A/N: Thanks for all those who reviewed! Hopefully I can have an update sooner than last time. Let me know what you think!

I also wanted to give you an FYI that chancla is an informal spanish term for a sandal usually the one dollar Chinese ones you can buy off street vendors or a regular flip flop.

"How did I go three months without you?" Letty asked pensively as they sat on the edge of their bed. They had made their way back to the main house moments before, and Dom was looking through his drawers for a change of clothes.

"Your mind was preoccupied with other things. I have to say I didn't find myself thinking about it much. I guess I only want it if you do too." Dom told her placing his arm around her once he found what he had been looking for.

"Three months and you didn't think about it?" Letty questioned in surprise. She had never known a time during which her husband had a low libido.

"Of course I did, just not as much. Once I was in the other room I would take care of my business in the shower using my homemade stash."

"I told you to delete those. What if they end up in the cloud?"

"They're not in the stupid cloud, and they're password protected. I had Jessie give me the low down."

"You let Jessie see those videos!" Letty said pushing him off of her.

"God no, he just told me how to do it. Don't worry. I'm the only one who'll ever see all the dirty little things you can do." He commented flirtatiously.

"How many do you have?"

"I don't know"

"How many Dom?" She asked seriously.

"A lot."

"I think you should delete them?"

"Why? They're memories."

"They're filthy."

"They're erotic."

"Good lord, what if the kids ever accidentally find them?"

"Then they'll get a glimpse of how they came to be."

"Dom I'm not kidding."' Letty whined.

"Then you shouldn't have let me record them in the first place."

"It was in the heat of the moment."

"Thank God for that"

"Dom!"

"Fine I'll delete one."

"One?"

"Yeah"

"Do it now."

"No" Letty attempted to grab at his phone, but he pulled it away. She wrestled Dom for it, and he finally gave in.

"You can't unlock it anyways." He said standing up and grabbing his towel.

"Oh really?" She challenged.

"It's a different password from my lock screen."

"You owe me 100 bucks if I get into this phone."

"Okay", Dom shrugged with a smirk. Letty had had a history of making several successful guesses in the past. "I'm gonna shower." About ten minutes and several failed attempts later, Letty decided to head down stairs for a glass of water. She heard some scrimmaging down the hall that startled her. "What the hell was that?" She asked herself as she went to investigate, and was very surprised at who she found. "Mazda?" The young girl froze in place instantly. It took her several seconds to answer.

"Yes…" She said slowly without turning around.

"What are you doing up so late?" It had nearly been four in the morning, and had thought her asleep hours ago. Letty and Dom had taken a short nap at the guesthouse, and lost track of time.

"I couldn't sleep so I came down to get a snack." Mazda lied as her mother took note at how provocatively she was dressed.

"You need heeled boots and a jacket for a snack."

"Um…I couldn't find my chanclas?"

"You're about to get a chancla if you don't start spilling. Turn around." Letty commanded knowing very well what she was about to discover.

"Um, I'm really tired Mami. I think I should go to bed." Mazda said feigning a groggy tone.

"I don't like repeating myself." Letty threatened. Mazda slowly turned around and faced her mother, revealing her low skintight jeans and crop top. She wore light make-up, and her hair had obviously been sweated out. Letty grabbed her face and looked her over.

"Where were you?" She interrogated.

"I went out for a walk."

"Don't lie. I can ask the guards to pull up the surveillance footage, and it'll worsen your punishment."

"I didn't go anywhere."

"How old is a Alexus?"

"26", the young girl answered in a confused tone.

"I've been a parent for 26 years. You're not my first kid. Lord knows you're not my second, so let's not do this dance. I'm going to ask you one last time. Where were you?"

"Funny thing you say that."

"Excuse you?"

"Nothing"

"Little girl if you have something to say then say it."

"You haven't been much of a parent lately have you."

"What did you say to me?"

"I've been doing everything around here for the last two months."

