Bonus Chapter (Chapter 5 ½)

After Luke's call, I think the dear readers deserve a look into the past. More specifically, Annabeth's past. To understand Annabeth's grief and pain, it would certainly help for us to see what exactly happened for her to regret her past.

Sixteen years ago

Annabeth was so elated when she got the part she tried for. Sure, part of the reason was because she was Athena's daughter, but despite that, she liked to think that she also got the part for her acting too. This was her first film, and she was only seven!

She would be starring in this film alongside 'Luke Castellan', a fourteen-year-old child actor. He had his debut when he was ten, or so her mother had informed her. She couldn't help but feel nervous and excited. So much so, that her mother had to yell at her to sleep the night before the shooting. But could you blame her? This was a chance of a life time. If she did a good job, she would be recognized in the film industry. That was just so amazing!

On the day of shooting, she met Luke, who was nice and helped her during the shooting. In between the shooting, they became really good friends. Along with them was the director's daughter, Thalia Grace, a fearless twelve-year-old, and coincidentally Zeus's daughter.

It wasn't long before the three became inseparable. Even though Thalia wasn't part of the shooting, she was brought along by her dad to observe how shooting takes place, so she could get a feel of it.

Unfortunately, though, when Thalia was fifteen, she died in a car accident. The trio was reduced to a duo. It was at this time that both Luke and Annabeth sought out comfort in each other. By this time, Annabeth was also dealing with her parent's divorce and the difficulty of getting a role. It had really shaken her, but Luke was always there for her, flying out from New York to California to meet her.

They would walk and talk, all their conversations talking about Thalia and the times they spent together. Luke would end each conversation by tucking a stray curl of her hair, looking deep into her eyes, and softly promising that they were family, no one could change that. Each time, Annabeth would fall for it, drinking Luke's blue eyes, and unconsciously falling for him.

By the time Annabeth was fifteen, she knew without a doubt, that she had fallen for her blonde-haired best friend. By then, her parents were divorced, her father had his second marriage to a make-up artist, who had two children of her own (twins by the names Bobby and Matthew). Her dad's wife was way younger to him, probably only in her late twenties to his late thirties. Yet that didn't seem to faze her dad. During this time as well, Athena had taken to making Annabeth's life a living hell. She pronounced herself as the girl's manager, saying that it would be beneficial to her, considering her own mother's days of fame.

In all this time, Annabeth sought comfort in Luke, and he returned the feelings. When she turned seventeen, however, Percy won Best Actor's award in the Oscars, and Annabeth didn't. When she was seventeen, her mother hit her for the first time. When she was seventeen, Luke asked her out.

In those terrible times, Luke appeared to be her angel in disguise. He promised her family, and Annabeth was in dire need for a companion, someone who would stick by her side no matter what. She needed something permanent in her life and he was the only thing she could see then.

So, she began to date him. Miraculously, everything seemed to fall in place after that. The year following, she won an Oscar for best actress in a leading role. Her mom fell in love with Luke and encouraged their relationship. Her step-mom seemed nice enough, her brothers wormed their way into her heart. Everything seemed to work out.

That was until her eighteenth birthday, when Luke made their relationship public without her consent. That was their first argument, which ended with Luke forcing himself on her. It was disgusting and felt so wrong.

But she couldn't tell anyone. No one would believe her if she did. No one would believe that perfect Luke Castellan would rape his best friend and lover Annabeth. So, she kept quiet and hid her true feelings inside.

Since their relationship was public, Annabeth couldn't even breakup with him, without alerting the media. All in all, she was trapped.

But it was fine, cause Luke apologized to her, saying he was irritated for a long time, and put it out on her. She uncertainly accepted his apology, but didn't fully believe him.

Then, when she was twenty-one, Luke asked her to move in with him. She had no reason not to, so she agreed. Then her worst nightmares began. He started using her physically, whenever he was stressed. Many times, he'd fly out for various 'shoots', and the media would report suspicions of him having an affair. When Annabeth asked him about it, he just scoffed and rolled his eyes, but Annabeth noted how he never actually responded.

Finally, when it seemed like she was only there for Luke's benefit, and all feeling she had for him disappeared, she confessed everything to her mom. But due to their rocky relationship, her mom waved away her concerns by telling her that it was probably Luke being stressed about his job or something. She then yelled at Annabeth that no one is happy in love, and that you just have to make do with what you have.

Secretly, Annabeth believed her mom's true ideals about love were wiped away by her divorce, but she didn't say anything.

Finally, just before her twenty-second birthday, Annabeth had enough with Luke. She caught him having an affair with another actress (Kelly, she thinks her name is). She yelled at him, called him names, but it didn't faze Luke. He simply smirked and asked her what she was going to do about it.

That was when Annabeth realized how stupid she had been. Throughout her time with this jackass, she never actually realized how deep she was being trapped. She couldn't take her family's help, because it would be bad publicity for them, she couldn't place a complain in the police office, cause he had created a good image of himself, and no one would believe her. She couldn't publicly announce her break-up, because Luke would deny the entire thing.

She was in deep shit.

But thankfully, another angel came in disguise. She was shooting for another film, when she was introduced to another actress. This woman had choppy brown hair, and warm eyes, that seemed to change under the light. Piper McLean, would soon turn out to be Annabeth's savior.

Over the due course of their film, the two became closer to each other, until Piper asked the question that had been nagging her for quite some time.

"Why are you still with Luke. He clearly makes you upset, and I don't like the vibes I get from him."

That was all Annabeth needed. Her wall broke, and the flood of worry, anxiety and stress was released. She explained everything to Piper, who hugged her at the end and promised to help her out of this monstrous relationship.

Thanks to Piper, Annabeth regained her weight and was able to confide in the Cherokee. Piper taught her how to stand up for herself, and not take anyone's shit. She told Annabeth that she had more to lose, and that she shouldn't take her position in the film industry, this lightly. So, Annabeth began standing up for herself against Luke. She became bolder and fought back.

Eventually, Luke realized that he could no longer control Annabeth, and broke off their relationship, after which, he disappeared. Annabeth couldn't stop worrying about his return.

It took her a year of therapy, for her to get back on her feet, but it was worth it. Well, until now.

Luke had returned, and Annabeth could help but worry about the outcome.

She'd just have to wait and see how it went.