A/N: I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for being so dedicated to the story. I appreciate all the reviews, follows, and favorites. We've passed the 600 mark for reviews! Knowing that so many people enjoy this story keeps me motivated.

I have been seeing some recurring themes in the reviews and I wanted to address them. I love that everyone is so invested in this story. Please, don't think that I am playing the bait and switch game with you all. I love answering questions about the story. You can message me directly via PM. Or you can leave your questions in an review and I will try to address it in my author's note.

Q#1: Is this a Bamon story?

A: Yes, this is a Bamon story. Bonnie and Damon are the end game but it will be a long road.

Q#2: If this is a Bamon story, then why is Bonnie flirting with Tyler?

A: Bonnie is in a toxic marriage. She wants attention from someone that shows her love and respect. She and Tyler are good friends and they love each other. In time, they will have to figure out if it is a romantic love or something else. It does not mean that her actions are right but that is the situation.

Q#3: Who is the bad guy in this story?

A: Literally, all of the characters we spend the most time with have villainous ways. Damon has mistreated Bonnie but she is a liar, manipulator, and killer. Some of the problems in their marriage stem from her refusal to be honest with Damon (no matter her motivations). The children are the only truly innocent bystanders in this story.

Q#4: When are Damon and Bonnie going to get back together?

A: I don't have an exact chapter in mind but it won't be very soon. My plan for this story was always to destroy their poisonous relationship built on lies and rebuild something healthier. They are very close to rock bottom and soon the gradual rebuild will begin.

Q#5: Why do Bonnie and Damon love one another at all?

A: They were essentially family before the marriage. There was always love there. However, falling in love is a very different subject and will be covered extensively in the rebuilding phase of the story. Because there is a moment when both of these people fell in love with the other.

The air in the study felt thick and rancid. All four of the Salvatore men sat around the room in an uncomfortable silence. Damon had called them all together to talk about Giuseppe. However, the conversation was derailed because he couldn't wrap his head around what happened between him and Bonnie. Her words had haunted him for the last few hours. He wanted to feel confident in his innocence. Damon had never been the sort of man to force himself on a woman. Yet there was some small part of him that instinctively knew her reaction had not been for show. Bonnie had scars both old and new that still caused her pain. Somehow, Damon had been unable to see the suffering in a girl he had been married to four years. He didn't know if Bonnie was truly a talented actress or if he had ignored the cracks in her facade.

Stefan shook his head. "You must have misunderstood her, Damon. I have witnessed all your worst impulses. I have seen you stoned out of your gourd and never once did I see anything that would suggest you were a sexual predator. You used to sidestep the girls my age that threw themselves at you. Valerie actually crawled into your bed and you sent her packing without hesitation."

Damon grimaced because he still felt guilty for how it all went down. He had spent the weekend indulging in whatever substances he could get his hands on: cocaine, pills, marijuana. He had passed out in his bedroom only to wake up with his cock in someone's mouth. It had taken Damon a few minutes to work out what was happening. However, once he was lucid, he tossed Valerie out on her ass and made Stefan break up with her. Caroline was probably the only girl Stefan brought home that didn't want to jump Damon's bones. She disliked him instantly and he had been grateful for that.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. "All of that might be true but you didn't see how Bonnie looked at me. She looked traumatized."

Ric stood near the window with a glass of scotch in his hand. "I don't think that we should be rushing to any conclusions. One of us almost got shot in the face recently because of some vague accusations made by a vengeful cunt. I'm talking about me and Lilly in case any of you are confused."

Zach rolled his eyes at Ric's bitter interjection. He was only complaining because the rest of his life had gone to shit. Jo wasn't speaking to him. Abby wasn't speaking to him. Ric was crashing at the Manor because he wasn't welcome at either of the homes he had bought. Out of his children, only Cooper and Savannah were interested in seeing him. They were too young to hold any ill will against him. However, Cooper wouldn't remain in the dark forever. He had questioned why Jamie didn't want to join them for lunch that afternoon.

Stefan glared at Ric for a long moment but decided not to get into an argument about his mother now. Damon needed to be their primary focus because he seemed close to spiraling out of control. His brother was never going to be a good man. It just wasn't in the cards and everyone had accepted that fact long ago. However, Damon had tried his best not to become Giuseppe. The outline for that was fairly simple: don't abuse women, don't abuse children, and don't rape anyone. Damon thought he was doing a good job until recently. The younger man sat down beside his brother and searched for the right words but he felt lost. As much as he loved Damon, he was worried about Bonnie, too. She was his friend and his sister. He never cared for using 'in-law' to describe her. It felt like a qualifier where none was necessary. She would always be his 'Bunny'.

