AN: Thank you so much to those who have reviewed – you guys are beyond appreciated. Cannot express that enough.

****WARNING to all, this chapter gets very dark at points and deals with some difficult topics involving abuse. Read with caution.****


CHAPTER 20


CATHERINE POV

"I couldn't move on after our dad's death like you could for one very simple reason," Liam says. "Mom didn't kill our dad, Sara, I did."

Hearing his words, I watch as Sara's eyes widen, her head shaking in disbelief.

"No," she chokes out, "I was there…I saw her…she stabbed him…again and again…"

Hearing the tone of her voice, the pain there as she says the words aloud, I find my eyes closing briefly in anguish.

Sara never shared with me the details of what happened with her father's murder, not ready to open up about that part of her life yet. This isn't the way I wanted to find out, the way I wanted her to have to share it, tied to a chair in her own living room and all but forced to say the words aloud.

"Think about what you really saw that night," Liam says, his voice drawing me out of my thoughts. "You saw her stabbing him because you heard the commotion. But think, Sara, did you ever see that first stab of the knife? The one that penetrated his heart, killing him?"

Breaths becoming shallow, Sara pales, her coloring becoming so ashen that I fear she is about to either pass out or vomit.

"I…she…," she stutters out, her head shaking slowly back and forth.

"She walked in on me, on what I had done," Liam says, his voice almost gentle. "And then she did what any mother would do in that situation."

Sara's body begins to tremble. "She covered it up."

Nodding, Liam kneels down in front of his sister.

"She took the knife from me, wiped off my prints, and stabbed him over and over again. Making sure the noise got your guys' attention and that his blood got all over everything, including us."

He keeps his gaze locked on Sara's. "From that moment on, we became the traumatized children who walked in on their mother stabbing their father, drenched in the evidence of what they witnessed."

Sara shakes her head in disbelief, fighting his words, fighting his contradictions of the truths she thought she knew.

"Sara," Liam calls, reaching out and holding her face firmly in his hands, forcing her gaze to his. "You know I'm right."

Trying to pull from his grip, Sara renews her struggles against her restraints,

"No, stop…" she almost pleads, "You're lying. You have to be lying…" she breathes out.

Liam smiles sadly, "I wish I were. It would've saved us both a lot of trouble."

Sara turns her gaze away from him, continuing to fight against the binds holding her in place, the binds forcing her to listen to words threatening to destroy her.

Her eyes are so unreadable in this moment that I have a hard time recognizing anything they hold behind them.

But, the one thing I can see, is that she, despite her protests, believes what he has told her.

Liam can tell as well, and he remains kneeling in front of her.

"She got arrested, confessed to killing him," he continues. "And then, once she was convicted for his murder, knew no one else could ever be tried for his death, she did the one thing she still had the power to do."

Sara's body is shaking so badly that when she responds, she can barely get the words out. "She killed herself."

Liam smiles sadly, finally getting to his feet.

"She killed herself," he agrees. "And now you know why I can't stand seeing you happy. Seeing you living a life free of the guilt that I've had to carry with me all these years," he says.

"The guilt of knowing what I did, knowing what my own mother did to cover up my sins. And you, living oblivious to the whole thing. Going to Harvard, starting your career. Falling in love," he states, gesturing towards me.

"It wasn't fair," he says.

"It wasn't fair since the reason I did it was because of you," he tells Sara evenly.

Shaking her head, Sara's eyes widen and she looks like she knows exactly where this is headed.

"Stop," she grinds out. "Don't."

Liam's own eyes widen at her words, suddenly looking between Sara and me.

"You never told her," he says in surprise, not posing it as a question. "Well, this should be interesting."

Pulling at her arms with renewed efforts, I worry that Sara is going to dislocate something if she keeps this up.

Trying to say something, say anything to her, I growl against the gag in my mouth.

Liam barely pays me any notice, and I am half convinced Sara's eyes have turned black with emotion when they meet mine.

