I just want all of you AMAZING readers (who have given me the most AMAZING feedback! THANK YOU!) to know that I do not own anything, that the ages are a little jacked up because of the timeline I have started things at, and that I love you all for clicking the link that lead you to this crazy story. Thank all of you that reviewed and/or favorite-ed and/or followed my story.

Important-ish: And since the next time to upload I will probably have no computer to work on, I'll give you the new chapter now. Also, I've never actually done anything in the contents of this chapter so I am totally winging it again.

Chapter 44: The Ties That Bind

Nicolette stared at her phone in shock. It had been nearly thirty seconds since her father had hung up and there was literally no way around his wrath this time.

"How the fuck does he know this shit?" Lee Anne asked.

"Lee Anne, language. More importantly, what are we going to do? You said it yourself Nick, he's going to split you two up. Permanently." Tara hissed. Nicolette looked at Max with her big green eyes.

"I guess we'll have to think of something." Max murmured, although, he already had a vague idea of what they would do. He wasn't about to let Nicolette leave him again.

Twenty minutes passed by in silence before Max excused himself to help the rest of the guys on the farm at the boys' house.

With Max, Jonathan (Lee Anne's boyfriend) and Mitchell (Tara's boyfriend)

"Dude that sucks." Jonathan breathed, his breath blowing his dark brown hair out of his soft blue eyes as he threw a third hay bail on the soon-to-be stack of twenty-five.

"I know. Her father controls her whole life, now he's going to separate us because he can't stand the thought of his precious baby girl having sex." Max shook his head.

"You got some though right?" Mitchell asked, Max shook his head and smacked Mitchell upside the head, the blonde grinned, showing the imperfect gap between his teeth.

"Look the issue isn't if I got any. The issue is that her father is going to take her back to Seattle and then proceed to get me fired for banging a- graduated- student and then keep her from me for the rest of his sorry ass life." Max hissed throwing a fifth hay bail into the stack.

"What are you two gonna do? Y'all are meant to be together." Jonathan dragged out another breath of air.

"Don't know, we can't run. Her father would find us. We can't just stay here and fight him, he'll pull some damn strings we don't know about and take her. But damn I need her so much." Max grunted.

"That is the shit man. I know how much you love her." Jonathan frowned.

"Yeah. My momma always said that if any couple would marry young and still be married to each other when they were eighty, it'd be you two." Mitchell chucked a hay bail onto the pile.

"I love her so damn much guys. I don't think I would be able to live through it if she was taken from me again." Max shook his head.

Then the idea popped into his mind.

"What if we got married? Her father wouldn't be able to touch her." Max murmured.

"That's one way to do it." Mitchell laughed.

"But you two do love each other, and weren't you gonna ask her to marry ya after the schooling thing your doin anyway? Why not push it up for a good cause?" Jonathan agreed.

Max grinned and tossed the final hay bail onto the pile.

"I gotta go do somethin, I'll be back."

"Sure you will." Mitchell shook his head.

"Good luck!" Jonathan laughed.

000...000... With Christian Grey...000...000

Ana watched her husband as they flew to Haven to pick up their daughter, around 8 o'clock last night they had gotten a phone call from one of the girls, the girl was kind enough to tell Christian exactly what his precious daughter was doing at the moment.

She left out no detail.

"Look Christian, as your father pointed out at Christmas, Nicolette is an adult. She can do what she wants." Ana cooed, leaning over to her husband as far as her six month pregnant belly would allow.

"She is doesn't know what she wants, Ana. She's too burned, I will not allow her to get herself hurt. It's my job as her father to keep her safe. Physically and mentally."

"Mentally, you are suffocating her." Ana replied, knowing that right now was the time to defend her daughter.

"So now I'm the one hurting her?" Christian spat.

"Yes! Christian I love you, I always will. But Nicolette is eighteen- not eight! She needs to be burned a couple time to get herself on the straight and narrow. She needs to learn from her mistakes." Ana let the words fly out of her mouth. Her husband needed to hear this.

"Ana!"

"Christian!"

Christian sat glowering at his wife.

Ana glowered back.

000...000 Back in Haven 000...000

It was just before lunch time when Shelly, Terrance, Rockie and Nicolette were making lunch for the group.

"So, uh, Nikks. How serious are you and Mr. Hartsville?" Rockie asked.