Zach said, "My drunken older brother is an asshole but he isn't wrong. You admitted that the conversation between you and Bonnie was tense. She was yelling at you and visibly upset. You were confused and caught off guard by her reaction. Is that a fair assessment?"

Damon nodded, "I figured that Bonnie wouldn't be happy. She has made it clear how she feels about me using cocaine. I did not expect her to lose it the way that she did. She was angry and hurt about so many things. Bonnie even told me about how Giuseppe and Sheila used to fight in front of her. I don't think she would have admitted to that if not for how angry she was."

Ric sobered somewhat at the mention of his older brother. He shook his head. "Abby made some vague references to their relationship a couple weeks ago. It was the first time she had ever said anything about it to me. I don't know what she saw but it certainly fucked her up in the head. She claimed that watching Giuseppe and Sheila broke her. Abby said their relationship made her stay in a marriage where Rudy was throttling her. She thought that's what was expected of her."

"Sounds like it broke Bonnie, too," Damon replied in a distracted voice.

Stefan asked, "Can you blame either of them? He broke us, too. The fact that any of us are functioning adults is a triumph."

Ric scoffed because being a functioning adult wasn't exactly a high threshold. He glanced down at his second...make that third scotch in the last hour.

Zach asked, "What exactly did Bonnie say that led you to believe you raped her?"

The blue-eyed mobster went quiet for a moment as he tried to piece together the conversation. Their interaction had been so rapid fire and fraught with emotion. One moment they were talking about horses and the next Bonnie is yelling at him for being a cokehead. Damon could scarcely believe that she had actually uttered that word. Knowing that his wife viewed him in such a damning way burned him deep inside. He also couldn't blame her because Zacharias had said as much to him after they left Klaus' club early Sunday morning.

He said, "Bonnie told me that she hated the person I became when I was high. She said that she asked me to stop using because she couldn't take another addict…on top of her."

It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck Damon. For the first time since she had uttered those words, he was processing that statement in its entirety. He could clearly remember the shocked expression on Bonnie's face. She hadn't meant to tell him that. Damon was out of his seat in a flash.

Stefan moved faster and stood in front of the door. "Damon!"

"Move…" he growled.

Stefan shook his head and refused to budge from his position. "I know what you are thinking, Damon. I understand why you would want to rush to Bonnie's side. But you going over to Abby's house is only going to start a fight. That is if you even get through the front door. You said yourself that Gemma was with Bonnie this afternoon. How much do you want to bet that Cesare and the rest know that you two fought again?"

Damon huffed out a sarcastic laugh. "You're the last person I thought would be worried about the business. I figured that you would encourage me to put my marriage first."

"You think that is what this is about for me? I understand that the alliance with the Benedetto family is invaluable. However, I am more concerned about you being murdered. Cesare would have taken you out on Saturday night if Cristian wasn't holding him back. I saw the look in his eyes…you were a dead man. Mason already told us that Big John has it out for you because of what Giuseppe did to Bonnie. I am also worried about Bonnie. All of this stress can't be good for her pregnancy or her blood pressure."

He slowly deflated because his brother was right. He would only make matters worse by going over there tonight. Damon turned around and returned to his place on the couch. He put his head into his hands. "Do you think it was Giuseppe? He raped Katherine…"

Zach took a deep breath because his older brother had been the first suspect that came to his mind. If someone had raped Bonnie, she obviously kept it a secret. He could see why she wouldn't have felt comfortable exposing Giuseppe. She lived in a fortress where he could accost her whenever he liked. The staff certainly wouldn't come to her rescue. They knew better than to intervene in situations that had nothing to do with them. Damon would have been the only obstacle but his nephew was easily distracted by work and beautiful women.

"It is better that you don't think that way, Damon. You will talk to Bonnie and get to the bottom of this. It just won't be tonight. I also think this isn't a conversation you should have alone. The two of you seem to mix like oil and water lately. It will only turn into another fight. I think it would be wise to ask Bonnie to join you in a session with Dr. Correa. She can play referee to keep things from getting out of hand."

He gave a bitter laugh. "Bonnie is never going to agree to that. She wants a divorce. She probably doesn't want to see me again. I can't say that I blame her. If Giuseppe…God right under my nose."

