Warning: There is no Dimitri in this chapter. However there is the use of the word 'rape' a few times. Feel free to skip until the next chapter is posted.


"You ever feel like someone is following you?" I ask after coming back from working at the gym.

I set the groceries I've just bought on my kitchen table before returning to the living room where Lissa is.

I realize my mistake the second the words leave my mouth and I look at Liss. She is suddenly sitting up and looking over her shoulders as if someone is trying to sneak behind her in my living room.

"Someone like...like Adrian or maybe Charlie?" She asks sounding freaked out.

I want to assure her and lie but I can't bring myself to. Instead I shrug and focus on putting the groceries away. "It's just a weird feeling I've had for a few days now." I don't want to tell her I've had this feeling since all those nights ago when Dimitri took me out to dinner. "When I was at the store today I felt like someone was following me, watching every move I made." Before she can suggest that people are staring at me because they know I'm one of the girls who's pressing charges against the mayor's son and his friends or because of those photos being sent around, I stop her. "And it's not because of the case or the photos or anything like that. Or maybe it is. I don't know but I feel...I don't know weird."

I feel guilty for laying this all out on Lissa but I decided the moment she chose to help with the case that there wouldn't be any secrets. Everyone would know about everything going on. Everyone would be in the loop.

"Have you called Stan? Told him about it?" She asked, her voice trembling. She mussed her hair and the homework she'd been doing was long forgotten. True to his word, Dimitri had talked to Stan about arranging for Lissa, Victoria, and I to continue our school work that we'd send in online. I'd been doing mine during my free time at the gym.

"Yeah, I told Dimitri about it and we called Stan before I left the gym."

When I told Dimitri, he was concerned and despite Stan assurances that he'd have a patrol car drive by once every hour, he insisted on coming on with me to the store and making sure I made it home safely. I had to promise to call him when I came home to stop him from worrying.

Ever since this past weekend, when we'd spent the night talking, things between Dimitri and I were starting to feel the way they use to when it was easy to talk to him. I had to keep reminding myself to forget about the small moments where I thought he held me a little longer than necessary or brushed my hair out of my face or just made me smile and laugh and feel good.

It took a lot of strength on my part to remember that we were just friends. We didn't talk about those moments this past week. In fact, we'd made sure to keep a good physical distance from each other. It helped that Christian was usually around and that we were never alone.

"That's good," Lissa said sounding relieved. She continued on her homework for a few seconds while I folded away the grocery bags before she spoke again. "Speaking of Dimitri..."

When she didn't finish I moved to sit at the table near her. "What about him?"

"You like him don't you?"

This should have been a weird question to ask. Of course I liked him. He saved my life in the best way possible. In fact he's still saving my life by helping me, Liss, and his sister. I knew what Lissa was getting at though.

"Having a crush isn't my main priority right now," I told her honestly. "I mean, yeah I like him, more than I should. He knows that but...for obvious reasons nothing is going to happen. It's wrong for something like that...for..."

I couldn't put my words together outside of my head. As often as I'd thought about this and run through the reasons in my head, saying it all out loud made everything more true, more real. And I didn't want it to be. I didn't like living in this nightmarish reality. I liked living in those awesomely warm moments like at the dinner party where everyone was just laughing and smiling and having a good time; the moments where just being with Dimitri and talking about any and everything made me feel safe and normal.

Lissa was shaking her head as she turned her green piercing gaze back towards the computer.

"What?"

"You and I have talked about this case and Adrian and everything a lot lately. We've had to convince Victoria to help us, we've had to tell Stan and go over our story repeatedly, and each time we've talked about this you made sure to remind me and Victoria that we're not going to let what happened affect the rest of our lives."

"Meaning?" I asked, leaning forward so that she'd at least look at me when she talked to me.

She closed her laptop and turned to face me. Looking at her this closely I could see how tired she was. She had a lot of morning sickness that kept her up at night. I didn't understand why they called it morning sickness when it happened at all hours of the day. Her hair was limp and lackluster because she didn't spend as much time on her appearance as she use to. Instead, she spent the majority of her time sleeping or doing homework or helping Stan find a lawyer or just sitting by the window trying to think about everything.

