Keeperofwords here: Going to be real with you dear readers, this one ain't an easy read. But trust me, it's necessary and important for plot development. I think my co-author and I would both agree, we absolutely love Cassandra July in this one folks. So enjoy! And lastly those of you who love Dee, just like we do, she aint going anywhere. Ok?

"Actions Speak Louder Than Words"

Chapter 21:

Cassandra turned off the office light and shut the door physically while symbolically shutting off the days' stressors. She had accomplished a lot already, but knew there was always so much left to do. The conversation she'd had with her aunt had left her cautiously hopeful, but the voices in her head were busy and loud, and she felt exhausted trying to get them all to just shut up so she could breathe.

She felt like she was dragging herself up the stairs, and by the time she got to the bedroom her body felt heavy. She stood in the doorway and furrowed her eyebrows at an expression of shock on Shelby's face. Silent tears fell down Shelby's cheeks, and Cassandra felt a stab in her stomach. Something was very wrong.

Shelby had told her she had a box she had wanted to go through while she talked with Melissa. It was one that was unmarked that Shelby had assumed was full of sheet music that she intended to use for the upcoming semester. Shelby had been beyond curious what all was in it, despite how tired they both were after a physically hard day's work, but by the look on her wife's face, Cassandra could tell there was much more than just sheet music in that mystery box.

In shaking hands, Shelby held a large envelope, most of its contents scattered across the bed in front of her. The envelope was addressed to Dee Corcoran, and the return address had Susan Turner's name written in a rushed cursive handwriting. Frustration was already boiling beneath Cassandra's skin.

"Shelby, what's wrong?" Cassandra asked, sitting on the bed to face her wife and go through the official looking documents that were laid out in front of her. Why did Dee have all of these documents and how long ago had they all been written? Were the two women still in contact? Had Dee been lying to them this whole time?

The top document looked like a contract. Cassandra flipped it over in her hands to see what appeared to be her wife's signature, but was very obviously not Shelby's handwriting-Cassandra and thousands of fans knew her true autograph anywhere. The contract was between Shelby and an adoption agency, presumably the one that gave Rachel to the Berry Men. A closed adoption.

"Shelby?" Cassandra asked again. She felt the bed shake as Shelby held a trembling hand to her mouth and sobbed silent tears. Cassandra bit her lip and continued to flip through the other documents. Several wire transfers for hundreds of dollars, all dating back to years ago, when Dee was working in other countries, and leading up to the previous christmas. Sonograms from when Shelby was pregnant with Rachel. A few christmas cards in Susan Turner's slanted cursive handwriting. Letters from the state claiming there was no information that could be provided on the adoption of "Rachel Berry".

A sharp chill shot through Cassandra's body. Why had Dee kept all of this private, and more importantly, how had it been in their attic without them realizing? Had Rachel seen any of it during her time spent up there?

Not likely, Cassandra tried to calm herself. It was buried under all of that other stuff…

Her heart was pounding.

"Shelby." She tried again, her tone hardening. "Please say something."

"I-" Shelby's cleared her throat, unsure what there was to say. Dee had been keeping all of this from her. Dee hadn't been honest about her relationship with her mother. She'd had sonograms of Rachel this whole time and never showed them to Shelby. "Why would she do this? Why would she..."

"Shelby, I'm going to kill your aunt." Cassandra decided, ignoring the question completely because she didn't know the answer. She paused. "...Are you okay?" She knew it was a stupid question- of course she wasn't okay- but she needed to check in before making any decisions.

"My head hurts, Cassie, and I just..." Shelby sighed. "I don't..."

Cassandra's jaw clenched. "You won't have to." she reached over to place a firm kiss on Shelby's temple, moving to get off the bed and go back down the stairs.

Shelby rolled her neck a little bit and let out an exhausted sigh. She felt so angry, but she also felt so tired.

"Please don't hurt her, let me go with you-"

"I can't make any promises," Cassandra shook her head.

Any other words died on Shelby's lips. She grabbed the baby monitor to Rachel's room and to Cadence's room, then stood to follow her wife to Dee's apartment, but Cassie was already far ahead of her, taking the stairs two at a time.

"Mommyyyyy!" Shelby froze, hearing her daughter whine her name. She knew Rachel was still feeling pretty sick. Her momentum stopped. Cassandra could handle Dee. Shelby knew she needed to stay and help her sick daughter. Cassandra had stopped momentarily too, her brain trying to make a decision.

"You go," Shelby encouraged her. "I'll catch up."

Cassandra nodded, storming out the back door of the kitchen and over to Dee's guest house, not even bothering to knock. She found the older woman sitting at her kitchen table with her head in her hands, presumably nursing her headache.

