, Don sighs. "I'm your boyfriend. We live together. You should involve me in those decisions."

Sharpay lets out a bitter laugh as she rolls her eyes. "I would involve you if you didn't constantly try to make decisions that I don't like."

"It's called compromise."

"Oh, no, this is not compromise," Sharpay hisses, her tone low and furious. "This is you trying to control me."

Pausing, she narrows her arms and crosses her arms over chest again. "Why are you so against me going out for auditions? And don't give that bullshit about not wanting to see me get hurt again."

Don glances up at her, seemingly contemplating something, before shaking his head.

"It's complicated," he mumbles, and Sharpay purses her lips in response.

"Tell me."

Don shakes his head again. "It's best if you don't know."

Sharpay throws her hands up in the air in disbelief. "Oh, so you think you can make decisions for me and not even let me know why?"

Don shuts his eyes, his knuckles turning white as he holds onto the kitchen counter, leaning all his weight against it as if he's trying to fight something. "I can't."

"I'm not your property, Don," she hisses at him, breathing heavily, angrily.

She's Sharpay Evans. Sharpay Evans gets what she wants. She refuses to let anyone hold her down.

Letting go of the kitchen counter, Don turns to her with a warning glare. "Sharpay, stop."

"No."

He scowls at her, moving forward with a large, menacing stride, watching as she stays put in her position, head held high.

He scoffs and shakes his head, before attempting to step past her. However, she stops him, shaking her head furiously as she places a hand to his chest and pushes him back softly.

"You're not leaving until you give me an answer."

"Oh, yeah?" he bites back daringly, and Sharpay feels her resolve crumble slightly as that dangerous glint appears in his eyes again.

Her stomach flips nervously, but she refuses to give up now. Sharpay Evans doesn't give up.

"Yeah," she whispers threateningly as she takes a step forward to him, raising her eyebrows at him challengingly.

Slap.

Sharpay lets out a yelp as she stumbles back, staring at him incredulously as she holds her stinging cheek.

He just hit her.

He stares at her, looking just as shocked as she feels, and she feels her knees threaten to give out beneath her.

He hit her.

Instinctively, she rushes out of the kitchen and up the stairs. In their bedroom, she frantically pulls open their wardrobe and starts grabbing clothing items and piling them on the bed while she tries to remember where her suitcase is.

She barely hears the footsteps come upstairs through the pounding in her ears and when she sees him appears in the doorway, she cowers slightly, her breath hitching in her throat.

"I'm sorry!" he immediately exclaims. "I don't know what came over me."

"Give me one good reason to stay," she hisses back as she keeps rummaging through the closet.

Don's eyes flicker with panic as he rushes forward, sticking his hand out to touch her, but retracting it before their skins come into contact.

"Where will you go?"

This makes Sharpay stop in her tracks.

She could go to Ryan. He's in the city, not far from here. However, there's been an unspoken distance between them since they went their separate ways, since she met Don. He has his own life now, he has new people, he is happier than he ever has been when she was in his life. She doesn't want to intrude on that, she doesn't want to selfishly take away his happiness again. There's no place for her in his life, not when she's like this.

She could go back to Albuquerque, to her parents, and work at Lava Springs. She can't do that either. She can't waste her life away in that dump. She can't prove her father right. She's not an incompetent fool like he thinks she is. She can't prove her mother right either. She's not any less worthy than her brother.

"I'll find something," she says, angrily throwing a pair of socks on top of the pile of clothing as Don keeps lingering behind her.

"It won't happen again, I promise. I'll be better. I'll be more supportive. I'll come with you to your audition."

Sharpay shakes her head, his desperate words not convincing to her.

"Please, don't let us fail."

Sharpay freezes.

Sharpay Evans has failed so many times over the past few years. She's lost her control over the East High drama club, she's lost the Star Dazzle Award, she's almost lost her brother, she's lost Troy Bolton, she's lost the scholarship to Juilliard, she's lost so many Broadway auditions.

She's going to lose Don, too. She's going to lose the one thing that's been even remotely successful.

With a gulp, she turns around to face Don. "I'm going to find a hotel for tonight. I need some space."

She sees the fire flare up in Don's eyes again, and she wonders if he's going to lash out again. However, he just nods, casting his eyes downward in a sign of rare vulnerability. "Will you come back?"

She bites her lip. "I don't know."

As she walks through the streets of New York half an hour later, her cheek still stinging with the memory of his slap, tears silently flow down her cheeks.