When we were little Lissa and I use to plan what it would be like to live together after we'd graduate high school. This wasn't exactly the circumstances we had in mind. We though we'd be living in some big far away city. We didn't think Liss would be pregnant. We didn't think we'd be pressing charges against the popular clique while still in high school. We didn't think our parents would abandon us. We didn't think we'd be fending for our selves.

"I'm not saying that liking a guy who is older than you is wrong...or right. I'm just saying that just because you're a victim doesn't mean it's wrong to feel that way about someone. Don't let Adrian and the rest of those bastards win. If you let them get to you and have even the smallest affect on your life, they win."

Lissa stared at me, waiting for some type of response. I was speechless.

I couldn't fathom that some crush I had on Dimitri was among the priorities on Lissa's mind.

She had a point though. As many times as I told myself I'd be strong I kept dwelling on the fact that I wasn't acting the way I thought someone in my shoes should be acting. I had the constant idea in my head that victims should shelter themselves, that it'd take a while for me to ever have normal emotions again and even then that would only happen after a long period of therapy. I felt like I should be in some type of recovery mode where I'm an unemotional shell both inside and outside, I spend multitudes of time dwelling on everything that's happened to me and is going to happen to me.

I couldn't be that way.

Whether I liked it or not, my attack happened but I can't live in my shell of fear forever.

Conclusion: It's alright to have feelings for Dimitri...as long as I don't act on them.

"What makes you think I like him?" I ask curious.

"I heard you two talking after the dinner party."

"I thought you were sleep."

She shrugged as if unashamed of listening to our conversation. "I was in and out of it."

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "I like him but we kind of have more important things to think about right now."

"I know. Just...just don't feel weird about having a crush. From what I've seen Dimitri is a pretty amazing guy."

"He is," I agreed unable to fight the smile on my face. That smile slowly faded as I suddenly thought about Dimitri and Tasha. "Let's just not talk about it anymore. Okay?"

Lissa's green eyes bore into mine. For the first time in a long time I felt like she was genuinely trying to understand how I felt. It felt nice having Lissa back in my life again. It had been weird not having her with me all the time.

"Okay," she nodded. She reopened her laptop and continued on the homework she'd been doing when I came in. "So did Christian say anything about his friend coming over to fix the heater?"

"Yeah, they said they'd be over tomorrow," I told her as I went back into the kitchen to finish putting the groceries away.

"Christian's coming too?"

I poked my head back into the living room puzzled. "Yeah..why?"

She glanced at me over her shoulder before shrugging and going back to her laptop. "No reason."

"He said he'd feel weird just sending some guy that we didn't know to our house. He didn't want us to feel uncomfortable. Is...is that okay?" I ask cautiously.

Honestly the thought of having a guy I don't know in my house still kind of shook me up. Even the few times both Christian and Dimitri had been here I was still kind of shaken when I'd hear their heavy steps or when I went into another room and forget that they're there. I wasnt as afraid as I'd been when I first met them but I was still cautious when it came to being alone with people I didn't know.

I was grateful to have a friend like Christian around for times like this when I trusted so few people lately.

"Of course," Liss replied, without turning around she shrugged as if it was nothing.

Maybe I'd been expecting too much from her lately by having her meet these people-men mostly when she was feeling the most afraid. Being in close quarters with strangers was something I was slowly starting to get over but I couldn't expect Liss to progress the same as me.

Sure we'd experienced the same nightmarish ordeal but it doesn't mean we heal the same way.

"I could give Christian the key here so that they can fix the heater while we go out?" I suggested.

I haven't known him for very long but I felt like I could trust him. Afterall, I didn't peg Dimitri as the type to easily befriend somebody and as close of a friendship as Dimitri and Christian had, I knew he trusted him. And I trusted Dimitri.

"Go out where?" Liss scoffed. "To a party?"

I ignored what was becoming her usual testy attitude. I didn't know if it was the pregnancy, the case, everything she'd been through or some combination of the three. All I knew was that I had to be understanding. She didn't have very few people in her life right now and even fewer people willing and able to help her. I had to try and be there for her the way I use to be. The way I wished she'd been there for me.

