Cassie knocked on Kayla's door only half an hour later, the knocking aggressive and impatient. It was pure torture to wait for the blonde to open the door and face her. If Cassie was honest, she didn't know what would happen once Kayla and her stood face to face.

The brunette was fuming and felt the urge to give her sister in law a good beating but that was still too good for Kayla. She had a feeling it was the blonde who was behind Lily's injuries and if that was the case, Cassie would lose it. If Kayla really had hurt her own daughter only to hurt James was proof enough to figure out what a psycho she was.

“Just open the damn door, Kayla! I know you're home”, the brunette yelled, not giving a damn about the neighbors she might wake up at this time of the day.

When they, Happy and her, heard shuffling behind the door they knew Kayla had to be home. Where else should she be anyway?

“Move”, Happy grunted before gently pushing the brunette out of the way. With one swift move and a little bit of strength Happy managed to push the door open within seconds.

“Thank you”, Cassie gave him a small smile, which was replaced by a scowl the moment she faced Kayla. Rolling her eyes at the blonde, she snatched the baseball bat out of Kayla's hands and threw it aside. “You really think this can protect you now?”

“I swear I'm gonna call the Cops”, the blonde snarled almost hysterically, taking a few steps backwards as Happy approached her slowly.

“Go on, call them. I bet they love a good explanation of who really hurt Lily”, Cassie nodded eagerly while walking towards the blonde who was now standing against a wall, Happy right next to her in case she got some stupid ideas.

“Tell me, did any of them ask Lily about what happened? Because I'm sure my niece could've told them that it wasn't her dad who hurt her”, Cassie stated matter of factly.

“How stupid do you think I am? I let a doctor examine her but that's it. I told them not to ask her about it and traumatize her even more”, the blonde smiled sweetly. “And they agreed. Didn't ask her a single thing.”

A hard slap in the face from Cassie took Kayla off guard for a moment. With a gasp, she covered her burning cheek with her hand before she lashed out to slap Cassie back, but her arm was grabbed by Happy, who glared at her murderously, immediately. A yelp escaped the blonde's throat at Happy's firm grip around her heavily bruised wrist.

Studying Kayla's body that was covered in bruises and lacerations, Cassie could only shake her head in disbelief. Kayla had really done a good job of harming herself just to get James in trouble. If Lily had half that amount of injuries, Kayla deserved nothing but suffering.

“I don't even know who you are anymore”, the brunette scoffed as she shook her head again, a look of disappointment in her eyes. “I mean, look at you! Was it really worth it to put yourself and your own child in such pain?”

“I would do anything to get Lily and me out of this town and away from her poisonous father! James can blame himself for the current situation. He should have just given me sole custody of Lily. I could have started a new life with a man whose life isn't always a danger to Lily”, Kayla sneered, still trying to snatch her wrist out of Happy's grip⸺ without success.

“Sounds like you already have a new man in your life. And for that you have to outdo my brother who always gave you everything? You and Lily were never in danger with him. James would've given his fucking life for the two of you and that idiot probably still would”, Cassie spat, her words dripping with venom.

Which was one thing about her brother she couldn't understand. The first time he laid his eyes on Kayla, he fell for her hard. It was like love at first sight. And at the beginning Kayla was a great woman. Friendly, loving, caring. James and her quickly became the dream couple. The couple that every other couple wanted to be.

She was James' first big love and Cassie knew that a part of him would always love her. And the love he had for her made him too weak to kill her. Maybe he could finally pull the trigger now that she had hurt their child but, he would always mourn after her.

“It's none of your business but yes, I'm seeing someone. Someone who's good for Lily. Isn't that what you want, too? A good life for her?”, Kayla asked with her head tilted to the side, shrugging. “I know what James did for us, but that's just not enough.

That bitch really had the nerve to ask her such a question after she arranged for her brother to get arrested for something she did and expected Cassie to understand why she did what she did.

“If that someone is smart, he rather keep his distance from you”, Cassie huffed with her arms crossed. “Okay, let's not discuss about this shit anymore. Because I'm not a total bitch, you have exactly two options. You go to the Cops, tell them what you did and make sure James gets custody for Lily. Or, I'll let you write a goodbye letter⸺”

“⸺before I kill you”, Happy finished the sentence for his Old Lady, earning a approving nod from her.