"So let me get this straight. Did you come into this world with no one to care for you? No roof over your head? No food in your belly?"

"Papi's been doing that not you."

"So I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been my best self as of late. However who do you think you are calling me out after the sixteen years of my life that I have bestowed to you." Mazda knew by the volume of Letty's voice that she would be in for it. "So you're saying that I've never been a parent to you? I don't make money? I don't feed you? I didn't buy the car you're driving right now? I'm not paying for the expensiveass school you go to?" Letty said her voice rising in anger pulling the young girl's ear violently.

"Mami..ow..ow"

"I have done everything for you! Don't forget I can take it all away. I have the bank statements to prove it. You've been getting away with a lot of shit, and I'm telling you that ends here. Don't forget what I've done, and the work I've put in to make sure your life is good and easy. You are no one to come for me. So don't you ever in your fucking life talk to me like that again! Do you understand me?" Mazda nodded her head fearfully. "I didn't hear you little girl? A second ago you wanted to go toe to toe with me so now you better speak."

"Yes", she mumbled.

"Now you're options are to either speak the truth or have me smack it out of you. You decide whether you get the beat down or not. Where the fuck were you? Who were you with, and what the fuck were you thinking?"

"I was at a party at my friend Tory's house."

"Did you ask permission to go to this party?"

"No"

"That's strike one. What else did you do wrong?"

"I didn't tell you where I was."

"That's strike two. What else did you do wrong."

"I broke curfew."

"And that's strike three. Take off your jacket." Letty said inspecting her further for hickies or hints of cologne. "You're lucky I can't prove you were with a boy because if I find out you were God won't be able to save you. Do you understand?"

"Yes…"

"Yes what?"

"Yes mam"

"We don't break promises in this house; and if I find out you broke the promise you made me I'm coming for you. That's a guarantee."

"I didn't. I swear. Are you going to tell Papi?" The young girl panicked.

"You wanna live right?"

"Please don't tell him…I'm sorry." Mazda cried.

"Tears aren't going to help you. You should have thought of that before. So let me put it down for you like this. You're on lock down for a month for sneaking out. Secondly you're going to compete in a beauty pageant because I know it'll make you miserable. Lastly, because you disrespected me expect something humiliating coming your way. You won't know what it is until you're experiencing the nightmare. You're lucky I'm going to be away for a few days, but don't worry baby girl I got my eyes on you and your father will to. You have exactly two minutes to be in your room and in your bed." Letty said looking at her watch. "Go" Mazda made a mad dash for the stairs crying heavy tears.

As he stepped out of the shower Dom heard a door slam in adjacence to his room. "What the hell is going on out there?" He asked Letty as she entered the bedroom looking very vexed.

"You're daughter snuck out tonight." She told him not moving away from the door.

"What!" Dom growled heading towards it, but Letty stopped him holding her hand up.

"She's not going anywhere."

"What do you mean? She already did. What the hell has gotten into her?"

"I'll have a guard follow her to and from school. You should talk to her tomorrow. It took everything inside me not to end that girl's life tonight."

"I might actually take on that assignment." He voiced angrily trying push her aside.

"Yelling at her isn't going to fix anything. She already got that from me." Letty said attempting to calm him down. Despite her own anger, she knew the damage an angry Dom could do to a teenage girl's psyche. He had a way of cutting deep.

"What the hell was she thinking!" He asked rhetorically.

"Dom, this isn't the first time this happens...alright..." She continued to try and calm him down. "Jensen did it often. Alexus did it twice. You can't say you're surprised."

"I am; this is different. She's different!"

"Is she really? She's a stupid kid like we all were. Just take tonight to think about what you wanna say." She encouraged calmly caressing his face. "Okay baby?"

"No it's not okay"

"Dom, you're gonna scare her in a way I could never, and I don't want you to go there."

"Fine you know what. She's not going to get talked to at all."