Ric could feel bile rising in his throat. Abby asked him to look after her daughter and he hadn't. However, he quickly shook off those morose thoughts. "Zach is right, Damon. Nothing good will come from going down that road. All you have is a single sentence spoken in anger. You don't have context or details. A few minutes ago you were assuming that she was talking about you."

"She still might be," he muttered.

Stefan sat on the arm of the couch. "I still don't believe that, Damon. I know you. There is no way that you would have hurt Bonnie, or any woman, that way. Nevertheless, I also understand why you can't just let it go. I could talk to Bonnie. We have always been close. She might be willing to open up with me."

Damon shook his head. "No, I don't want to mess up your relationship with Bonnie by putting you in the middle of our drama. We could wind up pushing her away from the entire family. Ric is already persona non grata over there."

"Bonnie and I have always been able to be honest with one another. We have tons of secrets. If she doesn't want to talk, then I will drop the subject. I won't browbeat her for an answer," he said.

He lifted an eyebrow at his brother. "Is that right? Did she ever mention that Giuseppe abused her grandmother?"

Stefan's eyebrows furrowed as he searched for the right words. Stuck between his brother and Bonnie was an uncomfortable place to be. He had been searching for a balance since he first realized that she had a crush on Damon.

Damon's spine straightened as he stared his brother's guilty expression. "She told you?"

The younger man looked down at the expensive Persian rug beneath his feet. He said, "Bonnie told me what was going on after Sheila ended up in the hospital. Giuseppe had put her through a glass door."

Zach shook his head. He wondered, not for the first time, what kind of dirt Sheila had compiled against Giuseppe. He couldn't fathom why a woman of her power and character had tolerated his brother's abuse for years. He certainly didn't understand why she would have eagerly allowed Bonnie to marry into their dysfunctional family. Big John's grandson had to be a more trustworthy candidate.

"Why didn't you ever say anything to me?" Damon demanded.

"Bonnie asked me not to say anything to anyone. I understood that feeling. I never told anyone about the shit that happened in our house. You wouldn't want me telling Bonnie everything Giuseppe did to us. It's humiliating," Stefan answered heatedly.

He asked, "What else have you been keeping quiet about?"

Stefan rolled his eyes. "I am not about to sit here and let you grill me. I am Bonnie's friend. I know things about her that friends know about each other. Maybe you should have taken the time to establish that sort of relationship with her."

Damon blew out a slow breath and shook his head. "This is all fucked up."

"Aptly put," Zach agreed.

Ric fished his phone out of his pocket when it began vibrating. He glanced at the screen and muttered, "I need to take this."

Damon nodded as his uncle left the room. He looked at Stefan. "Just ask Bonnie if she'd be willing to see Dr. Correa with me. You are a smug little asshole but you are right. I need to work on getting to know Bonnie. I can't do that if you are acting as a go between."

Stefan lifted an eyebrow at his brother.

"Yes, I understand the irony of what I am asking you to do. Do it anyway."

He nodded. "I'll go see Bonnie first thing in the morning. Caroline wanted me to take some Christmas gifts over to Abby's house anyway."

Zach said, "I've got some stuff you can take over there, too. Mer went a little crazy buying gifts for the twins. I think she is living vicariously through Bonnie since she's closed for business down there."

A bout with cervical cancer a few years ago had resulted in total a hysterectomy for Meredith. They had four boys but she had hoped for at least one girl.

Damon frowned. He had been working up to asking Bonnie to bring Sarah to the Manor for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Now everything was so topsy-turvy. He didn't even know if he would still be welcome at her doctor's appointment Wednesday morning. "Thank you."

Stefan shook his head. "We're family…that includes Bonnie. I'll help any way that I can."

Ric walked into the room with a stunned expression on his face. He closed the door and turned to look at everyone.

Zach frowned. "What is it?"

"I just got off the phone with Senior. He is pulling onto the property with Giuseppe right now. I told him to go around back. They will take him down to the cellar."

Damon stood up. "How the hell did that happen?"

Alaric shook his head. "Senior said he got a tip that Gio was hiding out at the rub and tug joint we use down in San Diego."

"What about Victor?" Damon asked.

"Got him, too." Ric replied.

Damon nodded and said, "Let's go welcome the old man home."

Stefan stood up to follow his uncles and brother to the cellar.

Damon blinked. "Where do you think you are going?"

"You can't think that I am going to sit this out," he snapped.