"How about we go to your house tomorrow to pick up some more of your stuff?" I suggested walking back into the living room. "I don't mind sharing my clothes with you but you should know I draw the line at borrowing underwear when you run out," I joked.

Liss looked down at the sweatshirt and jeans she'd borrowed from me. "That's probably a good idea," she sighed smiling bashfully.

She ran out of clothes and I hadn't had time to do laundry.

I suddenly felt like a housewife.

This was not how I imagined senior year.


The next day, after leaving Christian the key to the house and Lissa let us into her house, I couldn't help smiling sadly.

It was just how I remembered it.

Everything polished and shiny, windows everywhere, uncomfortable furniture that Mrs. Dragomir deemed "too nice to sit on", and abstract art hanging on the plain white walls.

While it felt like everything for us had changed, some things were still he same. It felt...unreal. It felt like by walking into this house, everything that had happened wasn't real. By being in this house, I was back in my old life where I was often over here hanging out with Liss.

I glanced at her to see why she was so quiet. She was quiet on the ride over here and when we had come in, she walked carefully as if this wasn't her house. Her body - almost as slim as it had always been except for a bit of thickness she'd put on from all the eating - was stiff as it had been the day I took her to talk to Stan officially at the police station.

She looked uncomfortable and depressed. Well, more than usual.

I couldn't blame her. This house screamed uncomfortable. It represented classiness, high society, and a feeling of being unpersonable,unpetsonal. Formalness. I could suddenly understand something that hadn't occured to me before, why Lissa had been staying at my place. This house didn't feel safe. It felt too open and uncomforting and the last thing she probably wanted to feel after finally accepting she'd been attacked was feeling didn't help that she was always here alone.

"Come on. Let's get your stuff."

Walking up the marble stairs we passed the family portrait of the Dragomirs. I paused only for a second to look at André, Lissa's golden-haired, golden-boy brother. He had more personality than Rhea and Eric but still had a bit of the cold impersonal personality that came with being part of the "in-crowd".

He'd always been nice to me and his sister though.

He wasn't this amazing guy that had been like a brother to me or Lissa for that matter but he wasn't terrible. He wasn't like the others.

I wondered if Lissa missed him.

"You'd think your parents would've called at least once to check on you," I said as we walked into her room - everything white or light pastel colors similar to the rest of the house.

Lissa tossed a large suitcase to me and opened another one for herself. I grabbed her clothes from the closet and started folding and packing while she pulled clothes out from her dresser drawers.

"My father's secretary left a message. He wanted to know if I've heard from any colleges yet."

"How sweet," I mutter.

"The most caring he's ever been."

"The fact that you've stayed with me for almost a month now without them knowing shows what amazing parents they are," I say dryly.

"Same as ever," she mutters. She sighs, sitting on her bed while she continues packing. I can tell she's tired but wants to get this done as quick as possible.

I wanted to assure her that her parents loved her, that they were like us in a way, trying to avoid the pain of losing their promisingly successful son by shutting off all of their emotions including everything they felt for their daughter. I'd be lying though because I couldn't be sure what her parents were thinking by ignoring the kid they had left. They'd always been kind of distant, kind of cold and formal even to their kids - especially to their kids. It had something to do with being born into and raising kids in high society. But they weren't raising Liss. They were abandoning her. I could give my false assurances to Liss, but how could I when my mother had abandoned me too.

I decided not to say anything.

We finished packing quicker than we'd expected. I tugged the heavier suitcases downstairs and leaped back up the stairs to find Liss in the middle of her room looking around.

"Gonna miss this place?" I ask already knowing the answer.

She gave me a dry amused look and shook her head. "Not really."

"I haven't been here in a while but in a way...I kind of will," I told her honestly. I stood beside her in the middle of the room where everything but the furniture was left.

She raised a dark perfectly shaped brow surprised. "Really?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. We had a lot of good sleepovers here."

For the first time in a long time, Lissa's outright full laugh filled the air around us, echoing off the walls. "Good point. Remember when we crashed my parent's big fancy dinner party thing that one time at Christmas with André?"

