A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I'm going on vacation very soon and I want to finish posting the story before I go. So from now I'm going to start posting chapters every one to two days. Okay so here's the next chapter. Don't forget to read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill or any of it's characters. If I did, Peyton and Lucas would never have gotten together, much less get married.

***

This was bad. This was very very bad. Of all the justices in the state of Washington why in the world did it have to be Justice Brian Durham? Not only did he have to be one of the strictest judges ever, he had to have a thing against celebrities. Selling Nathan's case to a guy like him would be an absolute nightmare. As if that was not enough why oh why did Rachel Gatina have to be assigned as the head prosecutor?

It felt like my world was falling apart. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to call Rachel my arch nemesis of sorts. We went to the same college, attended almost all of the same classes and were constantly competing against each other. Whether it was to get the right internships or the right guys, Rachel was a gigantic pain in my behind. I would love to say that she's a sucky lawyer but that would be a lie. As much as I hate to admit it, the girl is damn good at her job. And knowing Rachel, being the manipulative bitch that she is, she'll find a way to sweet talk the jury into her favour. I suppose it's a good thing that the judge is such a hardass, I can only hope that he'll make sure that Nathan gets a fair trial.

***

NATHAN'S POV

It's hard. Seeing Haley every day, dealing with the media, finding out that your so-called friends aren't really your friends. As the days passed, things just seemed to get worse and worse.

I've always been on top of things. Never strayed from my destination. Everything is always a calculated measure. I didn't used to be this way. Back in high school, I'd been a lot more spontaneous, perhaps an act of rebellion or perhaps due to ignorance. Back then there were no consequences, I could mess up and Dan would fix things. Now however, things were different. For days I've been absentminded, forgetting simple things, spending days just lounging around with no purpose. And all of this for what? For Dan? For days I've been cooped up in this little cage, and to no avail trying to figure out just where things went wrong.

"Earth to Nathan, you there?" said Lucas as he waved his hand in front of my face.

"What? When'd you get here?"

"Just now, what's up?" he asked and as he got comfortable beside me on the couch.

"Nothing", Lucas was my brother and everything but it was still hard for me to be completely open to him.

We used to be the biggest enemies, partly because I hated the fact that I was constantly compared to the guy, and partly because Dan told me to be that way. After Haley came along, things started to change and we began to get closer. He was there for me when Haley left and since then he's always been there for me. The poor guy is always caught in middle, Haley's his best friend and I'm his brother, who should he side with?

"How'd it go with Haley? Considering that she didn't bite my head off when I came to pick her up, I'm hoping it went well."

I didn't want to talk about Haley, not now, not ever. There's some sort of unwritten rule that says that guys aren't supposed to share their feelings. But the fact is, Haley broke my heart. Every great hero has one tragic flaw, something that prevents them from reaching their peak. Mine is forgiveness. It's been years and I still can't get over what Haley did to me. Sometimes late at night when I finally have sometime to think, I think of what life would have been like if I'd been able to get past Haley's betrayal. Would I have been a better person? Would I have been happier? Would I finally attain that sense of completeness that I've always longed for?

"It was fine, she asked me a bunch of questions regarding the case and then she left"

"So no arguments? You were actually civil to each other? Good job Nate!" teased Lucas.

"You think it's a joke? Do you have any idea how hard it is to see her again?" I snapped.

"No of course not. It's just that in all these seven years, you've never talked about her. It's like you've completely erased her from your life. What happened to you guys? As far as I can remember you were willing to wait for her. You wanted to work things out. What changed your mind?"

Lucas didn't know about Haley and Chris. I guess Haley never spoke of it either. She was so busy trying to make herself look like the victim that she never bothered to tell the truth of what happened, not even to her best-friend.

"Haley cheated on me, that's what happened."

It felt like a huge burden had been lifted off of me. I've been battling with this for so long; it felt good to know that someone else now knew that truth.

"What? With whom?" questioned Lucas, shocked by this new information.

"I found out about Dan sending those annulment papers so I went to visit. To tell her that that wasn't what I wanted and that I was willing to wait for as long as it takes. Their Atlanta show had just finished. I waited for her after the show but she must have left in a hurry. So I went back to her hotel room thinking that she was tired and probably went to bed early."

Reliving those moments, it was so hard. I couldn't look at Lucas. He loved her like a sister; I didn't want to see his reaction. When I told Dan, he just laughed saying that I was better off without her. My mom's reaction wasn't much better. She had this enormous smile on her face, and I could immediately picture the wheels turning in her head. From that day on, she's taken every opportunity she's had to set me up with girls that seem to fit her standards.