There is so much being held there, so much anger, fear, pain, regret, all so prevalent and so strong that I wonder if they will succeed in destroying the very fabric of Sara's being.

I can tell that she is barely holding on.

"You see," Liam says, now advancing on me. "Our father had one particular form of revenge that he knew would work best against our mother…"

"Liam!" Sara yells, "Don't you dare!"

Turning back towards her, Liam wordlessly grabs the discarded blindfold from behind her, untying it.

"I swear to God," Sara growls. "Do not tell her that…any of that. It's not your story to tell!"

Simply shaking his head, Liam steps around behind her. "I'm sorry, baby sister, but I'm going to need you to be quiet now."

Using the blindfold as a gag, he ties it tightly around Sara's mouth, stepping out of the way as she thrashes violently, screaming into the material.

I try to get her to meet my eyes, to communicate to her that it's alright, that somehow everything will be alright, but she is beyond solace.

Continuing to thrash, blood begins trickling down her hands from her restraints.

"Catherine," Liam says, directing my attention back to him.

I fix him with the best glare I can muster, letting him know just how vile of a person I feels he is, how I want nothing to do with what he is about to tell me.

"After years went by, our father finally realized that the best way to get my mother back for what had happened to Addison at the hands of her brother," Liam continues, fixing me with his own harsh look, "was to do to her own children what her brother had done to his."

Closing my eyes tightly at his words, I shake my head, trying desperately not to hear what he is implying, what he is revealing. I try to drown out his voice, to do anything to leave this part of Sara's past as hers alone to share.

But, soon, I stop fighting, knowing it's pointless, that what I just heard will forever be burned into my psyche.

My God.

I had absolutely no idea.

Sara never once hinted about any of this, at how deep and dark the abuses in her house truly ran.

What she had told me, was already more than dark enough.

More than horrifying enough.

But this.

My God.

Opening my eyes, I force myself to turn to look at Sara.

Watching her, I see her struggles diminish, and she now sits there almost completely numb, tears making their way silently down her face, eyes staring vacantly ahead of her.

It hits me suddenly that this is the first time I have ever seen Sara cry.

In all our time together, I have never once, until now, seen her cry.

"After awhile," Liam says quietly, his own eyes now watching Sara as well, "He focused on trying to get me to transform from a victim to a transgressor. To be like him."

He turns his eyes back towards mine, but I keep my own focused solely on Sara.

Taking a shaky breath, Liam wipes absently at his face, and I wonder if he is now crying as well.

"I knew it had to stop, it had to end. And I knew there was only one way to accomplish it," he says, his voice now resigned. "I got a knife from the kitchen. I got a knife and I ended it. I ended it all," he reveals in a near whisper.

I can see him shake his head, "I never wanted mom to see it, to take the blame. But I wasn't strong enough back then to stand up against her. I was nothing but a coward."

Finally, I turn my gaze towards him.

Meeting my eyes, his expression is haunted. "And, once she killed herself, there was no longer a point to confessing what I had done."

He shakes his head, "When I got older, I knew I had to do something to pay for it, some penance to try to make up for my sins. So I got high, got myself arrested."

"But," he says quietly, "Even after years behind bars, I still felt as guilty as the day we were told by social services that our mother had hung herself from her bunk with a bedsheet."

He lets out a shaky breath, "I killed my own father, and essentially, I killed my own mother."

Clearing his throat, Liam seems to try to collect himself, taking a few deep breathes.

Reaching forward, he unties the gag around my mouth.

"I'm sorry for getting you involved in this," he says, voice sincere.

In that moment, I hear so much of Sara in his voice, see so much of her in his eyes, that I have to look away.

Focusing instead on the brunette so near me yet so far away, I watch as she continues to stare numbly out in front of her.

"Sara," I call.

No response.

"Sweetheart," I beg, "Look at me."

No response.

"I'm sorry," Liam says quietly, "But Sara deserved to know. You deserved to know."

