Jade woke up the next morning, her eyes still itching from all the crying. As she slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes, she noticed that Beck was already gone. He must have left for LA very early that morning. She got into her bathroom and looked at her image in the mirror. She was a mess. Her eyes were red, her make up she forgot to take off the day before was ruined completely and her tears had created stains that ran down her cheeks. She splashed some cold water onto her face to wake herself up, shivering from the sudden sensation. She removed her makeup and tied her long, dark hair in a lazy ponytail. She felt like crap and was worried as hell about Beck already.

She knew that her kids were at school already, another family doing the driving this week. Lilly would always pick them up for school and from school, so she knew that the kids were fine. But she wasn't. Sixteen years after she had shot her own father and finally escaped the life she never wanted, it seemed to come back and haunt her family again. For all she knew, Beck and Andre could get killed there the moment they step foot in LA and Victor, who claims to be Robbie's son, could just be some dumb kid who tricked them in order to make a name for himself. A thousand ideas ran through her mind, but two stuck with her.

The first idea was how the guys are willing to still risk their own lives in order to help a kid they saw as their nephew, considering how close they were to Robbie. Despite what they did, she knew that the guys cared about him and would not have done that had it not been absolutely necessary. Also, what she overheard one time while Beck and Andre were talking about him, it was the most they could do for him. Had anyone else done the hit, god knows what they would have done to Robbie before finishing him off. Traitors were treated in a certain way, she knew that, and she understood that Robbie would have probably been tortured before killed. Beck and Andre now hope to pay him back with helping his kid. If they couldn't help Robbie, they are going to do everything to save the only thing left of his name and legacy.

The second one hit her in the chest like a hammer. If something happens to them, Adam's sacrifice would have been for nothing. He knew that he would not leave Roy's office when he sent them away, and he was right. He bled to death for them, in hopes of ridding them from this curse. And now, they might bring everything back onto them. Jade didn't know how Cat would react to this herself. She was a smart woman who went through hell on more than one occasion. Jade blamed herself more than once for the situation Cat was now in. It was her who shot Roy, and Adam took the blame. It was her reaction that made Cat a widow and a single mother raising a child who didn't even know what her father had done for them. Cat never spoke about Adam in front of them, time only making the wounds hurt more. She used to tell Lilly stories about her dad and what he and her uncles used to do, naturally leaving out the violent parts and the cursing, but stopped after a while. Jade saw her more than once walk out of the house whenever someone mentioned Adam by accident or Lilly said something about him. She saw her walk to the beach and stare at the ocean while she was crying her eyes out. And now, Beck and Andre could take away the last thing that keeps Cat sane, and that is the idea that Adam's sacrifice had a purpose.

Jade got out of the house and walked towards Tori's place. She knew that Tori felt at least as bad as her, if not worse. A few minutes later, she walked into her cousin's house and closed the door behind herself. They never bothered locking the doors, anyway, since there wasn't anyone else with them on their own small paradise.

"Tori?" Jade called, looking around the hallway and glancing into the living room.

"Outside!" Jade heard Tori yell back. Jade made her way towards the slide door and opened it. She stepped outside and looked around. Tori was sitting in one of the chairs, staring at the waves with an emotionless expression. Jade knew that expression very well. She had seen it so many times in her life that she could recognize it from a million others.

"Andre and I had a big fight last night." Tori said as Jade sat down on the chair next to her.

"Just like Beck and I had." Jade said. "Argued for hours. In the end, they both left. I just hope they will come back alive and well."

"They will. I'm not worried about that. If Andre and Beck know anything, it's how to survive. They've shown that more than once." Tori said.

"I hope you are right. But if you are not worried about that, why do you have your 'I knew this would happen' face?" Jade asked.

"Because they are back in LA. And once they get back there, once they breathe in that familiar air and see the streets they owned, they will want it all back." Tori said.

"After what happened there? Why would they want to go back? To all the stress; all the trouble…"

"And all the fun they had with it. Face it, Jade. Life here has become really boring and monotonous." Tori said. Jade didn't know how to respond to that. It's something she hadn't thought about. It's something she never wanted to think about. "Back in LA, no day was the same as the other. Every day something happened. It was always something new that we could talk about; something new we could think about. And then we met the guys. You met Beck, I med Andre, and we met Rob and Adam again. We met Cat, heard their stories, got to know them. Remember how it used to be Trina, you and me against the world?" Tori asked.

"I remember. Then Trina found new people to hang out with. She left us handle our own issues by ourselves." Jade said.

"And then, for all those fucking years, it was you and me against the world. Fathers who were way too absorbed into their work to give a fuck about us, your mom, my mom, everything. But then we met them. And things became good again. Sure, there were the ups and downs, but that's just how life is. We were all happy, Cat and Adam were engaged and planning their marriage and we were enjoying every minute we spent with our boyfriends and the others. But now… It's all the same. Every fucking day is the same. Get up, take the kids to school, have a coffee, eat, meet with you guys and talk about things that happened in the past because nothing is happening now. And it's been like that for a couple of years." Tori explained. "You know that I love you guys, but how long are we going to keep up the 'remember when' conversations we keep having all the time? Well, those are the lowest form of conversations you can have."