She's going back. She doesn't want to, and she knows she shouldn't. But she is.

She has lost too much. If she loses this, she has nothing left.

"We know where you are. We're coming for you."

As soon as the threatening words are spoken to her in a digitally altered voice, the line dies and all that is left is a dial tone.

Slowly, she lowers the phone from her ear as the words sink in.

She's going to die. Sabrina is going to die.

She can't think. She can't breathe. Paralyzed by fear, she just sits there, holding Sabrina, staring at the TV but not seeing anything.

What should she do? Should she stay here like a sitting duck? Should she flee and disappear into the night before it's too late?

But where does she go? And what happens if Anderson loses track of her?

Anderson.

She should call him. Gasping for breath, she stands up, Sabrina still in her arms, and all but sprints to the kitchen in search of the phone number she's supposed to call in emergencies.

Fishing it from the bottom of one of the cabinets, she breathes erratically as she struggles to dial the number due to her trembling hand.

It feels like centuries before someone picks up at the other end of the line. As soon as she hears a voice, she immediately shouts into the phone, panicked, "This is Vanessa Montgomery. I need to talk to Marshal Anderson. Now!"

"We will put you through."

And as she waits again, and it seems like an eternity again, she feels the tears well up in her eyes. This is really it. This is really how it's going to end.

She had dreams once, she had passion and a fire inside her, and all of that is quenched, and now she's going to die in witness protection in California, a shell of her former self.

This is not how Sharpay Evans is supposed to die. This is not how she's supposed to live.

"Sharpay?"

As soon as she hears Anderson's voice, low and comforting, she starts sobbing.

"They found me," she manages to get out between sobs, "They're here and they're going to kill me and I don't want to die yet. I'm so young! And my daughter needs me. Oh god, what's going to happen to her? What am I going to do?"

"Sharpay, slow down. What happened?"

She closes her eyes and breathes in and out slowly, trying to calm herself down. "I was just called by an unknown number and I thought it was you, so I picked up, and they said they know where I am and that they're coming from me."

"Stay right where you are," Anderson says, and she chokes on a sob as she notices the urgency in his voice. "We're on our way. Whatever you do, don't move."

"Okay," she mumbles before the line goes dead and she lets out another loud sob, effectively waking up Sabrina, who looks up at her with a trembling lip and confused eyes.

How did this happen? How did they find her?

Did Mark have something to do with it? He's been always behaved a little strangely around her, but as Todd has pointed out to her, he obviously has a crush on her. Perhaps he's just a creepy pervert.

Was it Todd? It couldn't have been. He's so nice. She's fallen for such a trap before, for someone who pretended to be on her side and then wasn't, but she's fairly sure Todd is not capable of this. There would have been signs.

Debbie has always been oddly curious and suspicious about her; maybe it's her fault. However, Debbie is also a suburban soccer mom, it's pretty much in her blood to be so annoyingly intrusive.

And then there's Troy and Gabriella, the only people who know her true identity. Somehow, they have become the people in this town that Sharpay trusts the most. She has known them for years. They would never betray her like this.

At least not willingly.

They promised her they wouldn't tell, but they could have called Ryan before they made that promise, or they could have even broken their promise and called him after her confession.

They have never asked her for answers. Maybe they already had found some answers through her brother.

The people after her could have tracked Ryan's calls and found her through him.

If they have called Ryan, it means that they have not only endangered her and Sabrina, but also Ryan.

The fear and hysteria suddenly cease and make place for blinding rage. Before thinking through what she's doing, she's strapping Sabrina in the carrier and making her way out of the door, on a warpath to tell Troy and Gabriella a piece of her mind.

They must pay.

As soon as Troy opens his front door, Sharpay furiously brushes past him and barges into his home, slamming the door behind her.

She hasn't really thought this through, she realizes now. If they really are out there, they could have grabbed her and Sabrina when she was on her way to the Boltons.

They could have seen Troy in his doorway. She could have just brought him and Gabriella into danger as well.

However, she doesn't care about that. They brought her into danger, so why should she care about their safety?

"How could you?!" she yells at Troy, trembling with rage as Troy's eyebrows furrow with confusion.

She has to give it to him. He is a good actor. She's not buying it for a second, though.

Before she can rip into him, she hears footsteps and Gabriella appears, making her way down the stairs with an equally confused look.

"What's going on?"

Sharpay's eyes narrow in response to Gabriella's faked innocence and she sets the carrier down, ignoring Sabrina's whimper, as she crosses her arms over her chest. "You tell me."