Ric cleared his throat. "I'm going to go meet the guys while the two of you sort Stefan out."

The blue-eyed mobster placed both hands on his brother's shoulders. "You have stepped up big time for the family. I am proud of the way you handled the medical examiner's office after John died. I am going to give you more responsibility but you don't need to be part of this. It's going to get bloody very quickly."

"Don't talk to me like I am freaking idiot, Damon. I know what you plan to do to Giuseppe and he deserves every bit of it. I need to be there to see it. It is the closest that any of us will ever get to justice. You don't get to deny me that. I know that I didn't get the worst of it. But I told you before…he fucked me up, too. I mean I was ready to kill our uncle because I thought he was just like Giuseppe. I couldn't imagine letting another monster like that live."

Damon looked at Zach for some type of help.

Zach said, "I think that Stefan is old enough to make his own decisions. He is not bound to the room. If the scene becomes too gruesome, he can take his leave. I think that we all have a need to see this through. Gio left scars on all of us. Maybe Stefan's don't take the shape of cigarette burns like the two of us but…he has them, too."

Damon shook his head. He didn't think this was a good idea. However, he couldn't continue to coddle Stefan. His brother wanted to grow up, Damon had to let him. "Fine…"

Stefan said, "Thanks."

He watched his brother walk out of the room. Damon turned to his uncle. "If this fucks him up…you're going to clean this up."

"That's fair…" Zacharias agreed.

The two men headed downstairs. The cellar had the same footprint as the rest of the house. The massive space was divided into three areas: wine cellar, workroom, and an armory. However, the 'workroom' would put some medieval torture chambers to shame. Damon's great-grandfather had designed the room. He was the type of man that liked being close to his family. Therefore, he often brought his work home with him. He built a room that was soundproof and easy to clean. There were also meat hooks in the room because he was a sadistic bastard that liked to slowly bleed his enemies dry like pigs in an abattoir.

Robert Sr and Ric were standing outside of the workroom talking quietly.

Damon shook the older man's hand. "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure. It is time for a regime change. My grandson, Lucky, could have been killed when he pulled that stunt last week," he said with a sneer.

Zacharias said, "I am glad that he is okay.

"He walked away with minor smoke inhalation, right?" Damon asked.

The new boss of the family had made it his mission to speak with each of the injured men and their families. However, the hardest had been meeting with the families of the men Giuseppe had killed. Damon hated that he ever let the monster remain at the helm for as long as he did. He should have realized earlier that it was always going to end this way.

"Not everyone was so fortunate," Senior replied in a somber voice.

Damon assured him, "Giuseppe will pay dearly for the lives he took and the people he has hurt. He will not go easily."

Senior nodded in acknowledgement. He would relay that information to Bonnie once he left the manor. She had been concerned that Damon's complicated relationship with Giuseppe would prevent him from doing what was necessary. The young head of their family would be pleased to learn that her fears were unwarranted.

"How did this all happen?" Damon asked curiously.

"One of my guys went by the massage parlor and found it closed. Nothing but a note on the door saying that management had a family emergency. He got suspicious and called me. I went down there to check things out in person. Didn't know who I could trust after how things went down last time. I poked around and figured out that Giuseppe was definitely in town because one of our safe houses went up in flames about two hours ago."

Damon frowned at the mention of the safe house. He was immediately concerned that they would have more dead on their hands. "Why would he torch a safe house? Do you know if anyone was inside?"

"There were cars parked outside. Cops and firefighters had the place surrounded. We couldn't stick around to see any license plate numbers. My guess…your old man whacked whoever helped smuggle him into the country. I decided that we had to move fast. I didn't know how long Giuseppe would stick around."

Damon looked at his younger brother. "Who do we have in the PD down there?"

Stefan said, "I don't know off the top of my head. I do know that the head medical examiner works for us. She helped take care of the thing with Kai last year."

Kai had gone a little overboard on a job last year. They had to move swiftly to cover his tracks with the police. The medical examiner's office had been instrumental in that.

"Then let her know that we'll be needing her services again. Also, find out who we have in homicide or major crimes."

"I'll take care of that right now." he replied. Stefan turned around and jogged upstairs. He would need access to the ledger on his computer. The system was heavily encrypted. Moreover, the information was coded using a cipher his great-uncle Bruno had taught him. The ledger was useless without the key.

A younger man walked into the hallway. "The kid is starting to wake up. What should we do?"

Senior looked at Damon. "The boy is still out in the car. He was already asleep when we made our move on Giuseppe. He didn't see anything...not that there was much to see."