"Very serious. We've been dating since I was twelve- although we didn't do anything other than hold hands and maybe kiss each other on the cheek then. It was so cute, we didn't even say 'I love you' until I was about fifteen. He was eighteen then... sort of illegal, but no one here cares unless a someone is getting raped, killed, molested, murdered, beat or robbed." Nicolette shrugged, the girls gasped at the revelation... how a place could thrive like this town with just those laws was beyond them.

"Wow. That's what, six years?" Shelly said, doing the math in her head quickly. It almost made her ashamed of what she and the girls were about to do.

"I'm surprised, you've been with him that long." Terrance started, knowing her cue.

"Why, we love each other? We probably would have been married by now if my dad hadn't come into the picture." Nicolette wondered.

"He's controlling and jealous. Haven't you noticed that?" Rockie asked, she didn't feel a pang of guilt. Nicolette Grey was her best friend, and she couldn't loose her to a bunch of bonfire-making hillbillies.

"No he's not. He could have beat up Oliver... but he didn't. He isn't jealous." Nicolette defended, although the fear in her mind taking over... was he? Would her beloved Max be just like him?

"Yes, he is, and he didn't beat up Oliver because he had to look like the attentive go-to boyfriend to keep you. Don't you know anything about controlling, bad-boy boyfriends? It's the same old game." Rockie continued.

"It is?"

"Heck yeah. I had this boyfriend that acted just like Max once and within the first four months of dating he was caring and loving as ever, then when he thought I was cozy enough he hit me because I burnt a cake. That's how it always is.. they seem so sweet when BAM! their ugliest colors pop out of nowhere." Terrance supplied, only stretching the truth a little. The guy hadn't hit her, and she did more than just burn a cake... she had set fire to his kitchen mid-fight. So he kicked her out.

"Nikks face it, he only hates your father because he knows that your father is onto his game. You may think that Christian is controlling, but he is just protecting you from the inevitable if you stay with Max... an abusive relationship hidden by true love and the fact that Max will convince you that you can't do anything right." Rockie shrugged again. Nicolette paused while taking a casserole out of the oven.

Would Max be controlling and abusive? His father was. It is more likely that the abuse will continue down the line until someone gets help. Max didn't get any help. Is my dad really controlling like Max says?...

Like Max says...

Oh god...

I can't do that again. I can't be controlled like he controlled me... No!

Shelly quickly grabbed the casserole from Nicolette as her face clearly whitened.

"We're only telling you because we love you." Terrance said, laying a 'comforting' hand on her friend's shoulders.

"That and the way Christian is fighting him now... Max will do anything to stay in control of you... Marriage may be his next step." Rockie said, joining the two girls.

"We don't want anything bad happening to you." Shelly grimaced at how fake her voice sounded as she joined her friends; but with how freaked Nicolette looked at the moment, it seemed that she wasn't even paying attention.

NO! Max isn't like that... is he?

...000...000...000...000...000

Max and Nicolette were alone in the garden that sat behind the girls' house.

The garden that Nicolette's adoptive mother worked so hard to make. When the girls arrived in Haven a month earlier, Nicolette found the garden filled with the flowers types that Nicolette's mother had originally filled the garden with. Nicolette could remember watching, even helping, her adoptive mother with the flower beds. Even the stone in the middle of the garden stayed in its place- directly under the beautiful weeping magnolia tree that still stood proud as ever.

The stone that held the names: Kathryn, Mike, and Nicolette.

Nicolette smiled at her boyfriend as they walked through the large garden together. They were talking about nonsense things, while Nicolette found the courage to tell him what the girls had said when Max flipped the conversation.

"Nicolette do you remember when you were fourteen, we, uh, snuck out at three a.m for the first time. Mike met us at your front door with a shot gun the next morning?" Max asked- they were now directly under the weeping magnolia.

"Yes?" Nicolette answered, wondering idly what he was meaning by that

"That was the first night I knew that without a doubt, for sure, that I love you." Max's heart skipped a beat, knowing that she was completely unaware of where this was going while he knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Max where are you going with this?" Nicolette's mind was in overdrive, remembering the girls' conversation with her earlier.

Max sunk to the ground on one knee.

Nicolette's heart dropped.

"Nicolette Anne Grey, will you do me the honor of marrying me?"