Rating: M to NC-17

Author's Notes: Warning – this short chapter deals with violence and rape. I'm uncomfortable writing and posting it, but it's a necessary plot. I apologize in advance. I try to keep it as tame as possible, just like the show. You can skip the flashback about the rape if you want to. You already know who the rapist was, because I try to inject some canon here. But the current husband is a different matter. The identity of that person will be revealed in the next chapter. Thank you to those who tried to guess who it is; it gave me some insights. Thank you for the reviews everyone!

Flashback,

Cabin In The Middle of Nowhere, 2006

It was 6 AM in the morning, the sky was still dark and it was cold in the cabin as the fire from the fireplace was already gone. There were two figures sleeping in a bed near the fireplace; a guy and a girl. The guy was spooning the girl, and he was breathing evenly. His arm was draped over her stomach, as he embraced her like he didn't want to let her go.

The blonde girl opened her eyes, woke up, and she squirmed a bit. The guy tightened his embrace. She sighed and tapped his arm.

"Mercer…" She said. Mercer Hayes nuzzled his head to her hair, and kissed her cheek. "Mercer, I need to go to the bathroom." She rubbed his arm softly.

Mercer opened his eyes sleepily, "Huh?"

"I need to go to the bathroom." She repeated.

Mercer let her go and sat up on the bed. He yawned and scratched his head, and then reached a bunch of keys in the drawer next to their bed. He then reached to her feet which were cuffed to the bed post, and he unlocked the cuff.

"You're gonna take a shower?" Asked Mercer.

She rubbed her feet and walked to the bathroom, limping. "I might as well."

"Hmmm, hurry back. I want some pancakes for breakfast." He then rolled over and went back to sleep. Veronica Mars was staring at the sleeping figure in the bed and then limped to the bathroom. She sat on the toilet and pondered a while. She wiped herself after she finished, and she was glad that she wasn't bleeding… Mercer could be rough when they were having sex.

No, correction: when he raped me over and over… Veronica thought angrily.

She flushed the toilet and went to the sink to brush her teeth. As she looked up, she caught her own image in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes and a cut on her lip. But the most terrible thing was her neck had bruises and fingerprints around it. Mercer sometimes tried to strangle her to get off, like he gets his satisfaction from it. Before she passed out, Mercer would let go and then kissed her softly. He would say that he loved her over and over, but at the same time he would slap her if she wouldn't obey. Sometimes when she fought him, he would force a GHB laced drink down her throat. As she was out of it, he would have sex with her.

It was no use crying anymore. Ever since she was kidnapped from the parking lot of Hearst Campus, she had fought, clawed, kicked, screamed, and he always had the upper hand. Mercer always threatened to cut her hair, kill her, and send her hair to her dad.

After 7 days, he almost broke her.

It was when she cried Logan's name, asking for his help. Mercer was furious and asked who Logan was. When she refused to answer, he punched her until she passed out.

Logan's name was forbidden from her lips.

Mercer's lackey, named Moe, sometimes would be at the cabin, filming them having sex. Sometimes Moe begged Mercer to touch Veronica, but he would not allow it. One day, when Mercer went away, Moe was trying to take an advantage from a sleeping and bounded Veronica. He managed to kiss her, but she head-butted him, which made him howling in pain. Moe wasn't Mercer, and he immediately backed off.

From time to time, Veronica regretted that she investigated the Hearst Rapes. Mac's roommate, Parker, was raped and her hair was shaved completely. Several girls were also raped, so Veronica determined to solve the mystery once and for all…

Mercer laced her drink with GHB when she was in the cafeteria, and on her way to her car, she passed out. And when she woke up, she was already in bed, naked, her hands were cuffed to the bed post, and Mercer was on top of her.

Today would be her 10th days being with Mercer.

There was an old TV in the cabin, and they were watching the news one night. Veronica's face was prominently being showed as a 'Missing Person'. She saw her father being interviewed and pleading to whoever kidnapped Veronica to return her home safely. Her friends were interviewed as well, and they were crying – especially Wallace and Mac. Dick and Troy offered the kidnapper sums of money to the safety return of Veronica. Even Jake Kane also voiced his opinion and put reward money to whoever could give any information.

Sheriff Don Lamb said that he would get Veronica back. Veronica saw that he seemed sincere about it; there was no smug reaction or even camera hogging from him. He gave a brief statement and walked away from reporters. Veronica didn't believe him at the time….

Veronica finished taking a shower and dried herself. She put her clothes; short jeans and t-shirt, and then went to the kitchen. Mercer was still sleeping. Veronica glanced to his jacket; she knew his cell phone was inside the pocket.

There was no knife in the kitchen, Mercer made sure of that. Veronica usually cooked for them; Mercer always bought grocery which didn't contain things to be cut such as bread, salad, ramen noodles, eggs, bacon, rice… Today, Mercer wanted her to make some pancakes.

As she flipped the pancakes, she announced, "Mercer, breakfast."

Mercer woke up, sat on the bed, and rubbed his sleepy eyes. He smiled to see Veronica standing in the kitchen cooking him breakfast. He stood up and approached her from behind and gave her a hug. He kissed her head and said, "Thank you, darling." Veronica was different from the women he raped. She wasn't slutty or even airheads. She was special, witty, hot head, and beautiful. She was really a handful; it took days to tame her.

Mercer sat at the kitchen table and waited to be served. The smell of pancakes was really good. Veronica lifted the frying pan from the stove and slipped the pancakes to his plate.

