Thank you everyone for your patience, especially Fran for betaing. This chapter is being split into two parts...it's a doozy!

December 29th, 2021

"Alice, help me set the table." Renee pointed at the laundry basket filled with table linens.

Alice nodded, grabbing one end of the table cloth while Renee grabbed the other. For a minute, they could have fooled themselves by acting like a normal mother and daughter.

Too bad nothing in life is permanent.

"I invited Victoria to dinner." Alice looked away from her mother's murderous glare.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Renee snapped, "Are you trying to piss off your father? I mean, why don't you just invite Bill, and we'll have a brawl?"

Alice ignored Renee; it's not like she would uninvite Victoria. They were friends; she deserved to have a friend.

"You know, Allyson, I will never understand you. I didn't even know you two were that close." Renee attempted to remember any conversation where Alice positively mentioned Victoria. But she came out empty. Come to think of it, the only time Victoria's name was mentioned was when Alice babysat for Seth.

"We got close when I worked there." Alice shrugged. She didn't tell Renee about her personal life purposely. The last time Alice said anything about a friend, they landed up arrested by her father. Alice learned the hard way that anything she wanted to keep, she couldn't tell her parents about.

"Get the casserole out of the oven." Renee directed.

They continued preparing the house for the dinner party in silence. Both were tiptoeing around how much one loathed the other.

LtD~

"Fuck." Edward gripped the steering wheel, driving faster towards the Black mansion. "Victoria can't stay with her kid for one night."

Bella looked at him sympathetically. She didn't want to babysit again, but Bella felt sorry thinking of Seth all alone in the house with the chef or housekeeper. God forbid one of his siblings to take a minute to spend time with him. That reminded Bella of Jake and their upcoming 'meeting' with Royce. The thought alone made her nauseous.

Bella was less than thrilled with Jake at the moment. But from what she had overheard Alice say about Royce throughout the years, he was not one to mess with. She didn't plan on telling Edward about Royce. He would make things worse.

Bella was fully aware of Edward's jealous streak towards Jake. However, despite her best efforts to assure Edward, he was still angry and upset with her for having a friendship with Jake after their breakup.

Now he was mad at her for canceling another date night.

"Tell you what, once Victoria relieves me of my duty, I'll sneak back to your house for some sexy time." She wriggled her eyebrows and gave her chest a little shimmy.

The car almost swerved into oncoming traffic, "Fuck Bee, you can't do that to me if you wanna live."

Bella just laughed; poor Edward was used to them going at it like rabbits. He hasn't gotten any action on his end since Alice's return.

The doorbell rang, and Renee ran to answer it before her husband, which would be a terrible idea, especially if it were Carlisle. Renee could see it now; Charlie would grumble something nasty about keeping his wife at the hospital all those hours as if he gave a shit.

Alice certainly wouldn't have answered the door if it were Carlisle, she vehemently disapproved of her mother's choice to screw a married man for years.

Sure, Alice made many questionable decisions throughout her life, but many of them were under the influence of various substances. And the reason for using those substances was often a consequence of her parents and their shitty parenting. But she couldn't blame Charlie and Renee alone. In addition, whether Alice wanted to cop to it or not, she had darkness around her. Surrounding everything she was, despite her best efforts to keep the monster at bay. It was there waiting, watching for the opportune time to strike.

"Hi Rey," Carlisle greeted while Esme hugged her longtime friend.

Alice waited in the foyer for the couple to make their way inside; she then made eye contact with Esme. Alice often saw Esme as the mother she never had. She admired her for taking on Edward and Emmett when she could have walked away like many others would have in her shoes. Esme always wanted more for Alice; she knew she was not the same person she was eighteen years ago. Hell, she wasn't the same person she was four years ago.

Alice had been close to Esme prior to leaving. She couldn't help feeling a little nervous about her reaction. Esme always tried reasoning with Alice. She also often attempted to play peacemaker between Alice and her parents. It was a lost cause, but Esme was not one to give up on Alice easily.

Esme looked at Alice, smiling and nodded, pained with guilt from the sins of their past.

While Esme meant no harm, being an innocent bystander doesn't mean you're actually innocent.

Carlisle saw the exchange between Alice and Esme, and he was less than pleased. It had taken way too long for Esme to stop nagging him about the dirty secrets that embodied the family.

Then Esme leaned into hug Alice, as she finished the hug, Carlisle tightened his grasp around Esme's arm, and she gasped. Looking at him and seeing his fury, she understood her mistake.

Everyone filed into the dining room that Renee had meticulously decorated. She couldn't look low brow in front of her lover.

Victoria was just arriving as Renee started opening bottles of wine, of course, asking Carlisle to pop the cork, instead of her husband sitting next to her.

She smiled at Esme, "Oh E, how do you stand him?"

Esme smiled and shook off her best friend's comments, as she always did. She was fully aware of their history, seeing as she lived through it in high school. History is a strong bond, and it doesn't always loosen the grasp it has on people.

Alice breathes for the first time all night when she sees Victoria, dressed head to toe in couture. She looks like a viper in snakeskin pants and a black bodysuit, with heels as tall as a skyscraper.