“The fuck you won't”, Kayla snarled at the much taller man who still had his hand around her wrist that was beginning to feel numb and spit in his face. “I'm not scared of you.”

Even Cassie stood there with wide eyes now after Kayla actually dared to spit in Happy's face. She knew her Old Man since years and knew he would never violate a woman. But Kayla asked for it by disrespecting him like that.

Happy was silent for a moment, which wasn't surprising, but it was a different silence than usually. He just stared into the blonde's eyes after he wiped her spit away before his gaze fell on Cassie. “Stay with Lily, don't come in here until I get you.”

“Okay”, the brunette nodded slightly and quickly pecked his lips, letting her forehead rest against his for a moment. She knew things would get messy, that's why Happy wanted her out of the room so she wouldn't see the side of him he was afraid that could scare her away and see him with different eyes. “Make her write the letter before you do anything, baby.”

Happy just grunted in response and squeezed her side before pulling her close to him for a deep, possessive kiss. Her returning the kiss gave him the reassurance he needed that she was okay with the things he was about to do to Kayla.

Kayla tried to use the moment, snatched her arm out of his grip and ran towards the door but was quickly captured by Happy, who blithely dragged her from the hallway to the kitchen by her hair.

“Cassie! You can't let him do this. You can't separate Lily from her mother”, Kayla's begging filled the room, nothing left of the tough woman once she realized Happy wasn't joking before.

Instead, Kayla became a crying misery who tried to defend herself against Happy by hitting him with her fists. One punch from him was enough for her to fall to the ground, after which she crawled across the carpet, leaving a trail of blood dripping from her nose, towards the back door only to be pulled back by Happy again. This time his grip on her hair was so tight that she let out a loud whimper.

Cassie sucked in a sharp breath at the scene, having kind of a hard time to watch this. Not because she felt bad for Kayla, not after what she did. But the blonde was still her friend once, her best friend.

The brunette turned on her heel and ignored Kayla's cries for help as good as she could. It only took a few seconds for the cries to stop, probably because Happy gagged her.

Quietly, she slipped into Lily's room and sat down next to her bed, carefully brushing some strands of the girl's hair out of her face. Cassie slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the sobs that threatened to escape.

Lily spotted a black eye, her chin was bruised and through the dim light of the night light she could see how many bruises there were on Lily's arms. In that moment her heart shattered and the brunette wasn't able to muffle the sobs anymore. No child should ever go through this. Sadly, a lot of children ended up in the hospital because of injuries just like Lily's.

Deep in thoughts while she tried to control her crying, she felt something move next to her. Lily struggled free of her blanket and climbed onto Cassie's lap. Her little arms were quickly wrapped around the brunette's neck and Cassie didn't hesitate a second to wrap her arms around her niece, too.

“I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to wake you up”, she whispered lovingly between her sniffles and rocked the quiet girl from side to side.

Even after waking up, Lily was always bursting with life and would immediately smile at everyone who was with her and start talking like a waterfall. But nothing. The little one was just quiet and clinging to Cassie, which hurt the brunette even more. Her niece was traumatized and the reason for it sat in the living room.

The urge to stand up, walk back there and kill Kayla herself was big but she couldn't bring her heart to lay Lily down now that the little girl needed her the most.

“I'm gonna take you home with me, sweetie, I won't let you stay here.” Cassie spoke softly, rubbing Lily's back in a comforting way.

⸺

After Lily fell back asleep, Cassie couldn't sit there anymore. She had to do something. Going against Happy's order wasn't what she wanted, yet she was sure he would understand once he would see Lily's injuries.

With the hope that Kayla was still alive, she rushed back to the living room and let out a relived sigh when she saw that Kayla was still breathing.

“I told you to stay with Lily”, Happy barked the moment he saw his Old Lady entering the room. He was already covered in blood and so was Kayla. She was still awake but her head hung down. Him torturing someone wasn't something he wanted her to see.

Instead of getting irritated at his harsh tone, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him softly. When Happy got anxious, he always got angry instead of accepting his emotions and Cassie knew that. “I'm not judging you, Happy. I knew who you were before you made me your Old Lady.”

His features softened a little, yet he was still slightly pissed that she didn't listen to him. He hated it when people didn't listen to him even if it was his Old Lady. He was just trying to protect her, to keep her from the cruel sides of his life.