When Mercer put the plate down on the table, Veronica was swinging the frying pan as hard as she could to his face.

A sound of 'THUNK' was heard, and also a crack sound as Mercer's nose was broken.

Mercer fell down from his chair to the floor. Veronica didn't bother to check whether he was still alive or not, but she immediately went to the drawer and grabbed the keys, took the cell phone from his jacket, and ran to the door. Veronica was trying not to panic. She bit the inside of her cheek, and tried to unlock the door. The door was locked with many locks, and she was trying the keys one by one. She could hear Mercer was groaning but she didn't stop. Her hands were steady as she unlocked the locks. As the final lock was unlocked, she opened the door widely,

She could feel the fresh air and sunrise welcomed her towards her freedom.

Before she could put one foot outside, Mercer was already standing up and he grabbed her feet. She fell to the floor, and she was dragged back to the room by Mercer. She was clawing the wooden floor and screamed. "LET ME GO!"

"Bitch, you broke my nose!" Mercer screamed back. His face was bloody as he dragged her feet. He grabbed her hair and forced her to stand up. When he was face to face with her, she scratched his eyes. Mercer let her go and yelled in pain, as Veronica kneed him in the groin. Mercer fell down again and she was free from his clutches. Her legs felt like Jell-O as she was running as fast as she could from him and out from that cabin. Mercer was screaming, "VERONICA!"

Veronica didn't know where she was as she was running down the barren hill with rocks that stabbed her bare feet. She dialed her father's number and prayed while she was running.

"Hello?" Keith's voice was heard. Veronica wanted to cry to hear her father's voice. It felt like years since she had heard her dad's voice.

"DADDY! It's Mercer Hayes!" She yelled while running. She ignored the pain from her bloody feet and kept running.

"VERONICA? Where are you? Are you okay?" Keith yelled. She could hear someone beside him that sounded like Lamb, and he was barking orders.

"Daddy, I don't know where I am. But it's Mercer Hayes and he owns a cabin somewhere." Veronica stopped to catch her breath. She then sobbed uncontrollably. "Daddy, please – I want to go home…"

"VERONICA!" Veronica turned around and saw Mercer, with a bloody face, holding a taser gun. Their distance was several feet away, but the taser gun had a long cartridge. "Shut the phone off!"

"Veronica? Who is that? Where the hell are you!" Veronica looked at Mercer. He was crying and pointed his taser gun. It was obvious that he would use it.

She felt the warm sunlight on her face, and closed her eyes as Mercer pulled the trigger. Before the taser hit her, she managed to say, "I love you daddy… Goodbye…" She was sure this would be the end for her. She was sure that Mercer would kill her after this. She heard Keith was yelling her name as she felt electricity running through her veins and the world turned dark…

Present,

Dog Beach, 2016

Logan was standing at the beach, watching the waves. He had his hands in his pockets, and he was staring at the horizon. The sun was almost rising, and for a moment he felt nostalgic about this place; the town he left a decade ago because he just couldn't deal with everything that happened here. Lilly, Aaron, his mom, Duncan, Cassidy… and Veronica.

Oh, Veronica… Logan's heart was heavy with regrets and sadness.

He closed his eyes, and let the ocean breeze touched his skin.

Logan felt numb when he went back to his hotel after talking to Mary. He remembered when Mary dropped a bomb to him; he went silent. He sat there in the living room, not moving. It wasn't until the sun was set; he decided to go back to his hotel. Mary hugged him and tapped his face in sympathy. Logan then promised to visit them again, and he left his phone number to Mary.

Logan didn't want to ask Mary about the details. Better ask someone who was more familiar with what happened instead to someone who knew something from newspaper or tabloids.

Veronica was kidnapped and raped…

How come he never heard of this before? If he knew about this… he would've come home soon. And probably kill the bastard who did this.

Ten years.

A lot of things happened in 10 years.

Logan had become a movie director AND a professional killer, Casey Gant had become a wealthy publisher – and also his publisher, John Enbom owns an airline, Dick Casablancas was a CFO for the most popular social network in Neptune, and Cindy McKenzie owns that social network website. Logan knew all of these because he made a research about his school mates before the reunion.

Logan knew that Veronica became a photographer after graduated from university. She traveled around the world, taking pictures and had exhibitions for her work. She quit the detective job after Don Lamb was beaten in an election. There was no mention of her being kidnapped or raped in any file or news or even Google.

And there was no mention of her being married to the late Don Lamb.

Dick didn't say anything when they were talking on the phone or when they sent emails to each other. Either Dick knew about this, or he didn't.

He sent a frantic text messages to Patricia last night; asked her to find information about any rape and kidnapping case in Neptune for the last 10 years. Patricia already got her hands full with finding information about Veronica since few days ago… since Logan discovered that she assassinated someone in New York. But Patricia hadn't called him at all. He was becoming impatient.

Logan suspected someone was giving a great length to cover everything up. But Mary knew about her being raped and kidnapped, so this must be a big Neptune secret where no one outside this forsaken town knows anything about.

This fucking town, Logan thought bitterly.

So who was smart and talented enough to modify any news regarding Veronica? Keith Mars probably behind this, with the help of Mac – who Logan knew was a computer whiz. He imagined that everyone was trying to cover up something. He wondered whether everyone would tell him anything…

But this is Neptune, where secrets sometimes buried forever.

Veronica was kidnapped, raped, married Don Lamb, and somewhere along the line she became an assassin. How fucked up that was?

Logan's eyes grew dark, even when the sun had risen and warmed his face.