"Don't be like that. She can't handle the silent treatment, and I won't be here to help her understand so you're gonna have to."

"She should have thought of that before."

"Remember what happened when she was ten and lied about scratching the Daytona? She hid from you for a week."

"She was ten."

"I promise it won't be much different."

"I honestly don't give a fuck at the moment."

"I know you don't, but you will later when she can't look you in the eye and is stuttering every time she tries to talk to you."

"I just don't understand."

"And we won't ever if she doesn't feel like she can talk. I just want to make sure she's not getting into some crazy shit she isn't telling us about."

"If she knows what's good for her then she won't."

"Exactly, so why don't you just lay with me right here since I have to go in a few hours anyway."

"What if she leaves?" Dom said furrowing his eyebrows.

"She can't make it past the guards a second time, especially now that it's on their radar. She's probably still crying her eyes out." Letty said gently pulling him towards the bed. "Just lay here with me." She told him pulling him down with an embrace. Neither slept much that night. Mazda's misadventure was a worrisome event. Their careless night had turned into one of worry, and the tension was palpable. "I don't want her to turn into me Dom. It's my worst nightmare." Letty voiced at dawn as she pensively attempted understand the predicament they found themselves in.

"She won't." He answered monosyllably.

"I thought we were in the clear. She was such a good girl. We've never had issues with her."

"Unfortunately, our genes won't allow for that." Dom told her in a calmer state.

"I'm turning her into me. I'm ruining our daughter."

"I disagree. You're lives are so different that it's almost impossible. Rest her soul, but Ana did a number on you. You guys are completely different people."

"I honestly don't think we're that different."

"You both have your flaws, everyone does, but you've always been warmer. She got soft with age, but I'll never forget how she used to be. I'll always have internal scars."

"Was it really that bad?"

"Are you delusional? She smacked me on several occasions."

"It was only three times."

"No it wasn't, but whatever. I think you're a better mother."

"Can you honestly say that?"

"Yeah, Mazda goes to you for everything. She tells you everything."

"She used to."

"It's not gonna take that long for you to get back to where you were."

"You don't understand teenage girls."

"I understand my daughter."

"You thought you did. You never thought she'd do what the boys did."

"That's a poor decision she made, but I know who she is as a person; and I know she loves her mother." Letty fell silent in deep thought. She wondered if her months of neglect had resulted in years of damage she could not repair. Worry ran through her head, as she thought of all the relationships in her life she had potentially tarnished including her marriage.

About an hour later she was packed and ready for short weekend get away. "I have to go." Letty said creeping into her daughter's room that morning. She knew that the young girl had not slept in anguish of her father's wrath.

"Did you tell him?" She asked in response.

"Of course I told him." Mazda let out a small cry. "He's going to be so mad at me."

"He's not happy. I'll tell you that right now."

"Can I just be alone?"

"I wanted to say bye."

"Bye" she said placing her head inside her pillow.

"I wish the circumstances were different." Letty told Mazda, sitting beside her. "I'll be back in a few days."

"It doesn't really matter does it? It's not like you're ever really here anyway."

"I'm trying to be. I'll always be here for you."

"That's such a lie." The young girl scoffed. "Why don't you just go? I don't need you here. Wasn't punishing me enough?"

"You think I like punishing you? I hate it. I thought I could trust you to make better decisions."

"I thought I could trust you to. I guess we were both wrong. Can you please leave? I want to be by myself."

"I'll see you in three days."

"Whatever" Mazda shrugged off. Her mother gave her one more glance before heading out. She bid farewell to her youngest son and husband before taking the road to what she hoped would be a recovery of sorts. As she drove mindlessly on the highway, Letty made a crucial phone call to her eldest son.

"Hello?"

"Alexus I need you to come home for the rest of the week."

"Is everything okay? I thought you were going to something out of town this weekend?"

"I am, but I need you to keep an eye on Mazda. You're sister snuck off to a party last night."

