Implosion

Summary: Josslyn and Cam tell her parents what they've found out. Carly reacts. Sequel to Dangerous Obsession and Playing His Game.

"It's okay, Joss." Cam whispered, rubbing the small of Josslyn's back gently, lips pressing to the side of her head. Her hair smelled of apples as it tickled his nose. He felt so much tenderness for her, it was indescribable. His breath caught in his throat as she leaned into him, her slender arms wrapping around his waist as her father went to answer the door.

The two teens could here soft murmuring for a few moments before someone began to walk swiftly toward them. Carly collapsed to her knees in front of her daughter, reaching out to rest a hand on her wrist. "Joss, honey?"

Josslyn pulled away from Cam slightly, to look at her mother, blue eyes red rimmed and puffy. Tear streaks stained her cheeks and instantly, Carly was terrified. The last time she'd seen her daughter like this was when Oscar had died.

"Mom." She croaked out, reaching to grip her mother's hand, still clinging to Cam with her other. She looked up to see her father and stepfather standing a foot away, watching the scene in front of them.

"What was it that you needed to tell us, Joss?" Sonny questioned, voice gentle as he looked from her to Cam. "Why did you want your mother and I to meet you here?"

The girl swallowed hard and exchanged a look with Cameron, the two of them seemingly having a silent conversation.

"It's about Dev." Cameron replied quietly, pulling out his phone again and opening it to his album before he handed it to the man in question. "Joss and I talked yesterday about this misunderstanding between us. We ended up realising that it was Dev causing the issues we were having. That was why I came to the house yesterday. I know that I told you that I was going to get a book Joss had lent me, Mrs. Corinthos. I'm sorry for lying. But Joss and I came up with a plan. We needed proof of what he was doing so while she was on the boat with him, I searched his room. And well...I found some things that I took pictures of. It was worse than either of us thought."

Carly froze at that. Still holding her daughter's hand, back to her husband and her ex, she asked, "What's on the phone, Sonny?" She'd known her husband for years and his silence was telling. It was the dangerous kind of quiet.

"Son of a bitch." He growled out. There was a hiss of anger beside of them that came from Jax but for once, he wasn't annoyed.

His wife stood to her feet, taking the phone from his hands before he could stop her. Her expression became more and more enraged as she scrolled through the photos. "What the hell are we going to do about this, Sonny? What are you going to do? You moved him into our house, around the girls. Around my daughter when she was dealing with her boyfriend's death. And he's been using that against her. He's been invading her privacy!"

"That's what I'd like to know." Jax spoke out, hands on his hips as he looked at the man in question. "You're the one who wanted that kid to live with you. You're the one who came up with the lies about him being your cousin. You made Carly and Joss lie. So how are you going to handle it? You can't expect my daughter to live in the same house as that-" He cut himself off when he heard Josslyn let out a choked sob. As angry as he was and as much as he wanted to ring Sonny's neck for putting his little girl in this position in the first place, he knew that he had to remain calm. What Josslyn needed now was her parents-and he knew that included Sonny as well-working together as a united front.

"Dev came to me when I was in the hospital after slicing my hand open. He had Joss' journal with him." Cam started once everyone was settled and Josslyn had calmed down some, a cup of hot tea in her hand. "When I first saw it, I was angry that he'd invade her privacy like that, even when he lied to me, telling me she'd thrown it away. I should've questioned it more or remained angry but I didn't. Not after he showed me the journal entry that he'd forged. In it, it talked about how much she apparently didn't enjoy the kiss and how she didn't know how to tell me." He knew his cheeks were flushed red but he powered through. "I was hurt and embarrassed so I began to avoid her, even when she tried to talk to me."

Josslyn sucked in a breath before letting it out. "That same night, Dev asked me if I wanted to go out on a boat and watch the stars. I should've found that weird. He'd never shown much interest in anything like that before. I didn't, though. Instead, I suggested calling Cam and Trina and inviting them along. That's when he told me that they'd never want to hurt me, but I was cramping Trina and Cam's style. That's why I went jogging that night. I planned on trying to talk to Cam the day after, but Dev kept trying to talk me out of it. And then Trina came and helping her prove her father's innocence seemed more important. I was angry more than hurt by that point and I got snarky with Cam during Halloween." She grimaced as she remembered that night. "But then a few days ago, I just went to him and asked if we could talk. I wanted my best friend back more than anything, even if he didn't return my feelings. That's when Cam told me about my journal."

"And that's when you came up with your plan." Carly sighed in realization, cupping both Cam and Josslyn's cheeks. "Honey, why didn't you come to me? I would've handled it. Seeing those pictures..." She swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat at the memory of what she'd seen on Cam's phone screen. "You could've been hurt when you were alone with him, Joss. Anything could've happened on that boat and I wouldn't have known."

The blonde shrugged helplessly. "We didn't know that he was taking those pictures of me." She gulped. "We just knew about how he was manipulating us and how he listened in on my conversation with you about where I'd hidden my journal. I was uncomfortable that night, but it seemed like the best way to make sure that Dev didn't get away with what he was doing. Cam called me after he'd found them and told me that he needed to meet me this morning. He sounded worried and told me that he couldn't tell me about it over the phone. That's why I needed to meet you and Sonny here. I didn't feel comfortable going back home when he was there, but I didn't want him to get away with what he'd been doing for one more minute."

"Josslyn, we're going to figure this out, alright? He's not going to get away with this." Sonny said with conviction, once Josslyn's attention was on him.

She gave him a nod. "I wanna be there." She told the adults carefully. She knew that they probably didn't like the idea, yet she hoped that they understood. "I need to confront him about what he's done. I've considered him a friend-family for awhile now. I've lied for him. I just wanna know why." She saw Cam nod in agreement out of the corner of her eye and immediately, she felt grateful that he was going to be there. She looked from her mother, to her father, to Sonny then back again, recognizing the looks on their faces as they realized that they weren't going to convince her not to do what she had planned. After all, she was stubborn as hell. Now all she had to do was get ready for what she had ahead of her.

The End

Author's Note: Next part will be the confrontation.