I'll give her a fucking headache. Cassandra thought to herself, wordlessly stomping over to the table and slamming the envelope down onto it. The table jolted and rattled a tea cup that Dee had sitting in front of her. Dee sat ramrod straight.

"Cassandra, I-"

"You have thirty seconds to explain why the fuck you have been in contact with Shelby's mother but have not told us anything about it. You have ten seconds to get me to sympathize with you." Cassandra could nearly see black with her eyes open. Her head felt fuzzy with adrenaline and anger, and she tried to take a deep breath to steady herself. She couldn't win this battle if she wasn't thinking straight.

"Cassandra, please sit down and we can talk about this like adults," Dee said calmly. Her voice shook, showing signs that she was intimidated, but she made no move to stand to be on Cassandra's level.

Cassandra laughed. "Why? Why should I believe you anyways? How long have you been in contact with her, I thought you hated her? Not even a month ago she was the scum of this earth to you, and now I find out you've been in communication with her for literally years? Which one is the truth, Dee? You've been letting Shelby believe you're on her side? That's sick,"

"There aren't sides, we aren't in high school," Dee fought the urge to roll her eyes, her calm demeanor angering Cassandra more. "Cass, please sit down and let me explain."

Cassandra bit the inside of her cheek, hard. Her hands were shaking at her sides and she crossed her arms over her chest so Dee wouldn't notice. "I mean, you're going to send her into another spiral, you know that, don't you? Was that your plan? For loving Aunt Dee to swoop in at just the right time to be the hero? Well, we don't need your help. Not anymore. You string us along acting like you actually gives a damn about our little girl when you've really been supporting the woman who sold her."

"Susan did what she-"

"Oh I KNOW you are not about to defend her," Cassandra felt hot tears pooling in her eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening, after everything they'd been through.

Dee stood slowly, contemplating her next move. "Cassie. Honey. This isn't a simple explanation and it's a long time coming, and I should have said something to you both years ago-"

"Don't you "Cassie, honey" me," Cassandra laughed, humorlessly. "That's really rich. And so are you, apparently," she raised her eyebrows, baiting the older Corcoran. "Miss hundreds of dollars in wire transfers? So, what, you've been paying for her to live, too?"

"If you would just listen," Dee's voice turned a little more stern. It was a side of Dee that Cassandra had never seen. "Susan is my sister, and love her or hate her, she does have some redeeming qualities. We spent years looking for Rachel. You know I would never, ever do anything to intentionally hurt you, or Shelby, or that beautiful little girl-"

"Bullshit!" Cassandra ran her hands through her hair. "Oh my god, that's such bullshit! You're such a fucking liar! Is that all you people know how to do?"

"Cass, please. I'm not defending everything Susan did. I know she's in the wrong for so much more than just giving up Rachel. She knows that too. After the divorce, she got help. She went to therapy. She came to me. I'm just saying that she felt bad enough to help look for Rachel, so-"

"Oh, yeah, well that's the least she could fucking do!" Cassandra exclaimed.

"SHUT UP and LISTEN to me," Dee slammed her hand on the table too, causing her tea cup to tumble and shatter on the floor.

Cassandra squared her shoulders, not liking being told what to do.

"Susan has done a lot of awful things, and I know that, and I hold her accountable for them. I've kept her out of your lives, successfully, for nine years. I've protected you all from her for that long and you have to at least give me some credit for that. I knew you and Shelby weren't ready to know her. Weren't ready to talk about anything, and that you certainly weren't ready to think about forgiveness. But she has been really struggling since the divorce and since Shelby had Rachel. We looked for Rachel for years with no leads, but we kept in touch because she was worried about Shelby-"

"Oh, excuse the fuck out of me, she was worried about Shelby," Cassandra's sarcasm was dripping off her tongue. "Well if that was the case why didn't she just, I don't know, contact her daughter like a fucking adult?"

"Oh, please, you and I both know it wouldn't have been that simple, Cassandra. Stop being so dramatic." Dee said. Her voice was growing increasingly louder to match the spitfire Corcoran-July, and Cassandra felt one step away from slapping Dee across the face, but refrained.

"The funny thing is, Dee, some things REALLY ARE just that simple! What the fuck is it about you Corcorans who think that everything has to be so god damned secretive all the time? Do you know how many years of heartache you might have saved Shelby if she even knew you were in contact with Susan? Do you know how much she would have wanted those sonograms for herself? Or are you so narcissistic that you don't even care?"

"Don't you DARE call me narcissistic, July." Dee yelled. "After everything I've done for you both?"

"It's all completely null and void now! You were just trying to make up for your dirty little secret!" Cassandra yelled back.

"If I was narcissistic I would have just LEFT!" Dee said. "I would have just kept to myself and left everything alone and I would have ignored Susan when she came to me for help, and I wouldn't have come here to live with you and Shelby, that's for damn sure."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have! Since you're so wrapped up in this secret double life, why would you even risk being this close to us? Why did you keep those boxes in the attic? Why did you help us at all when you're already working with the devil incarnate?"