I laughed at the memory, remembering fondly of the time Lissa and I had been having our usual sleepover but André let us tag along and watch while he and his friends crashed his parent's party. André acted out a lot but he always did it in a big memorable way. In fact, we were laughing so hard we had to lean against each other, both of us probably thinking about the look on Eric Dragomir's face when one he found three of our friends (former friends) skinny dipping in his pool or when three of the biggest guys from the football team streaked through the house.

It felt good to laugh so much. I'd been laughing more lately than I'd ever had in my entire laugh. Sure my life before the attack wasn't perfect. I wish the attack had never happened. If I'm thinking of my glass being half full or looking on the brighter side of things and what I've gained from my ordeal, I can focus on the idea of having a new life with new people who make me laugh and smile like this and reestablishing my friendship with Lissa.

We finally sobered, sighing nostalgically.

We both looked around the room again. I was looking for any signs on Lissa's face that she wanted to stay in the house she grew up in, that'd she'd miss it. All emotion was gone from her face after we'd completely stopped laughing. I decided that she probably wanted to leave more than anything so I focused back on the last of the bags.

"This is a lot of stuff. Did you want to grab the furniture too or is this enough?" I joked.

Lissa managed to smile again. "It is a lot," she agreed hands on her hips. She looked at me with apologetic eyes. "I know I never really asked to stay with you. I just kind of expected it. Are you sure it's cool...'cause I can-"

"You're staying with me Liss. End of convo."

There was no question about it. I wasn't going to let her wallow here alone any longer than she had to. The fact that I'd survived my wallowing and feeling alone and dark is somewhat of a miracle to me. If I can keep Lissa from experiencing that, especially with a baby on the way, I'm going to do everything to keep her safe.

"Come on, let's get going."

She was quick to agree, nodding eagerly. We both grabbed a hold of the last of the bags. Lissa looked over her shoulder once more. I wondered if she felt the same way I did sometimes, that my childhood had been different. She had a completely family, sure, but a happy loving family? No. At least I had some good memories of my mom and grandmother. I can't remember Liss ever telling me of a good time she had with either of her parents. André, yeah, sometimes she brings up good times with him but never her family as a whole. I wondered if she was thinking of what kind of parent she'd be to her baby.

"Going somewhere?"

I looked up from where I'd been picking up Lissa's bags. Lissa turned so suddenly that I think I heard her neck crack while she tried picking up another one of the bags. We both stared at her mother standing in the doorway. We hadn't heard her come in. Rhea Dragomir - much like this house- was just as I remembered: tall, slim figure, glistening platinum hair piled in a neat bun on her head, stiff as a board, and eyes as piercing as her son's had been. She was dressed in her usual attire of a plain, stiff looking dark business dress, pantyhose, and enclosed heels so high that they make my feet hurt by just looking at them.

Lissa recovered quicker than I did. She recovered quicker than I expected her to.

"Yes, mother. I'm leaving. You probably wouldn't have even noticed if you hadn't come home so early." Liss was as calm and cool as her mother was. The change was so sudden I had to look back at her to make sure it was Liss standing there and not someone else, an ice queen in her place. Even though I was standing closest to Rhea she avoided looking at me as if I'm not even there.

Lissa shouldered her bag and moved toward the door. She easily brushed past her mother in the large doorway and glanced back to make sure I was following. I could feel Rhea's sudden glare as I made my way past her but my fear of the cold woman wouldn't let me look up and meet her eyes. I could also feel her start trailing behind us a heartbeat later. We walked down the descending curved staircase but Liss stopped at the bottom where her father had suddenly appeared. He too had the lightest of blonde hair neatly parted, business casual clothes consisting of dark slacks, a dress shirt, and shiny shoes.

"What's going on? Vasilisa, where are you going?" To his credit, he sounded genuinely concerned and curious. When Liss didn't say anything, probably irritated that he'd used her full name, he flicked his gaze to his wife, looking right over me as she had. "Rhea?"

"I'm guessing it has something to do with Rosemarie's being here," Rhea replied coolly. I cringed at the use of my own full name. I could feel her scrutinizing me with just her eyes without an ounce of emotion on her face. It was a pretty neat trick that I'm sure would come in handy if I could do it. Eric finally decided to acknowledge me too even though I was standing on the stairs between Liss and her mom.