Esme smiles and greets Victoria welcomingly; it's her nature to be kind, no matter her feelings towards the young woman. Renee can't hide her disgust and jealousy of the red-head, so she sips her wine, unable to cope with the reality of her life. Charlie eyes the newest arrival as eye-candy. Bill, that lucky fucker! He thought wistfully. Carlisle glanced quickly at Victoria, snarled, and continued swirling his wine around to further appreciate the aromatics.

Victoria sits next to Alice, who made the mistake of sitting across from Carlisle. He kept looking at her with a Cheshire cat smile, baiting her.

Renee started the small talk, "Carlisle, did you tell E about that new machine we got in? Isn't it incredible?"

Carlisle contained himself in order to keep up appearances, "Yes, Rey, incredible really." Agreeing was the easiest out when dealing with Renee.

Appetizers were served. Mini quiches and pies Renee had the chef at The Well & Grille prepare so so she could pass them off as her own.

Small talk was in full swing. Victoria even joined in joking with Charlie about fishing. What fish were in Vegas except for the smell between hooker's legs?

Alice looked at the empty wine glass in front of her, cursing the perils of sobriety. She then looked at everyone at the table, enraged.

She couldn't take it anymore. She had eighteen years of pent-up anger and resentment. Alice knew that once she erupted, there would be no going back. She couldn't take back… this lie, all the lies, all the hurt. Why did she have to be cursed with being a Swan? Why did she have to be cursed with being Allyson?

Was changing her name and appearance enough to buy a new life or was she just a wolf in sheep's clothing? An imposter. She had been forced to be something she wasn't her entire life, covering for others, and then when the guilt and trauma ate at her like parasites, she turned to other coping mechanisms. Alice was far too young to have lived all the lives she had.

Alice has had enough. "Enough!" she shouted, slamming her fist on the table, her tattoo peeking out from her sleeved blouse.

Victoria, Charlie, and Esme paused their conversations, looking at Alice and her sudden outburst.

Renee and Carlisle tried resuming the banter, pretending Alice wasn't having a breakdown.

Old habits die hard.

" I said enough!" She shot up from her chair and started pacing around the table, moving around helped her focus, much like her runs.

Renee looked at her daughter with such rage and hatred that Alice could feel it vibrating off her body. She knew if Renee's precious boy toy weren't there, Renee would have hit her. Shutting Alice up was the goal, but at what cost?

"Allyson, please," Renee whined, almost begging Alice not to this.

Not here.

Not ever.

"No, you all can't just sit here pretending like nothing happened. You're being fake. Something did happen. Many things. I can't go on like this. Not anymore. I really thought I could. I tried, I did. I left—"

"Allyson." Charlie was now warning her not to go where he knew she was headed. If he had a shrew of guilt, he buried it deep inside. He was afraid to even think about it, in fearing his wife would hang him out to dry.

Alice looked at her father, who, in many ways, was the start of her traumas in life. He was just so goddamned weak. Alice needed a protector, a lion, not a cowardly mouse. She saw her father for what he was and she wasn't resentful toward him as much as her mother and Carlisle. No, they plotted, they saved. Or so they thought.

"I have to come clean; I can't live with these secrets any longer." Alice was drowning and couldn't attempt how far gone she really was. After all, her trusting these vultures to help her was the root of this conversation. "Part of my recovery is coming to terms, making amends—"

"Absolutely not, Allyson! Are you out of your fucking mind?" Renee looked at Carlisle with wide eyes. They both were on high alert: protect their secrets at all costs. Renee didn't stop there, "Why are you doing this to me?"

Allyson walked around to Renee, looking her straight in the eye, "Mom, I'm not doing anything to you. You made this mess, you and Mr. High School over there." She pointed to Carlisle, who had yet to show any reaction to Alice. Still playing chess with her, he orchestrated this outburst with his subtle nuances and small talk, which on a normal day, he hated. But, if it served a purpose…

If Esme had any inkling of Renee and Carlisle's affair, her poker face was one for the books.

"Allyson, spare me the self-righteous card, please. Everyone at this table knows you better than that. Well, almost everyone," eyeing Victoria up and down, "Why did you come back? To drag up shit that happened forever ago?"

Allyson went over to the small table in the foyer and looked through her purse. She looked for her cigarettes and lighter. After almost dropping her engagement ring out of the purse, she finally found what she was looking for and carefully slid the ring back into the bag where nobody was wiser.

Bringing the lighter to the cigarette, the flames engulfed her lungs, and she took a breath, "You are all sick. Sick, sick people who think they live in a perfect world with perfect money; who go back to your perfect fucking spouses and homes. Being honest is just too high a cost for all of you because money can't buy that. I'm just too messy for you, and we know you'll pay to cover the mess at any expense, even my fucking soul. I'm crawling out of my fucking skin. You people think money is enough. Messy fucking people." Alice emphasized messy, puffing away at her

cigarette.

Renee fought all these years for everything to stay the way she had planned it. Alice and her messes terrified her on a good day, but Alice was now unhinged; this was her worst nightmare.

Nobody was prepared for what happened next.