Lucas ushered me to continue.

"Right so I go into the room, by now it's late in the night. I'd spent a good hour and a half trying to figure out what hotel she was staying in. So anyway, I go in and find Chris Keller, on top of her. He was shirtless and as far as I can tell, Haley was too."

"Nathan you always knew that Keller was really forward, couldn't it be some sort of a misunderstanding?"

God Lucas, always the loyal friend. Now I remembered why I never discussed this with him. He'd never understand my side of the story.

"Trust me Luke, there was no misunderstanding. He was kissing her and she seemed to be enjoying it. And you know what bothered me the most? The fact that she didn't even bother to take her wedding ring off while doing it. Do you have any idea how hard I had to work in order to pay for that thing?"

"So what happened?"

"I left, that's what happened."

"And the car crash?"

"I wasn't thinking straight. It was just after I caught her cheating, I was just so hurt. I kept replaying that image over and over in my head, I guess I just lost track of my surroundings."

I'd had enough of this, talking about Haley was too painful, I was tired of rehashing this topic time and time again.

"Look, can we not talk about this anymore? I see enough of her already, the less I have to think of her, the better".

"No problem man. Just know if you ever want to talk, I'm here okay?"

"Thanks"

***

DAN SCOTT MURDER TIMELINE

December 15th

Dan Scott sends invitations to Deb, Keith, Karen, Nathan, Lucas, and me requesting their attendance at his Washington penthouse on Christmas Day.

December 20th

All attending guests RSVP's are received save for Nathan

7PM: The Christmas party begins, guests begin to arrive

~ 8PM: Karen and Keith arrive

~ 8:30 PM: Deb arrives

~10-10:30 PM: Nathan arrives with Peyton Sawyer in tow.

Guests notice arguments between Keith and Dan but it subsides shortly after Nathan's arrival

~12 AM: Guests begin to leave but Keith, Nathan, Karen, and Deb stay.

25th December

1 AM: The Dan Scott's supposed time of death according to the coroner's report

1:21 AM: Keith receives a speeding ticket. (Note: He arrives at the party with Karen but returns home alone)

1:34 AM: A call is made to the Washington Fire Department station 23 saying that the smoke has been detected in the upper levels of the Lincoln apartments.

1:40 AM: Dan Scott's office is in flames, it takes approximately 40 minutes, to take out his body and to put out the flames.

7 AM: Keith, Deb, Karen, and number of other guests are questioned by the police. (Nathan is nowhere to be found)

9 AM: In spite of police efforts to keep the incident hush hush, the news is leaked to the media and every big newspaper across the city and country prints headlines regarding the case.

11 AM: Nathan Scott is found drunk and unconscious at his Anacostia river beach house

***

Washington D.C

HALEY'S POV

Getting a hold of Nathan's girlfriend and my former friend Peyton Sawyer was a very difficult task indeed. She was a famous model now, spokeswoman for the likes of Chanel, Prada, Versache. Ms. Sawyer had certainly done well for herself hadn't she?

Its funny how things have a way turning out differently from anything you'd ever imagined. If you'd asked 10 years ago, almost everyone in Tree Hill would have said Peyton would turn out to be the next big thing, a famous artists, living life day to day, one day in France, the next in the slums of Nairobi. But now it was almost impossible to recognise her.

Forget the curly hair, heavy eyeliner, concert tees. The woman that showed up in my office out of the blue one day was anything but the rebel that I'd gotten to know during my last couple of years at Tree Hill High.

Dressed from head to toe in designer clothing and jewellery worth at least $70, 000 it was no wonder that every man and woman at Simon & Associates, the law firm I work for, was openly gawking at her. She really was stunning. Her hair was still curly only they were glossed and smoothed so as to accentuate her already staggering looks.

In spite her drastic makeover, you could tell that she was still the same Peyton. She arrived in the office listening to her ipod not caring what anyone thought of her and if you looked closely you could tell that she was wearing a necklace with a skull shaped locket on it.

"Haley?"

"Peyton, hi! It's good to see you again."

We did the whole hugging and fake cheek kissing ritual that was so common in the celebrity world.

It was nowhere near as awkward I'd initially thought it would be. The last time I'd seen Peyton was on the day I left Tree Hill. From what Lucas had told me, I gathered that she was going through some personal stuff and wasn't exactly in the best of moods. But still, I thought saying goodbye was the right thing to do.