"Rosemarie Hathaway. It's been a while," he noted.

I nod slightly.

"What's going on here? What are you going Vasilisa?"

Lissa just sighed at the use of her name again and ran her hand through her hair. "I'm sure you'll find out eventually. Just turn on the news or find a newspaper or something. It'll explain everything," she said dryly. She continued descending the stairs, her hand on the front door knob.

"Vasilisa stop. Whatever is going on you're being childish about it," her father told her calmly. Lissa froze.

"I thought you were mature enough and certainly old enough to handle being on your own around here while your father and I were away."

Lissa's shoulder's tensed at her mother's words. She turned around slowly.

"Well I guess I'm not mature enough to handle being raped."

Lissa had inherited her mother's coolness. At times like this it definitely came in handy because for a split second, shock managed to register on her father's face. Rhea seemed unfazed and somehow that made her even more scary.

"What are you talking about?" Eric asked once he recovered.

Lissa turned in one swift motion to face both of her parents. "Raped dad. Violated, hurt, victimized, sexually assaulted. All while you and mom were away handling the important things instead of being here, being parents."

"I knew this would happen," Rhea said, clasping her hands in front of her. "I expected it," she said raising her chin a bit. "The way you girls would dress, not handling yourself as a dignified young woman of society. It's honestly not a surprise."

The way my mother had reacted was bad. Bad but somewhat understandable to a certain degree. This, Rhea Dragomir's reaction, was horrifying. Bone chilling. Victim blaming. The word suddenly popped into my mind. Dr. Odenlenski had brought it up when she talked to me after the examination to make sure I was in the right mind and not suicidal or anything. Stan had even mentioned it once or twice. I couldn't believe it and yet I shouldn't have been surprised. Lissa sure wasn't.

Eric seemed unsure of whose side he stood on. He seemed to still be processing the 'my daughter was raped' part of this discussion.

"Surprise surprise. My mother blames me." Lissa rolled her eyes running her hands through her hair. It was habit she had when she was anxious. "Maybe you'll even make a few jokes about it. Don't you want the nitty-gritty details for your joke material when your society friends find out? Or do you plan on trying to keep this a secret for as long as you can?"

"I think they already know," Eric was the first to reply while Lissa and her mother were locked in a stare down. "The Petrovs called us directly and told us a bit of a scandal was building at home and that it should probably be dealt with before things worsened. That's why we're home so early. I'm assuming the 'scandal' has to do with your...the situation."

"Yes, father. I'm the 'scandal, the situation' that's all over the news," Lissa said without looking at him. "It was my big ploy to get your attention," she added sarcastically. "You know, I love that the Petrovs can call you directly and all I get is your secretary or some lame voicemail. Now that I'm a town pariah, do I get to call you directly?"

The thing about Lissa's sudden quick wit being so surprising is that she's always been the good daughter. She's always done what she was told to please her parents, she quickly accepted that they be even colder after André died, and she made most of her decisions to appease them. She'd never talked back or spoken up. Sure there were subtle rebellions like crashing her parents party but nothing like this.

Completely ignoring everything her daughter has jut said, Rhea spoke next. "So you were raped?" she asked, the disbelief clear in her voice. "And now you're going to make matter worse by moving from home? Have you thought about how this makes us look? What this will do to your future? What exactly are your plans?"

Lissa threw up her hands exasperated.

"I don't know mother! I honestly don't know! I haven't thought about college or anything really school related because I have to balance my nausea and my lack of sleep schedule with worrying about this case and if I'm keeping this baby or putting it up for adoption! So college hasn't been my main priority."

Mrs. Dragomir looked as cool as a cucumber. Unfazed by Lissa's admissions. I wondered if anything fazed this woman. Oddly enough I had the suddenly memory of one Halloween when we were younger. The Dragomirs were taking their turn in the neighborhood by throwing a big Halloween bash and a decorator dropped the end of a table on her bare foot. She looked more annoyed than hurt at the time, irritated that it had happened.

The same way she was looking now.

This was a scary woman.

"So there is more to this scandal?"

"Yeah, I'm pregnant," Lissa said calmly. She tilted her head to her side to gauge her mother's reaction. There wasn't one. Only words. Cruel, cruel words. "You're going to be grandparents."