"That's not fair and you know it," Dee defended.

"I'm not sure what I know anymore!" Cassandra yelled. "Because all anyone ever does is lie to us! I guess I just blindly assumed you wouldn't be one of them, but don't worry! I won't make that mistake again."

"Cassie, please," Dee was beginning her now. The harshness in her voice was gone, but her desperation for Cassandra to understand was clear. "I haven't had those sonograms for years, Susan just sent them to me recently. I didn't know whether Shelby would want them or not, because it was around Rachel's birthday and I know how upset she gets…"

Dee took a tentative step towards Cassandra and tried to place a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Get your fucking hands off of me," Cassandra shrugged her shoulders back. Dee backed herself up against the kitchen table, pushing it a little against the hardwood floor.

"Please do not push your luck with me right now, Dee, I'm in a hell of a mood."

"It's not like I was her spy, or some secret agent. I wasn't keeping tabs on your family, Cassandra, I am your family. Did I update her every now and again about your life? Yeah, I did. I figured it was better than Shelby running into her at one of your concerts. At least this way I still had a protective hand over the situation, and-"

"Dee just shut the fuck up, okay? I don't want to hear anything else you have to say-"

"Hey," Holly slammed the front door open after hearing the raising voices and several loud noises coming from the house. "What the hell is going on? You're going to wake the entire neighborhood."

"Good, alert the god damned media, Shelby Corcoran's aunt is an accomplice to selling children." Cassandra scoffed.

"What?" Holly's eyes widened in confusion.

"Jesus Christ, Cassandra, your dramatics are astounding," Dee said. "You know that isn't what happened."

Cassandra moved to get in Dee's face and Holly jumped between them, holding an arm out to keep Cassandra back, guiding her towards the door once more. "July. Settle. Now. Tell me what's going on."

"She isn't worth it anyways," Cassandra rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, like you're going to actually hurt her, are you kidding?" Holly stared Cassandra down, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Tell me you're kidding."

"Relax, I'm not going to touch her." Cassandra's eyes flashed as she pointed a finger at Dee, "But if you so much as glance in Shelby's direction right now, I will kick your ass out of here and you and your sister won't see her or Rachel ever again. Leave us alone for a while."

Holly grabbed Cassandra by the arm and pulled her back. "Let's go hot stuff, we need to talk. We need to get you settled before you do something you regret…" she pushed Cassandra towards the door and shot a confused but frustrated glance back at Dee, feeling lost. She watched Dee sink into a kitchen chair, defeated.

Cassandra's skin was burning up and she was holding back sobs as Holly walked her to her back porch. She sat the both of them down, facing each other. "Cassie, baby, what's going on? Why are you so mad?"

Hot tears slid down Cassandra's cheeks. Her heart broke for her wife. Her heart broke for her family, which felt like it was falling apart with every breath she took. "I can't believe she did this to us." she managed to whisper tersely. "I can't believe she's in contact with her."

Holly didn't need much more information to piece together what had probably happened. She knew she'd learn the rest in time. She put her hands firmly on her best friend's shoulders and felt them shake under Cassandra's uneven breath. "Cassie, I am so sorry that she hurt you."

"She hurt Shelby, and that's so much worse…" Cassandra cut her off. "And I don't know what to do, Holly." She looked up into her best friend's eyes, nearly biting through her lower lip. "I just don't know what to do anymore."

She fell into Holly's arms and Holly pulled her best friend close, feeling her hot tears on her neck. She kissed the top of her head. "We're going to figure it out, Cassie baby. It's going to be okay." Holly wasn't sure what to make of the situation, but she was sure that no matter what happened, her friends would have her support.

. . .

Dee paced her kitchen, feeling stuck. I can't leave, not now. But Shelby isn't going to want me to stay any more than Cassie does…You've fucked up big time, Corcoran. You should have talked to Shelby ages ago. You did this to yourself.

She smacked her frustrated hand against the doorframe of her living room, her heart pounding. Where do you go from here?

Her phone vibrated on her kitchen table. She turned her head frantically, wondering if Shelby was calling her. Wondering why Shelby hadn't come with Cassandra to fight with her. She realized it wasn't a call, but a text message.

It was from Shelby.

Dee sucked in an anxious breath and put her hands over her face, feeling tears instantly after reading what Shelby had written her. The words were simple.

I need time. But don't leave me.

Inside the Corcoran-July manor, Shelby was curled up into a ball on her bed. Cassandra had finally joined her and neither woman was asleep. The room was so quiet that Shelby jolted when she heard her phone buzz on the side table next to her. She read the message and didn't respond. There was nothing more to say.

I'm not going anywhere, Shelly.