Charlotte was oddly tired from the party. She thought that it would be easier than it actually was but no matter where she was on the party, people would stare at her and the whispers begun behind her back during the whole night. Once she arrived her bedroom, she couldn't even bring herself to undress from her party gown. Instead, she simply laid down on her bed staring at the roof.

When she felt the need to move her body she felt a piece of paper under her body that she hadn't noticed before. She reached for it and searched for the light that came out of her window so she could read what was inside of the previously folded paper.

"So proud of you and your brother.

See you soon."

She froze at the sight of the handwriting. She had received many notes like that since day one of rehab but the last one was delivered to her two weeks before she was released. Without giving it much thought, she got up and – trying to make any sound – made her way to the pool house.

"Danny." She almost whispered while knocking on his door. She knew that he was still up since his bedroom lights were still on. "We need to talk."

He was surprised to see her that late in the night, considering how exhausted she looked on their way back home. "Can't sleep?"

She felt a rush of guilt coming through her body with his concern and kindness towards her once he welcomed her into his bedroom.

"Kind of." she sat on the edge of his bed beside him. She had no idea of how she would start explaining why she was there. The pressure of the paper inside her back pocket didn't make things easier.

"I can't either." He said in a laugh. "I'd say that I don't know what a whole night of sleep is for almost a whole year now."

Daniel waited to see if Charlotte would light up to his little joke about himself; instead, it looked like that she wasn't even listening giving how tense she was. He put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to raise her attention.

"Charlotte." He said softly. "What happened?"

She closed her eyes and tried to hold back the tears that suddenly flooded her eyes. All she did was reach for her pocket and placed the manila folded paper on Daniel's lap. He scanned it once. Twice. Three times before he could wash the panic that grew on his face away and say something.

"It's…" He took a breath before finishing his sentence, "mom's handwrite."

"She's alive, Danny." Charlotte said in a plea. "And I think that she plans to come back."

Daniel only nodded in agreement. It meant that whatever was the reason that she had to stay in hiding wasn't an issue anymore. Both the siblings were avoiding each other's gaze. They knew that their eyes could give them away.

"I wanted to tell you, Danny. I really did." It sounded like a flat apology.

"When you received this?" He was holding himself better than Charlotte expected.

"Tonight." She saw her brother grow a furrow. "Why?"

"Because you're making it sound like this happened way before it." He was trying to sound rational. "I say that because a little after I last visited you in rehab, I received a call."

Daniel was more serious and Charlotte turned her body to face him, which was still looking straight to the wall.

"It was a guy claiming to be from the FBI, now I don't know about it anymore." He took a second to think about it before continuing. "He said that was taking care of mom and that she wanted to see me."

Daniel couldn't put the events that took place that day on a timeline. Most of it was a blur. So he was just hoping that Charlotte didn't ask for details because he was sure he couldn't give them to her.

"He said that she trusted me with that kind of information, since you were unreachable in rehab and she didn't want to jeopardize your recovery." He looked up to remember better the words more clearly, "She was on the witness protection program and they needed me to go to the place that she was…"

"Wait. What?" Charlotte exclaimed interrupting Daniel and raising his attention. "Witness protection program? Since when?"

Daniel couldn't catch a grip on Charlotte's words. If it once sounded like none of that was news to her, now he was sure of it.

"What do you exactly know?" Daniel wasn't his calm self anymore. Charlotte could sense his break down coming along.

"Mom has been sending me these since my first day of rehab." She was looking down to her hands. "Sometimes, she would send me coded letters – just like she did when I was a kid – to update me on what happened. In one of them she mentioned doing an agreement with the ones responsible by the plane's explosion, once she figured out what they were up to. The agreement was made under the condition that she would hand them every piece of evidence that dad had on them. After it was resolved, she'd be free and promised that we would have a new life."

As she finished, she closed her eyes. She knew that Daniel was pissed, she could sense it by his increased breath frequency.

"You knew it all this time?" He twisted the sheets of his bed in a way to contain his anger. "This is not the kind of thing that you keep to yourself!"

"No, Danny!" She protested. "I couldn't tell you! Mom could be in danger."

"You played me! You played me when you had promised me that you'd be honest with me." He raised his voice from the calm tone that he was sustaining. "I could've helped! You know how tired I'm of these things happening when I'm trying to put other's interests before mine."

"I'm sorry." Charlotte whispered. "I regret it now."

"Do you know how it feels?" At the same time that Daniel was angry, he was disappointed with Charlotte. The tone of his voice was the evidence of it. "I've spent all this time worrying about how you would react to it…"

"It's not like you didn't know anything, Daniel…" Charlotte tried to put some reason. "And you didn't tell me anything."

"What was I supposed to tell you?" He got up and faced her. "That mom was alive but she only bothered to share it with me as an emotional blackmail? And that all of that happened when you were being kept away from exactly this kind of troubles for your own health?"

Charlotte could understand his reasons but, still, wanted him to understand hers. "But Daniel…" She tried to begin with but Daniel quickly raised his hand for her to stop.

"Not now, Charlotte." He put both of his hand on his face and rubbed it. "I need to be alone, please."

She got up and left the pool house letting the tears, that once filled her eyes, now stream down her face. Instead of going back inside the manor, she took the opposite direction and went for the beach. She knew that sleep would be impossible and staying inside the house would only suffocate her. She needed to be anywhere but there right now.