"Not like this," I grind out. "Never like this."

Taking a breath, he shakes his head sadly.

"No, probably not," he says in quiet agreement. "But don't worry, it'll all be over soon anyway."

Eyes moving slowly from Sara towards him, I feel my heart sink in my chest at his chilling words.

"Liam…" I breathe out, terrified.

"Don't worry," he tells me, "Everything will be alright."

Without another word, he reaches under his shirt and pulls out a gun.


"Liam," I call slowly, eyes darting between his face and the gun in his hand. "Stop, don't do this. No one else has to get hurt."

Shaking his head, Liam fixes me with a look. It's a look that Sara has given me herself many times before.

A look that expresses a combination of sadness and resolve.

"I'm sorry," he says, "I really am. But this is how it has to be."

Kneeling in front of me, he pulls back the slide, loading the bullet into the chamber.

"I'm sorry," he repeats.

With one last look, he gets to his feet. Stepping around me, he looks at his sister, taking in her vacant expression, her shaking body.

Slowly, Liam reaches down and unties Sara's restraints, removing the gag from her mouth.

Keeping his gun trained on her, he watches as she remains sitting, her gaze distant, blood slowly trickling from her fingers as her wrists continue to bleed from the abrasions caused by the restraints.

"Sara," he calls, stepping away from her, keeping the gun aimed at her head.

Sara doesn't respond, and I am beginning to worry that she has slipped into shock. Hell, who am I kidding, it's glaringly clear that Sara has slipped into shock.

"Sara," he calls again, this time louder.

When she still doesn't respond, he changes tactics. Stepping up to me, he looks me in the eye.

"I'm sorry," he repeats for the third time.

Reaching behind me, he pushes harshly against the back of my head, fingers digging perfectly into the spot he hit me previously.

Despite my best efforts, I cry out, my head jerking away to the side.

Just like Chris before him, Liam knew exactly where Sara's Achilles heel is. Apparently, anyone who knows Sara knows that the best way to get to her is through me.

Immediately, Sara jumps to her feet, advancing on her brother with such speed that he barely has time to react.

As Sara takes a swing at him, he dodges the brunt of the blow, her fist glancing off his temple. It's still enough to knock him off balance, however, and she has her hands wrapped around his throat not a moment later, backing him against the bookshelf.

Her eyes are so dark, so empty, that I genuinely fear for her. Fear for what she is capable of in this moment that she would otherwise never do.

Before it becomes an issue however, I find Liam's gun pointed directly at my head.

"Sara," he grinds out, forcing the words past her hands threatening to choke the life out of him. "I'll shoot her in the head."

Sara's eyes narrow, but her hands remain fixed against his neck.

"I will kill Catherine," he states slowly, emphasizing the strangled words so she can understand what he is saying.

At the use of my name, Sara pauses, something deep in her consciousness telling her that she needs to pay attention.

Needs to pay attention to what he is saying, to what he is doing.

Shaking her head slowly, she loosens her grip, her eyes finally shifting to take in the weapon held in his hand.

Following the weapon's aim, her eyes travel until they end at mine.

The expression there, the emotions there, it nearly takes my breath away.

It's like I am looking at Sara, but not.

Everything that has transpired here, it has changed her deeply, torn the foundation of everything she thought she knew right out from under her.

I watched first hand as her already unspeakably horrific past, a past she has battled and struggled with throughout all the time that I have known her, revealed itself to be even more sinister than she ever imagined.

I genuinely worry, knowing the type of person that Sara is, that she may not come back from this.

So many things about Sara had already changed these past months, morphing her into a person spiraling downward into depths that I could not fathom.

I worried for her then.

I am terrified for her now.

"Good," Liam calls, seeing that he has her attention. "Do what I say, Sara, and she walks out of here."

Hearing his intentions, I shake my head.

I have watched him destroy the woman that I love, watched him shatter everything she held dear, watched him bring every one of her worst fears about herself to life.