Mr. Dragomir suddenly had a vein pulsing at the side of his neck and forehead.

"The Petrovs didn't mention that! A product? An abomination of this...of this-" Clearly he wasn't as emotionally collected as his wife.

"Rape?" Lissa offered. "Aren't you proud? You've both always insisted I learn to manage multitasking. Well now, I am juggling a pregnancy with loads of stress, some of which you're putting on me right now."

"You're keeping this child?" he asked.

"Haven't decided yet but the angrier I see it makes you, the more I'm leaning towards keeping it. Parenting can't be that hard right? You two sure make it look easy."

Eric surprise passed and was replaced with anger. "We didn't work this hard to get you this far in your schooling only for you to-"

"Do you hear yourself right now?"

I was wondering why in the middle of this family discussion, three pairs of green eyes suddenly shifted to me. I realized, to the surprise of all of us-except Rhea-that it was me that had spoken and interrupted. I kept going though. Everything that had built up during my silence while they talked was forming into sentences now. Now that I spoke there was no stopping the words from coming out.

"Has anything Lissa said in the last ten minutes registered in your heads? Are her words going in one ear and leaving out another because surely that'll explain your unbelievable reactions. I honestly can't believe what I'm hearing."

"Young lady-" Eric started.

"It's Rose. Not Rosemarie or young lady. Just Rose and you know that. Don't talk down to me like you're some how above me in worldly knowledge and adult experiences. Don't talk to Lissa that way wither because we've both been through hell these last few weeks and the last thing she needs right now is to listen to the two of you. You also know that she hates being called Vasilisa. I use to spend so much time in this house that I practically lived here. in fact, I spent so much time here that an hour ago, I almost felt comfortable enough to try and comfort your daughter by telling her that you guys loved her and you're not as cold as you seem. Obviously wrong and now I'm glad I didn't lie to Liss. I've know both of you most of my life as the distant, wealthy parents of my best friend but I wouldn't have imagined in a million years that you'd treat somebody, especially your daughter, your last child this way."

That last sentence about Lissa being the last child was thrown in to make them see reason. It was a low blow bringing it up but my point wasn't to hurt them. It did however finally got a reaction our of the ice lady standing a few steps above me. So slightly that I barely saw it and thought I imagined it, she flinched.

Eric was suddenly as stiff as Rhea had been. His eyes widened and his mouth was open in surprise. Rhea was better at hiding her emotions. She gathered herself quickly to hide the shuddering flinch I'd seen.

She took a breath and held it, her face a mask of stone as it almost always was. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. She looked first at me and stepped down so that she was only a step above me. "Always so outspoken. I see you have yet to outgrow your childhood and shed that worthless child image. I doubt you ever will. I don't know where you think you get off talking to either of us this way, especially being the daughter of a man who abandoned his family probably for something better and a woman who is an alcoholic. That father of yours whoever he may be probably saw your worth and your mothers the same way I do, deemed you both lower than dirt and took off. If I thought you worthy enough I'd consider you the same. But here's how I see you: a nuisance that has lead Vasilisa from the path of success we were leading her toward. And Vasilisa is to spatially blame for this as well because she allowed herself to be led astray. She allowed herself to become the failure so much that she cannot carry the weight of her full name."

As amazing as she was a hiding her emotions, Mrs. Dragomir had the speech capabilities of best debate team members. Even I was impressed with her diction and syntax though her words were directed at me to hurt me as I hurt her. It worked. She leaned away from how close she'd been to me as if I was an infection she loathed being anywhere near her. One side of tight mouth was pulled into a smile.

"See, now we've both said some things we should regret. I certainly don't. Now that I've said my two cents," she breathed a sigh of relief, a full smile tugging at her face before completely falling away. "Get out." She turned her glare onto Lissa but her words were still directed towards me. "And take the trash with you."

I felt like crying. For Liss. For myself. For this cold-hearted woman who literally called her daughter trash.

I wish I could hug my mother right now. Things aren't perfect between us but I think she'd let me hug her now that everything has sunk in.