"Uh, bring him to me," he said. Damon took out his phone and fired off a quick text message to Caroline.

The younger man nodded and quickly left to do as instructed.

"I'll get you the money for the bounty first thing in the morning," Damon said.

Senior said, "Thank you but I didn't do it for the money."

Bonnie would also reward Senior and his crew handsomely. She was as generous as her grandmother had been. However, he was concerned about her. He received a terse call from Tyler earlier in the evening. The young man informed him of a drastic change in plans because Damon's attention needed to be diverted elsewhere. Senior didn't question the order but he knew that Bonnie had met with Damon earlier.

"I know but your loyalty should be rewarded because it is appreciated. I know that you and my old man go back a ways. It couldn't have been easy for you to bring him here. You're like second cousins or something, right?"

Senior corrected him, "We are third cousins. Gio and I were close once but he changed after Domenico died. Or became more himself. Who the fuck knows with him?"

"Does he know what's going on?" Damon asked.

He shook his head. "We killed the power at the massage parlor. We went in wearing tactical gear, stun guns, and night vision goggles. Knocked him out with ketamine once we had him on the ground. He'll be unconscious for awhile still. I had to use something that I knew he had not built up a tolerance against."

"Good," Damon replied.

The younger man returned with the three-year-old boy wrapped in a soft yellow blanket. He was wearing a pair of Spider-Man pajamas and had blue socks on his feet. Victor had inherited their father's dark brown hair and gunmetal blue eyes. However, his skin was a rich golden brown color. Victor sucked his thumb while he looked at all the strange people.

Damon stepped forward and took the boy into his arms. He looked Victor over to ensure he wasn't injured. He trusted that Senior and his men were careful. However, he was concerned about Giuseppe having been alone with the child since last week. He was relieved to find Victor unharmed. "Thank you for getting my younger brother here safely as well."

Senior shook his head. "He's an innocent kid. He didn't deserve to get caught in the crossfire of all this. Is there any word on his mother?"

Zach said, "Nothing good. She is still touch and go. Damon had her transferred to a hospital with a top of the line burn center. They're doing all they can for Sabine."

"Nasty business…all of it," the older man muttered.

"You can say that again." He glanced at his phone when it buzzed. "I am going to take Victor upstairs to Caroline. She is going to look after him for me."

Zach said, "I'll handle everything down here until you return."

Damon walked up to the first floor and went into the living room. They would wait there for Caroline. He sat on the couch and looked down at the boy. "I guess I am pretty rude not introducing myself, huh? Our old man should have done the honors but...well he's sleeping right now. My name is Damon and I am your big brother. You've got another brother around here somewhere. His name is Stefan but he isn't as cool as I am."

Victor looked up at Damon with big blue eyes but didn't say anything.

"Not much of a talker, huh? That's okay. It has to be weird being in a new place. But you are going to like it here. I promise. There are tons of kids here that are gonna want to play with you. They've got more toys than should be legal. They're good with the whole sharing thing so you will be golden. You are gonna get so much crap for Christmas, too. Just you wait. Santa is generous around these parts. So is your big brother. Can you say Damon?"

Caroline stopped outside the living room when she heard Damon talking. She shook her head with a wry smile.

Victor blinked but didn't say anything.

Damon said, "Stop lurking out there, Blondie."

She huffed. "I wasn't lurking. I just didn't want to interrupt what sounded like an important conversation."

Damon smirked and said, "Sure."

"I am going to put Victor in with Nico tonight. He can take the spare bed in his room."

"Good. I wouldn't want him alone in one of the guest rooms. Will you keep an ear out for him? I don't know if he's potty trained or...I don't know anything about him."

Caroline took Victor into her arms and pulled out the back of his pajama bottoms. "He's wearing pull-ups so he is probably potty trained during the day. Did he come with anything?"

Damon shook his head. "No. If you need anything just tell one of the guards."

She pursed her lips because they didn't really have any children in the house that were exactly Victor's age. Her and Stefan's youngest, Anthony, was nearly two years old. The rest of the children in the house were school age. "We're definitely going to need pull ups tonight. Everything else can wait until morning."

"Thank you," he said.

Caroline shrugged as if it was no big deal. "I am going to take him upstairs. I'll see if I can get him to sleep."

Damon nodded. "Text my phone if he needs anything."

She smiled. "He'll be fine big brother Damon. I have some experience taking care of Salvatore children."