"I didn't know that you felt that way." Jade said in a sadder tone. Tori let out a sigh as she looked at her.

"And you feel different?" Tori asked. She didn't get an immediate answer. Jade was absorbing everything she had just heard. And no matter how much she fought it; how much she tried to suppress it, it was the truth. Life in paradise was dull.

"I've been thinking about moving back to LA." Tori said, finally getting Jade's attention back. "Andre told me that nobody was ever even looking for us. Adam's plan worked perfectly. Everyone believes that he snapped after having to kill his own friend."

"It's funny. I remember how Adam would always talk about one day leaving LA and enjoying a nice, quiet, peaceful life somewhere near the ocean with Cat. Now, we got what he always wanted, and we aren't happy with it." Jade said, shaking her head in disbelief. "If we went back, wouldn't it make his sacrifice unnecessary? Wouldn't his death be for nothing?" Jade asked. "And more importantly, what would Cat say to that idea?"

Tori stiffened at the last question. Cat had no idea about Beck and Andre going back to LA, and despite knowing her for so long, Tori didn't know how Cat is going to react.

"What Adam did for us was save our lives, Jade. He took the blame and took it with him to the grave. Had he not done that, you and Beck and all of us would have been hunted down." Tori said.

"And that is my point, Tori. He did it so we could get away from LA. He did it so we could get out of that lifestyle that was going to be the end of us. And now, because of boredom, we might return to it? How ungrateful would that be?" Jade asked. Tori stayed silent this time. She didn't know how to answer her cousin.

At the same time, not too far away, Cat was going through a routine of her own. She felt drained, tired and sick of the same problem happening again and again.

"Why didn't you go to school today?" Cat asked, looking at her daughter. The seventeen year old was lying on her bed, rolling her eyes on her mother calling her out.

"I don't feel well." Lilly said, turning around in her bed, giving her mother the cold shoulder.

"Alright, what is it? Are you sick?" Cat asked, her patience growing thin.

"Yes." Lilly said in an annoyed tone. She definitely wasn't in the mood to argue with her mother again.

"Alright. I'll take you to the doctor then." Cat said. Lilly let out a loud groan in response.

"Do you have to be so annoying? Alright, I'm not sick. I didn't feel like going to school today and I took the day off. There. You happy now?" Lilly asked, finally turning around to face her mother.

"Lilly, it is important that you go to school and don't begin a habit with skipping it." Cat said in a gentle tone. She had been trying to figure out a way to deal with her daughter's attitude, which has only gotten worse with time.

"Why? You dropped out of school yourself, found a guy who took care of you. He even left you some cash before he disappeared." Lilly said.

"I didn't have a choice with school, and your father didn't just disappear."

"Oh please. How stupid do you think I am, Cat?" Lilly asked as she got out of bed and walked towards her mother. She looked down on the shorter redhead. "Nobody dares to speak about him, there are no pictures of him, no letters, nothing. Fuck, as far as I know someone could have knocked you up one day and left you dry. Good, you are lucky that Beck and Andre always help you out." Lilly said.

"You know that it's not true." Cat said, her voice near breaking at her daughter's words. The fact that she heard such accusations so often didn't make it any less painful. But to her, the truth was even more painful.

"Then what is the truth? Where is my father?" Lilly asked.

Cat didn't answer. She closed her eyes in hopes of not breaking down in front of Lilly. She wanted to tell her what happened. She wanted to tell her what Adam had done for her. But she couldn't. The moment she thought of him, her voice was gone, and the only thing she could think of is how much she missed him. She could only feel the pain, coming from the void he had left in her with his death.

"That's what I thought." Lilly said, letting out a small sigh. "When you are ready to admit that I'm right, I'll be here. But I don't appreciate being lied to my whole life and then called out for some unimportant bullshit." Lilly said before she walked to her door and opened it, motioning to her mother to leave her room.

Cat did so without saying anything more. Memories flooded her mind, grief and pain overtaking her and preventing anything to escape her mouth but the sobs she is holding back. She walked into her room and locked the door before she leaned on it and slid down. She finally let her emotions overtake her again, Cat had cried because of him for all this years, and she was sure she would do so for many more. Talking about him was something she could not do. She tried to let go. She tried to speak about him, but it always had the same result. She even tried to be angry with him. She tried to hate him for leaving her. For lying to her. But she couldn't. She also didn't want Lilly to know what her father was. How could she explain that her father was both a mob enforcer who stole, beat and murdered, but at the same time was caring and warm? How could she explain to her daughter that she spent a part of her life on the streets as a prostitute? So she decided not to even try. The less Lilly knew, the better for her. But now, she wished that she didn't have any explaining to do. Right now, she only wished that Adam was with her.