I don't know what's worse though: unlike Lissa's mother kicking her daughter out, my mother decided to leave the situation. Maybe they're the same, two very different terrible reactions to everything that's happened to the children they gave birth to.

If it wasn't for the shared similarities in appearance and Lissa's ability to mirror her mother's collected attitude, I'd have thought Lissa was adopted.

Right now I wish she was adopted, her real parents being happy normal people willing to take her in, love her and hold her. And maybe hold her friend Rose too. Without any question. They'd hold both of us just because.

Lissa's ability was in full effect right now because I didn't one ounce of hurt on her face or in her eyes. Instead she recovered quickly and nodded. "Understandable. I should've expected this, the both of you doing absolutely nothing."

Eric sighed. He looked older than he did when I first saw him at the bottom of the stairs. He folded his arms across his chest after running a tired hand over his face.

"This matter affects all of us though your mother and I have yet to gather the facts of the situation. When we do, we'll be sure to take this matter into our hands and settle it." He looked up at his wife. "It'd be better if she stayed. The press wouldn't be able to reach her as easily here," he tried to convince her.

I was sickened. Press? This was his main concern. Wow.

"For now, I want it gone," Rhea replied staring Lissa down. She flicked her gaze to me and back again to Lissa. "I want both of these things gone."

Eric exhaled through his nostrils heavily but nodded as if understanding. "For now," he agreed turning back to his daughter. "You can use your car to finish moving but we'll send someone to come and get it soon. It's too conspicuous. We'll contact you when the matter is resolved or if your needed in the resolution process."

I shook my head in disbelief. I felt ashamed that I had even thought about defending these people, of trying to make Liss grateful that she at least had two parents instead of one. That she had a completely family. She doesn't though. These two people are nowhere near family. Suddenly that saying of family being more than blood makes a lot of sense to me. I clench my hands on Lissa's bags tightly in my hands and continued the last of the steps down the stairs toward Liss.

My anger boiling under my skin but all of my sadness for Liss and this family was slowly trying to squelch it. "Are u ready to go?"

"Definitely," she said in a surprisingly strong voice, her face devoid of emotion.

I looked at Eric and even managed to look at Rhea who did well to hide the disgust off of her face.

"Don't bother contacting her. Do what you need to save your precious image but don't act like you give a damn about your daughter." I opened the door. "Let's go, Liss."

She left without looking back.

On the way home, now that her parents couldn't see her, she struggled to keep emotion off of her face.

In fact she let everything show: hurt, disbelief, anger, sadness, hopelessness, loneliness...every representation of being beyond darkness, of just being lost.

There were too many times that I felt the same way.

I let her cry the same way Dimitri had let me cry. Even when they became uncontrollable sobbing tears I said nothing because there was nothing too say. That she managed to hold in her emotions for so long, especially when her hormones and her emotions were everywhere right now, is amazing to me. I'm proud of her, not letting her parents see the weak person they thought she was.

Lissa was one of the strongest people I knew.

Where Dimitri and Christian's strengths were physically and personality related, Lissa's strength was entirely different.

She made mistakes, mistakes so big that I thought I'd never see her as a friend ever again.

The world has kicked the crap out of her at such a young age. It took her a while but she eventually decided to stand up and start kicking back against everyone who has ever kicked her.

Despite those mistakes she made, she's strong because she's owning up to them. She was willing to fight back and face public scrutiny and humiliation doing it. She was doing it for herself but also to help me and Victoria the same way we were doing it for her. Victoria had decided to help us and that was amazing in itself. But it had taken a lot of convincing on our part for her to do so. My biggest fear is that if Lissa and I hadn't ever gone over to talk to her, she would've let this ordeal ruin her life. Victoria was just as strong as Liss but somehow Lissa's strength was different in my eyes.

Liss was doing all of this without having to be convinced -pregnant- when she was most likely feeling the weakest, the most hopeless, the loneliest.

But she wasn't alone.

She had the Belikovs, Ozeras, and Stan Alto.

And she had me.


A.N: WOW! I hadn't meant for this chapter to be so long or so Lissa and Rose related. Sorry for the lack of Dimitri but at least I gave you a warning in the beginning. Your views, favorites, follows and reviews make me feel awesome as always, especially those long ones!