"What?" he exclaimed.

"She needs someone to talk to and who can look after her. You're father probably won't be talking to her for a few days. God knows you've always been great with her. Jensen always just upsets her."

"Papi did always know how ice someone out."

"She's never had that happen. She's scared of not being the apple of his eye anymore."

"Would that really be such a bad thing? She's held the baton for a long time."

"Do you like disappointing your father?"

"Of course not, it's one of the scariest feelings in the world, but we've all been there. If anything I think you'd be worse than he would."

"Me?"

"Yeah you just know how to make people feel so guilty, and like the worst human being on the planet."

"No I don't. You swindle people constantly. You manipulated me to go to all your games even though you knew I wasn't up for it."

"I learned from the best, and we won right?"

"I still refuse to agree with you."

"You don't have to. Mami you're pretty intense. Papi would just be pissed off, and punish us. Once he wasn't mad anymore, there wouldn't be a problem. When you were mad we were still feeling it months later. That's why when Jensen and I got arrested in Vegas Papi agreed not to tell you."

"What?" Letty exclaimed. "You got arrested together? When was this? Why didn't anyone tell me? How did it not make news?"

"Relax Mami. It was a few years ago, and it was a big misunderstanding. Papi sent uncle Vince to handle it so there was no need to get you involved."

"Oh my God." She said in realization. "I wonder what else you've all been keeping from me? Why even say anything?"

"Not much, I promise. I don't live under your roof anymore so I figured I don't have much to lose."

"Doesn't that contradict everything you just said?"

"Does it?"

"I'm disappointed. Isn't that what you were trying to avoid?"

"I mean we technically didn't do anything wrong for a change. We were just accused of it. We were sparing your feelings in not telling you."

"Right…"

"Well, as much as I would like to continue this self-incriminating conversation, I actually have to go. I'm late for my meeting for a new ad campaign."

"What about your sister?"

"I'll be there. I don't know what much good I'd do."

"She respects you. She needs someone to show her the error of her ways, yet be someone she feels is on her side. I'm sure you can do that because I don't think I even have her respect anymore."

"That's nonsense."

"I wish it were." Letty said lamentably. "She's been talking back. I check her, but I can see what she's feeling in her eyes."

"Then that's a problem we need to fix."

"I will, but I just need you to do this for now until I get back. I just don't want her to runaway or try it again…or…I don't know." Letty sighed into the phone at a loss.

"Don't worry I'm on it Mami. I'll talk to you later." He son said before exchanging 'I love you's and hanging up. Letty drove for another two hours with the noise of her own mind. She felt like she had fallen short in so many places in her life. She held herself to the highest expectations and felt in that moment that she had failed them all. She was filled with remorse of her own actions. And although very angry with her daughter, she believed it to be her fault. Letty also felt that the strides she had made with Dom were something she could not trust to be everlasting. She wondered when the day would return during which she had no doubt in herself or the natural order of life. She feared the day would never come, and that she would never be the same again. Tears would come in waves as she thought of all the things that bothered her as of late. She wanted to get better, but did not have the confidence in herself to believe that she could.

She pulled up to the Esalen center where she was greeted, given an itinerary, and brought to the room she would stay in. It was private and well furnished. She was starting to second-guess her stay and did not know if she was making another selfish choice or if she was doing the right thing for her family.

"Hey! You made it!" Letty jumped at Claude's voice disrupting her loud thoughts. She turned around to greet him.

"Hi" He enveloped her in a friendly hug before letting her go.

"Wonderful! I'm so glad you decided to join us. I'm excited to see all the progress you'll be making this weekend."

"Yeah" She said unconvincingly.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah it is."

"Forgive me, but I don't quite believe you."

"Well…"

"Letty the whole point of you being here is to open yourself up to truth."

"I just don't want to get into it right now. Maybe later, okay?"

"Alright, come with me. I'll get you acquainted with everyone."