Peyton never locked her door, a burglar could walk in and steal everything in the house and she wouldn't notice, her ears were practically glued to her headphones. When I went to open the door, for the first time since I'd gotten know her, I found that it was locked.

At the sight of little 'ol me her frown seemed to get wider.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, clearly wishing for me to go away.

"I…I just thought we could talk".

She looked past me at my overpriced piece of junk that was a meant to be car and she smiled.

"So you're leaving?"

"Yeah, I just came to say good bye."

"You should never have come back in the first place."

"God what the hell is wrong with everybody? It's like everyone in this town has made it their mission to make my life miserable. What did I ever do you Pey?"

Could you blame me? I was just so sick and tired of the dirty looks. I didn't end the marriage, he did.

"Nothing, but you did to Nathan. You weren't there, you didn't see how broken he was. He almost lost his life over you and you still didn't come"

"He asked me not to. Look, I'm done explaining myself"

"Great I'm done talking to you. Have a safe trip Haley. Oh wait, on second thought I could care less. Goodbye"

And boom, yet another door shut in my face. This quaint gesture was becoming a recurring event over the past couple of days.

"So, Nathan tells me you're handling his case."

No … duh. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know that.

"Yes, yes I am."

I wasn't interested in engaging in small talk. I hadn't had my morning coffee yet and I was downright jittery. The fact that seeing her reminded me of all the awful things I had to endure back in Tree Hill some 7-8 years ago wasn't exactly helping the situation.

"Look I don't want things to be awkward. What happened was a long time ago. We're all very different people now, I'd like to make a fresh start, if that's okay with you", Peyton finally let out.

"I don't think I can ever forget what happened back then. Everyone I cared for abandoned me and to this day my decision to go on tour; I haven't been able to live it down. Please come sit, I have a meeting in about a half our so if you don't mind I'd like to get right to it."

"Sure", she replied, settling herself in the chair in front of me.

"Where were you on Christmas Eve?"

"At Dan's party of course. Nathan and I, we'd made a short visit to Tim's party. You remember Tim right?"

"Yeah", I ushered her to go on.

"Right so around 10ish, we got around to Dan's little suck fest."

"Did you talk to him, Dan I mean?"

"Yeah, you know, just the whole hi how are you doing, Merry Christmas type of thing."

"While there did you notice anything odd?"

"No not really, when you've been to one of Dan's parties you've been to them all. There's always expensive food, influential people, an argument between Dan and either Keith or Deb, it's been that way since forever."

She had a ring on her finger, an engagement ring. Exquisite gems surrounding a gigantic diamond, the ring was a work of art in itself.

So Nathan was engaged, it figures that he wouldn't bother to let me know. She must have caught me looking at the ring.

"He proposed, yesterday. Isn't it beautiful?"

Her face was glowing. That happy glow, the one you got once before you got married and then again when you're pregnant. I'd moved on from Nathan. Every time I saw him, he did nothing but infuriate me. So why was my stomach in knots? I've always known that this day would come, that one day he'd fall in love and marry someone else but all the preparation in the world couldn't have prepared me for this.

"Congratulations", I finally spit out, trying my best to mask the surprise and hurt that I was currently experiencing.

I must not have been doing a very good job at hiding my feelings considering that her expressions changed almost instantly.

"Thank you", she replied softly.

"Okay, so when did you leave the Scott penthouse?"

"Oh 12ish I think."

"So Nathan left with you?"

"Yes"

"Where did you go?"

"I dropped him off at his house and then went home. I had an early shoot the next morning so I wanted to go home early."

'So you dropped him off at the beach house?"

"Yes, he said he needed to get away for a couple of days"

In the years of service to the law, if there is one thing that I've learned it's to tell when someone is lying. There's always something that gives them away, twirling your hair, pulling on your ear, not being able to look someone in the eye, there's always some distinguishable trait.

Peyton's were her hands, she kept smoothing out her skirt, it couldn't be any smoother if you tried. So the question was why would she lie? Where had she really dropped him off?

Whether it was the knowledge of Nathan's upcoming wedding or the fact that Nathan's alibi was torn to shreds, my mind just wasn't able to process anything.

"That'll be it for now. Thanks Peyton."

"No problem. If you need to know anything else, feel free to call me", she replied with a smile, as she handed me a small piece of paper with her telephone number.