"Sara," I call out, "Honey, listen to me…"

Eyes shifting almost imperceptibly, Sara's gaze focuses on mine.

In horror, I watch as she removes her hands from Liam's neck, her eyes still on mine.

"What do you want me to do?" she asks Liam.

Her voice is empty, and in that moment, I know that Sara has given up. She's given up on her will to make it out of this alive, genuinely not caring what happens to her.

I see her resignation, her acceptance.

I can see in her eyes that she feels that she is already lost, already conquered, that there is nothing left inside of her worth saving.

"Sara…" I try, desperately trying to reach her.

Shaking her head, she turns away from me, fixing her gaze on her brother.

"What do you want me to do?" she demands again.

Nodding, Liam moves towards me, keeping his gun leveled at my head as he fixes his gaze on his sister.

"Go to the kitchen, grab a knife from the set on the counter."

Without a word or moment of hesitation, Sara does as he asks, pulling a steak knife from the block.

Moving back into the room, she returns her gaze to his.

"I have something I need to do, what I came here for, but first I need to be sure that you won't ever forget what I told you here today," Liam tells her softly. "I need to know that you won't go back to your happy life like this never happened."

"I need you to remember," he says, his voice almost pleading with her.

I find myself shaking my head. How in the hell can he even suggest that Sara would ever forget what happened here today.

What he told her, what he revealed to her. What he revealed about her to the woman that she loved.

Sara doesn't say anything, simply watching him and keeping her gaze purposefully away from mine.

"Take the knife and place it against your forearm," Liam instructs her.

Not liking where this is going, I shake my head more emphatically.

"Sara, stop, don't do this…" I plead.

My voice might as well be falling into a blackhole. Neither Sara nor her brother reacts to my words, and it feels almost as if I am not even here.

At least not to them.

Wordlessly, Sara lifts the knife to her arm.

"On the inside of your forearm, below where your arm bends at the elbow, carve a horizontal line straight across."

Gripping the knife firmly in her right hand, Sara doesn't hesitate, dragging the blade across her left arm, a thick crimson trail following its path.

"Sara!" I call out. "Stop!" I beg.

Again, neither Sara nor her brother reacts.

Pulling against my restraints, I desperately try to free myself, divert their attention, anything.

"Good," Liam says to her. "Now, at the bottom of that line, I want you to draw a vertical line traveling down your arm in the direction of your wrist. Make it about half the length of the line you just made."

Sara places the knife accordingly, pushing the blade into her flesh, her expression not reacting to the pain as a new trail of blood springs forth and traces its way down her skin, dripping soundlessly to the carpet below.

Shaking, I find myself desperate to look away, desperate to stop watching this. To stop watching Sara carelessly and emotionlessly hurt herself.

But, I find myself unable and unwilling to do so.

I will not abandon her, will not be a coward and shelter myself from a reality that Sara has been forced into.

Looking at her arm, Liam nods. "Perfect. Now, when you look at that scar, you'll remember."

Furrowing my brows, I find my eyes widening as I realize what he has just done. Forced her to carve an "L" into her own flesh so that she will never forget him or what he told her on this day.

As if reading my thoughts, Liam's gaze finally shifts to mine.

"Not me, Catherine," he says quietly. "The 'L' is for Laura. Our mother."

Without another word, Liam's gaze lifts back up to his sister's.

"I'm sorry, Sara," he tells her. "I really wish things didn't turn out this way, didn't have to be this way for us."

Sending her a small, sad smile, he shakes his head. "I really think we each could have been somebody great, done great things, if our lives weren't forced to be what they were."

Taking a breath, he locks his eyes on Sara's.

"I love you, baby sister," he says, his voice cracking with emotion. "I love you, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Without another word, before I have time to react, Liam's hand raises and points the gun directly to his own head.

Pulling the trigger, the deafening sound of a gunshot cracks through the air as his body falls silently to the ground.


AN: Thanks for reading.