I'm so soooo sorry about my updating so very late all the time. I have vowed to finish this before my birthday. But good news is that its all done, it just needs to be typed up and posted. So hang on with me, im not done yet :D

When we last left our heroes, Mary was just about to enter the sitting room to face her DOOM!!! Well, Mrs. Parker grinning evilly behind a steaming angry Joey. I don't think that's what I described, but it was in my head : )

Okay, a little off topic, but raise your hands if you saw the new harry potter movie!!! Raise your hands and jump up and down if you liked it!!! Raise your hads and jump up and down while screaming at the top of your lungs "Tom Felton has nice skin!!" if you absolutely loved it!!! (see the movie and you'll understand that) I seriously cannot wait for that movie to come out on DVD cause I will be the first in line to buy it! No one will be able to stop me!! Mwahahahaha!!!

Kay, Harry Potter time is over, back to business ; )

WARNING!!! Some screaming, angst, and swearing may occur in this chapter. Not much, but you'll get why.

I don't own Another Cinderella story, however if I did, it might not have ended like that. Something about Mary in a fatal car crash and Joey coming to sweep mee off my feet :D

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Chapter 9 MPOV

Taking a deep breath, I held my head high and walked into the room; to be met with such faces of horror and hurt that I almost turned around and walked back out.

My eyes searched each face that was looking at me, wondering what had just happened that made them look at me like that. Mr. Parker was refusing to meet my eye, as was Natalia, but Joey and Mrs. Parker were both staring at me, burning holes in my face. This really shocked me.

I stood there, shocked that Joey, MY Joey, was giving me such a look of… of hate mixed with hurt, sadness and suspicion. My loving Joey, acting so… not loving; not the look I usually recieved from Joey. I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Joey broke the tense silence, "Is it true?"

I winced at his tone. Icy cold; much colder than it was outside when we first got here. "What's true?" I asked cautiously.

"Don't pretend like you don't know, Mary. I know all about you and Jake." Joey was turning a shade of red I had never seen before. Jake? Jake! JAKE!? My God...

I just stood there more confused that before. I narrowed my eyes at him, "I don't need to pretend. I have no idea what you are talking about. Could you bring a little light on this?" I asked menacingly.

"Sure," he hissed, "I expect that you'll need all the light that you can get in the pantry closet!"

"Damnit Joey, what on earth are you talking about?!" I yelled, getting impatient. What exactly is he accusing me of? Cheating on him?

"I'm talking about you and Jake in the pantry closet! You think that I don't know what's going on? I've noticed how you haven't been in this room for very long; always out 'in the bathroom' or 'answering your phone' for long periods of time. And how Jake came in last time, obviously couldn't wait for round two!!" I could feel my nostrils flaring, so visibly upset that he was accusing me.

"What are you implying, Parker?! That I'm cheating on you with the waiter?!" I asked angrily, crossing my arms and rocking back on my heels.

"That's exactly what I'm implying, Santiago!" he spat, glaring at me with such utter disgust.

"Well you're wrong, Joeykins!" I saw Natalia become fascinated with the designs on the rug at the mention of what she called him earlier. "You don't think I've seen how Natalia has been draping herself all over you, but you don't do anything about it! Happily engaged, my ass!" I shot out, tears starting to form at the corners of my eyes. I couldn't believe that Joey could think that I would do something like cheat on him. I thought he knew me better than that.

"Oh, you're turning this on me now! After all that I've done for you! If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have gotten into your dance school! If it wasn't for me, you'd still be Dominique's maid with 'two broken legs'!" We were now within arms distance, yelling our heads off while Natalia, Mr. and Mrs. Parker watched us fight like a tennis match.

"I didn't need you! I would have done fine without you and applied the next year when I was out of Dominique's house!"

"Well it was all for nothing then." he sneered.

"What's that supposed to mean, Mr. Boyband?! I could have sworn that you said earlier you couldn't take your eyes off of me."

He shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my parents supported me and I was able to practice whenever I wanted instead of sneaking around. Maybe if your father loved you enough, instead of getting married to a blonde stripper and dropping off the face of the earth when your mom die, your dancing might actually have improved then."

I froze, my tears falling silently down my face now. That comment hit well below the belt, as well as Joey's face. I had hit him so hard that he staggered back a few steps, holding his nose in shock while blood dripped through his fingers. "How dare you?" I demanded, hurt, glaring up at his once beautiful features, twisted into a look of shock, like he was surprised that I could ever be violent. "Insult my dancing and me, but when you bring that lowlife up, that's where I draw the line. You know I don't talk about my father!"

