Sorry I haven't updated in forever!! This chapter is very short and not very good and it mostly sets up for something coming after the chapter. Thank you for all of the reviews!!

So, let's just start out with me telling you a few facts.

Fact One: mothers don't like people who rape their daughters.

Fact Two: sisters don't like people who rape their sisters.

Fact Three: Total is seriously in love with that Akila mutt. Although, if I called her a mutt, he'd probably kill me, and he is still angry because he'd finally figured out I was being sarcastic and hasn't been speaking to me.

Fact Four: I haven't seen my mom or sister in two years, and haven't spoken to them or done anything to acknowledge the fact that they were alive and cared about me.

Fact Five: I have a daughter from said rape.

Fact Six: those are the five reasons why I am so freaking screwed for this little family reunion.

I was currently standing on the front steps of the house. I had rung the doorbell and there was the shuffling of feet behind me as well as the in the house in front of me.

The door swung open wide to reveal my mom holding her cordless phone in her hand and Ella watching TV in the background. As soon as she spotted me her eyes went wide, she dropped the phone, grabbed me in a tight hug, and cried, "Max!" while literally sobbing into my shoulder.

The hug was bone crushing, breath shattering, and it felt soooo good. I had missed her so much. Soon, I was crying with her.

"Ouch!" cried Rose. "You're hurting me!"

My mom jumped back and stared at Rose, who had been squished between us as I was holding her.

Her eyes were wide and confused. I could see her taking in Rose's appearance and then she turned to look over at Fang, whose hair, eyes, and skin tone matched Rose's exactly.

It was not a very good family reunion after that. Downhill it went, tumbling like Jack and Jill.

Mom had basically tried to kill Fang with her bare hands. She practically succeeded too, so Fang was seriously not fighting back (good, I'd have killed him for that) and my mom was extremely scary when she was that mad.

Then, she'd rounded on me to explain myself, which was when everyone else took the cue to leave and had gone to talk with Ella, who had stared at Rose the entire time all of this was going on.

Rose had bounced off with Ella, and they'd immediately hit it off. Apparently everyone had been visiting the Martinez residence for the last two years because the hugs weren't long, weren't tearful, and it was just a quick, "So, what's new?" that was exchanged.

My mom didn't take it badly at all, actually. You know, the whole 'my daughter has been raped by her best friend who I trusted' thing. Of course, that could be because I didn't tell her. Yup, that's right. I'm a coward. Although, telling her the not-truth was pretty awful too. I had to make up a lie very quickly, because I wasn't about to tell her the truth.

But, leave it to Iggy to mess it up. He'd told Ella the first time they'd visited after I'd left. And, she'd told Mom.

So, when my mom looked right at me and said, "Maximum Ride if you don't stop lying to me this second-"
She didn't really have to get any farther before I burst into tears. Yeah, shocker. Tears. Who knew what parental guilt could do? I certainly didn't.

She sat next to me on the couch and hugged me to her, just patting my back and holding me.

"Honey, shh, it's alright now. Everything's alright," she kept saying, as if she repeated it enough times I'd believe her and she'd believe herself.

She started talking about how she'd practically killed Fang for not only doing what he did, but for making me leave. She knew it would take a hell of a lot to make me leave.

The biggest downside of the day was after all of this teary weep-fest when we were all seated around the table eating a huge dinner.

"I want Daddy to get my dinner!" Rose cried happily, looking at Fang.

"You don't have a Dad," I said harshly, making Rose burst into tears. As soon as I realized what I'd said, I looked up at Fang, whose face, usually so placated, was contorted with despair. He stood up, knocking his chair over and rushed out of the house.

"Fang, wait!" I called. But no one answered and Rose's sobs echoed in my ears. Why couldn't I just do what's best for her?