"Sharpay, I really don't know what you're talking about," Troy answers from behind her and Sharpay turns back to him, shaking her head at him disbelievingly and scoffing.

"I can't believe I actually trusted you," she says, anguished. "It's been, what? Ten years? And I made the same mistake again. Why do I always fall for your bullshit promises?"

"Sharpay," Troy says, so softly, and she feels the tears threaten to fall as he reaches out to grab her hand.

She shakes her head and slaps his hand away as she takes a step backward.

She hates the seemingly genuine concern in his eyes. He doesn't care. Neither does Gabriella. If they had, they wouldn't have betrayed her like this. If they had, they would have kept her safe, not put her life in jeopardy.

As she walks backwards, she suddenly feels a soft hand on her shoulder and she turns around to face Gabriella, that same worry swimming in her brown depths.

"What happened?"

Sharpay pulls her body away from Gabriella, glaring at her menacingly. "I told you to not tell anyone that I'm here."

"We didn't," Gabriella says, puzzled, and Sharpay raises her eyebrows at her incredulously, feeling herself steadily becoming angrier.

How dare they act so innocent, as if they did nothing wrong? They know very well what they did.

"Bullshit," she snarls. "If you didn't tell anyone, then how did they find me?"

She searches Gabriella's face for any sign of recognition, any trace of guilt. She finds nothing. Instead, Gabriella remains utterly befuddled, her face blank.

"Who found you?" she asks, a little hesitantly as her eyes cloud with worry.

Sharpay just shakes her head. "Why don't you just ask Ryan? Speaking of him, by the way, you didn't only jeopardize me, but you also brought him into danger, so I hope you're happy with yourself."

Gabriella's eyes widen with realization and she rushes forward, but Sharpay raises her hands to stop her, with a warning glare. Gabriella stops in her tracks. "You think we called Ryan?"

Sharpay shrugs with a curt nod. "Again, how else would they have found me?"

Before Gabriella can speak up again, she puts up a finger to stop her from talking. "You know how you told me to check the damage behind me when you left Lava Springs? You should take that advice yourself."

Hearing Troy letting out a warning sound behind her, Sharpay just waves him off, her furious gaze still focused on Gabriella. "You have no idea what you've done. You have no idea what I've been through. You have no idea what it's like to be hurt. You're so concerned with yourself that you can't take a step back and realize that not everyone's life is as perfect as yours!"

Tears spring to Gabriella's eyes as her posture slumps a little. Her lip trembles and hurt swims in her eyes.

Sharpay rolls her eyes. Of course she's going to play the victim.

"Sharpay, stop," Troy hisses behind her and Sharpay turns around to glare daggers at him.

Before she can launch a rant at him, though, he speaks up himself. "You're not the only one who's been through something, Sharpay. I get that you're hurt, but whatever happened, we had nothing to do with it. And even if we did, you have no right to barge into our home and speak to my wife like that."

Sharpay gulps at the furious storm in his eyes. It reminds her of the way that Don used to look at her before he lashed out. Deep down, she knows Troy would never do that, but she can't help but cower under his gaze.

"We've helped you, Sharpay," Troy says after a moment of silence, his voice a little softer than before, as a hint of concern reappears in his eyes. "We're not your enemy."

From behind, Gabriella speaks up again, her voice soft and caring, but also weak with hurt. "Let us help you again."

Looking back and forth between Troy and Gabriella, both of them obviously hurt, but still caring, she shakes her head furiously.

They're speaking the truth. They haven't done anything.

And instead of them bringing her into danger, she's bringing them into danger by being here, in their home, when her demise is imminent.

She wants so desperately to stay, to tell them everything, to let them help her. But she can't. Miraculously, she hasn't lost them yet, but if she stays, she might lose them after all.

"No," she whispers, tears starting to fall down her face. "I can't."

She turns to Gabriella and smiles weakly. "I'm sorry."

Then, she grabs the carrier that she's set down and walks out of their house, letting out a sob as she pulls the door closed behind her.

With long, desperately fearful strides, she returns to her home. Setting down the carrier, she hoists Sabrina up and smiles apologetically as the baby reaches for her nose.

Sitting down on the couch, she rocks back and forth, holding her daughter tightly as she chants the same two words to the infant over and over again.

"I'm sorry."

And then she waits for the end to come.

A/N: This was probably the most emotionally draining chapter of this entire story to write, and I guess that says something, considering how angsty this entire thing has been, lol. I hope you enjoyed it, though, and as always, please leave a review!