I tore the ring off my finger and whipped it at Joey, successfully hitting him in the chest. "Go ahead and give this to Natalia. It's obviously what you and your mother really want."

I gave him one last glare before saying, "Two days is all I'll need to get my things and go. I had better not see your sorry ass in the apartment while I'm there, or else your nose will be the least of your worries." With that I stormed out of the room and out into the hall where I was surprised to see all of the staff crowded around the door, listening. I furiously wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Show's over," I muttered. Everyone jumped and went back to their jobs. I looked around for Jake. Spotting him, I asked him if he could drive me to the airport for the quickest flight out of LA.

JPOV

I sat back down between Natalia and my mother. My mother was bad mouthing Mary, saying how she was no good and couldn't be trusted. Natalia however was silently nursing my nose with some ice wrapped in a napkin from the mini-bar in the room.

I closed my eyes and found myself imagining Mary as the one icing my nose, instead of the one who caused it. I imagined her as the one gingerly touching it, icing it, kissing it. Woah, kissing it? My eyes flew open just as Natalia's lips were moving away from my nose.

I jumped back in my seat. "Natalia! I really don't think that's a good idea! I admit, we had a thing a long time ago, but it is definitely over. We cannot work. No."

"Bu…but Joey!"

Ignoring her, I got up and walked slowly out of the room, hoping that Mary had left already. I looked up in time to see her leaning on Jake as they walked outside. Anger boiled up inside of me as I watched them disappear from view.

I angrily whipped my cell out, hoping to call the taxi service and the Malibu hotel. We weren't going to go on our relaxing trip away, not after this. As I looked at the screen, I saw that I had three missed calls; one from my record label and two from Dustin.

I punched in his phone number and waited for him to pick up. Three, four rings then answering machine. I hung up without leaving a message, calling back instead.

Dustin picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey Dustin. You won't believe what had just happened to me."

"Oh hi mom! I'm doing just fine, how's dad?" Dustin said suspiciously loud.

I was confused. "Dustin? It's me, Joey. What are you doing?"

"Yeah sure I remember that sweater Gramma gave me. The one with the orange puff balls on them. Yeah, let me GO INTO MY ROOM and look for it!" he said harshly.

I waited until I heard the door close on the other side of the line. "Joey what are you doing calling me? Tami is acting very suspicious right now. I had to lock the door and go into the bathroom too just to be safe. If she wasn't on the phone with Mary, I think she would be sitting at the door trying to listen to what I'm saying!" he whispered.

I groaned, "She called you already!"

There was a long pause before Dustin whispered, "From what I heard before you called, it was pretty nasty. You didn't have to bring her dad up, Joey. That was just uncalled for."

I took a deep breath and rubbed my hair back, "Yeah, it was, wasn't it?" I couldn't get her face out of my head when I told her her dad didn't want her. The little make-up that she ever wore was beginning to smudge, her face looked so heartbroken, her beautiful brown eyes filled with tears and despair. My heart broke a little just thinking of it. I caused her that much pain. And I was the one who'd planned to be at her side, wiping her tears as she cried.

Mary trusted me with that secret years ago when we first moved to Manhattan; I felt so horrible announcing it. I sank into one of the hard chairs by the front door putting my head in my one hand.

"Can I ask what happened? Well I know a little bit of what happened, but what is your side?" Dustin asked quietly.

"I found out Mary was cheating on me with a waiter my parents had hired. I confronted her about it and she gave me a broken nose." I touched it gingerly, "At least I think so." I added.

"Dustin! Are you talking to Joey in there!?"

"Uh oh, " he whispered, "I guess she and Mary are done. Damn, I gotta go before she breaks down the door. But before I do, Mary was telling the truth. She really was using the phone and called me back. We talked for a while, and to tell you the truth, she sounded down right nervous. Like your parents weren't going to accept her."

I sat there rubbing my eyes, "So my mother lied to me?"

"Woah, your ma told you she cheated! And your dad and Natalia didn't say anything? Mary did say something about hearing your ma talk to your dad when she went to the bathroom. I think she said there was a contract your ma made with Natalia."

"I TOLD YOU THAT I DIDN'T WANT YOU TALKING TO HIM! WE ARE SUPPORTING MARY! JOEY DOESN'T DESERVE TO TALK TO US AFTER WHAT HE DID!!!"