“What are you doing here?”, he inquired sternly.

“I'm gonna do it”, she stated innocently. “Can I have your knife?”

“The fuck not”, Happy stared at her, not sure if he should be proud or concerned.

“Happy please”, she remained stubborn, yet softness lingered in her tone as she looked at him pleadingly. “Lily has bruises all over her body. She doesn't talk and just clung to me because of that bitch.”

She hoped Happy would understand and let her be a part of this. It was against the rules, she knew that, but what speaks against a single exception?

Happy muttered something incoherent and ran a hand over his face before handing his knife over to the brunette who gave him the sweetest smile in the weirdest situation. He really had to learn how to say no to that pretty face of hers.

“Cassie”, he grabbed her by her wrist after she thanked him and turned around, making her look up at him questioningly. “Can you promise me that you can live with this kind of guilt?”

“I don't think that I'll ever feel guilty about this”, she retorted after thinking about his question for a moment. “So yes, I promise. This isn't going to throw me off course.”

“Good”, he grunted and let go of her wrist so she could finish the job he started. He watched with wary eyes as Cassie squatted in front of the chair Kayla was tied to and cupped the blonde's chin in her delicate fingers. He had to clear his throat as Cassie slowly ran the knife down Kayla's neck and shifted on the sofa to hide the growing bulge in his pants.

He knew he was fucked up for getting turned on by this but he couldn't care less at the moment.

“Did you hurt her? Or did you let someone else do it?”, Cassie asked as she let the knife slid down Kayla's arm, making it look like a self harm cut.

The blonde could barely open her eyes, only soft whimpers slipped past her lips everytime the knife came in contact with her skin again. Just the cold feeling of the sharp blade made her panic, yet she didn't have the strength to slip into a full blown panic attack.

“You better answer me”, Cassie warned.

“Me..it was me”, Kayla croaked as silent tears ran down her pale face and re-fertilized the dried blood on her nose.

“You know what's going to happen now, right?”, the brunette inquired, her tone calm but her eyes were filled with nothing but hate and disgust. Her gaze landed on the coffee table, quickly reading the letter Kayla wrote. She also needed to check if it was Kayla's handwriting or if the blonde tried to change her handwriting on purpose so the Cops would question the alleged suicide.

“You're gonna burn in hell for this.” Kayla's word's were personal, her tone gave it away. The pure hatred lingering in the blondes' voice left Cassie unbothered.

“Guess I'll meet you there then, huh?”, the brunette hummed.

Kayla cracked a smile, nodding. “Probably, maybe sooner than you'd like. This lifestyle⸺ it's fucking crazy. If you're smart, you'd better reconsider being an Old Lady.”

The brunette sighed, shaking her head once again. “You were pretty happy when James made you his Old Lady, Kayla, don't be a hypocrite now.”

She took into account the wounds Happy had already inflicted on her and hummed contentedly. Kayla spotted one more black eye, but that didn't matter. All of the other injuries looked like they had been caused by self-harm, which Cassie could see only too well. Seeing all the cuts was a trigger, but she handled it well and managed to put her past behind her. At least for the moment.

A sharp hiss escaped Kayla's lips as the blade slid horizontally across the inside of her wrist on both sides. Since the wounds were deep enough, the blood quickly ran out of the cuts and dripped onto the carpet, which was already covered in blood.

After around five minutes, Kayla's head rolled back in exhaustion, the last strength she had left leaving her.

“Tara knew about my plans, even helped me with the first one”, the blonde mumbled, the slightest smirk appearing on her face. As her eyelids grew heavy and her breathing became slower and heavier, she closed her eyes and simply surrendered to her fate.

Cassie couldn't believe what she had just heard and quickly got on her feet, the color of her face matching with the white walls now. She felt Happy coming to her side and wrap an arm over her shoulder but she was too trapped in her own mind to react in any way.

Was it true? Or was it just another one of Kayla's games? Cassie sank onto the couch and stared at the carpet, her thoughts on Tara. The doctor's behavior over the last few days was indeed funny, Cassie had noticed that already, she just hadn't thought anything of it before. But now everything made sense. Tara's sudden overprotection, the constant asking if she was okay. The woman felt guilty and now Cassie knew why. Why was everyone trying to ruin her and her family's life?