"'Kay dude, I really gotta go now. Tami is getting really angry out there; I'll try to calm her down so she won't try and kill you next time she sees you. Try calling Mary after a while, let her cool down for a bit. If I know Tami, she'll have invited her to stay with us for as long as she wants so…"

There was the sound of a door opening and Tami stomping into the room "Hiding in the bathtub! Dustin I hope you've had your fun with that evil, backstabbing, heart crusher…" There was a soft click as Dustin hung up the phone quickly.

I sighed and closed the phone. If I felt horrible a few moments ago, I felt ten times worse now. Mary was telling the truth about my mother… My MOTHER!!

I got up and stormed to the sitting room. She and my father were still seated and Natalia looked like she was just about to leave.

"Joey! You still look dreadful, dear. Here, come to mommy and I'll clean you up a little." She said softly, ignoring my icy cold glare.

"Eve," my dad said warningly.

"Shut up, Rod!"

I continued to glare at her before I let out a strangled whisper, "Is it true?"

My mother however became very entranced in her champagne bubbles when she saw how mad I was. "I was just doing the right thing."

I let my heart break a little bit more knowing I shouldn't have acted like that towards Mary. "How were you doing the right thing? I love Mary! Even still after this; I could never not love her!"

"Because she was wrong for you!" my mother burst out, "That girl was only interested in money. I could feel it. I could feel that she would be no good! I just needed you to see that before she did anything to you!"

"Mary was the only girl in school who wasn't falling over herself just to touch me! She doesn't even like it when I spend too much money on her, no matter how much I want to. Not every girl is like you, mom."

I picked up the engagement ring Mary had thrown at me and pocketed it, "Now, I am going to go beg for her to take me back."

Before she could say anything, I turned around and slammed the door on my way out, dialing the taxi cab service in the process.

MPOV: Back in New York 4 hours later

I learned from Joey to always carry sunglasses in public. Even though I wasn't with him, I was still recognizable as his fiancé. Well, ex now. Thank god for big sunglasses, I thought, slipping on a pair of huge ones I'd borrowed once from Tami.

I hailed a cab and went on my way to Tami and Dustin's. I'd have liked to go home; to the apartment, but I just couldn't bring myself there. Not now... not to all the pictures, and the memories... and the Joey - all over the place. I needed my best friend first.

Ten minutes later I was wrapped up snugly in a duvet with Tami's special pick-ya-up hot cocoa clutched in one hand.

"I want to hate him so much, but I just can't," I murmured, wiping my eyes with my other hand.

Dustin opened his mouth to say something, but instantly shut it when Tami gave him a look that plainly said shut-the-hell-up-don't-you-see-that-she-needs-comforting-not-reminding-of-Joey. I was instantly reminded of what Mrs. Parker had done all night to Mr. Parker.

Tami rubbed my back soothingly while I cried softly on her shoulder.

I slept on the couch that night. Then around noon the next morning, I left for the apartment. I had given Joey a two day limit and I should probably use it to my advantage.

It took longer than I expected to collect all my personal belongings. I kept seeing a glimpse of something, anything really, that would remind me of Joey and all the great things we'd done together. My fingers trailed along the edge of a photograph of us on the beach, me wearing a big straw hat and drinking a smoothie.

I was just closing my last bag when the door opened. I looked up to see a red eyed Joey. Whether the redness was from crying or sleep deprivation, I didn't know. Frankly, I didn't care either. I gathered all my bags and pushed past him, ignoring him until he grabbed my wrist and made me face him. He pleaded softly, his red-ringed eyes boring into mine, "Mary, please just talk to me. I found out the truth and I'm so sorry! I was wrong. Please forgive me."

I felt an odd sense of déjà vu, thinking of the time when I'd guessed he'd been cheating me with Natalia all those years ago. I forced myself not to look into his baby blues, to pull my wrist out of his grasp, to leave.

"We just need some time. It's better this way." I muttered without looking at him, closing the door behind me. I pushed Tami's sunglasses further up my nose, trying to hide my tears.

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*cowers behind rock while mob passes with pitchforks and torches* Please just wait it out before joining the mob. Just remember that I'm not that cruel.

This is the last chapter chapter, but there will be an epilogue that should be out soon. I just need to type it so just hold out for a little bit longer, I promise!!

There is a poll on my profile page on what I should do my possible next story on. It would mean a lot to me if you voted. Oh yeah, and review. I would like that very much as well :D