Greya's POV...

If I thought our completely silent ride to see Cohen's parents was uncomfortable, sitting at the kitchen counter while his parents try and explain everything that's happened over the last three years is close to unbearable.

"Start from the beginning, Mom. What actually happened that night?" Cohen's pissed, as he should be.

Mr. & Mrs. Collins both pull up stools and sit facing us. His mom attempts to reach out and hold Cohen's hand but he leans back and crosses his arms across his chest instead.

"Well, you need to know the background first, so you can both understand why things turned out the way they did."

Cohen and I glue our attention on Mrs. Collins. I already know some background information that Becker told me, though I'm not sure what Cohen knows.

"Mr. Reeves wasn't Becker's biological father, his real father is a violent criminal, a drug lord from Chicago and most recently Seattle." I peer over at Cohen who looks shocked. Becker had only recently found that out himself, maybe he only told me.

She goes on explaining how Becker's mom met his father and got pregnant. "Knowing he was dangerous, she went to his very wealthy father and asked for his help. Becker's grandfather knew how dangerous his son was and didn't want him finding out he had a baby on the way, so he arranged for Anna's escape and helped her into hiding. Your father and I became friends with her when she moved here. We both gave birth to you and Becker weeks apart. She confided in us, knowing we were lawyers and asked us to help her protect Becker so that his real father would never find him and we agreed. She met Mr. Reeves shortly after, they married and we arranged for Jack's adoption of Becker and kept his real father's name off his birth certificate."

The pieces are beginning to come together as Mrs. Collins goes on. I knew they were involved in some way, but hearing the truth is a whole other level of unbelievable.

"Anna was so paranoid of anyone finding her or her son that she homeschooled Becker. Taught him everything, and how to play the piano. He was always so quick to learn everything, always so talented. Becker only went to public school when Anna left them."

"I still don't understand, why did his mother leave? And who's Alec's father then?" Cohen chimes in.

Mr. Collins takes over from here. "Mr. Reeves was Alec's father. He wasn't always an angry man. When they met, Jack was playing football and they were happy. A few years after Alec was born, Jack was injured and couldn't play anymore. That and they heard that Becker's father might've found Anna, so she came to us and asked us to give her another new identity. She thought she was protecting Becker by leaving. We thought that too at the time and promised to always look out for him."

"By leaving him with Jack? Do you know what Jack did to him all those years after his mother left?" Cohen's angry tone radiates through the kitchen.

The look of guilt on their faces give away their answer to that.

"I'm sorry son, there wasn't much we could do except to take care of him and let him sleep here as much as he could." Cohen's father tries to convince us.

"Bullshit! You could've had Jack arrested a long time ago instead of letting him beat the shit out of my best friend." Cohen stands up and begins pacing.

It suddenly clicks, the reason why they probably let Jack go on doing what he was doing. "If you had Jack arrested he might've told Becker's real father about him." I whisper out loud to everyone. Cohen's parents both nod.

"What?" Cohen's still trying to figure things out.

"Cohen, Jack became a very angry man when Anna left. That's what Becker always remembers and told me. Because Anna left him, he resented Becker for it, blamed him for it all. It's why he left Alec alone and took out all his anger on Beck," I explain what I think happened. It makes sense in a way.

"Okay, so why not have him thrown in jail?"

"I think if your parents had him arrested he would've blamed that on Beck too and probably would've found his real father and told him how to find Becker."

"That's exactly what we were afraid of  Greya. Believe us Cohen, we wanted to throw Jack in prison but we couldn't. It pained us every day knowing how cruel that man was to Becker," Mrs. Collins begins to shed some tears.

I believe her, that must've been so hard for them to watch. It was hard for us to watch too.

"I need some air," Cohen abruptly leaves.

"I'll go talk to him," I follow Cohen outside where he's now pacing in front of his front steps. Pacing is his own form of therapy.

I wait a few minutes and sit on the top step watching him battle his emotions. We haven't even gotten to the worst part. What actually happened that night, three years ago.

Finally, Cohen joins me on the step. His hand ferociously rubbing the back of his neck, so I grab his hand and gently hold it in mine and wait again for his breathing to slow down.

"None of what happened to Beck is your fault. I'm sorry your parents were involved and kept this from you but they were trying to protect him. You were always a great friend to him. And he's alive Co. He didn't die that night and we owe it to him to hear the rest of the story, to know the truth so we can help him now."

"I know Grey. You're right. It's hard to believe all of this. That my parents let him suffer, let me suffer. And now we're going to hear how they lied to us about his death for 3 years. We didn't deserve everything we went through all this time, mourning his loss!"

"I know. I don't want to imagine what Becker went through either. I know it must've been something horrible."

Cohen stands and offers me his hand again. We walk back inside to continue facing this together.

Cohen's parents are patiently waiting in the same spots, so we sit back down in ours. Cohen still holding my hand while we support each other through whatever we're about to hear.

"This is going to be hard to hear for both of you," Mrs. Collins confirms. We nod and encourage her to go on. Cohen's thumb rubbing circles over mine as a coping mechanism.

"A few days before that tragic night, Jack had found Anna. He'd been searching for her for 6 years, since the day she left. That's why he always disappeared for days at a time and come back drunk or high. He finally found
her and brought her home that night."

Becker knew he found her. I keep that memory to myself and squeeze Cohen's hand.

"Grey called me that night and thought Becker was in trouble, convinced me to call the police!" Cohen looks at me for affirmation.

I've never told anyone about how intimate we were getting or how Becker was afraid of love. Saying the words 'I love you' scared him and for good reason.

I turn to Cohen. "Jack told Becker he found his mother and then he came to my house and told me about it. He stayed over my house for 2 nights before going back home. I didn't want him going home. I had a sick feeling something bad was going to happen if Jack had found her. Becker called me from his house, apologizing and telling me he loved me...It was the first time he was able to say those words out loud to me. I knew something was very wrong so I called you and begged you to get the police to his house!" My tears are uncontrollably pouring from my eyes reliving that moment.

Cohen rubs my back to soothe me. "I called the cops like you said, we did what we could in that moment." Maybe he's trying to convince himself.

Mrs, Collins reaches for both our hands and this time we both accept while Mr. Collins finishes the story.

"Jack did bring Anna home that night. Alec says that Jack tied him and Anna up, duct taped them to a couple chairs in the living room. Becker went downstairs to confront Jack and found them taped up. Alec told us that Jack had a gun and was waving it around and pointing it at all of them. He'd gone completely mad. At some point, Becker's real father appeared in the room, also with a gun. He'd been tracking Anna for some time but seemed unaware that Becker was his son. He followed Jack and Anna to the house that night. There was a lot of arguing, Alec isn't sure what they argued about but both guns went off. Three shots were fired consecutively. Becker's father was aiming for Jack while Jack was aiming at Anna. In that split second, Becker jumped in front of his mother to try and save her."

At this point, our knuckles are white from squeezing onto each other so tight. I'm still crying and Cohen is too. Becker was always the protective one. He sacrificed himself to save his mother.

Cohen's mom chokes out the rest of what happened.

"Jack was killed and Becker was shot in the head seconds before the police arrived. Becker had fallen on top of Anna silencing her. There was so much blood and no way of knowing if Anna had really been shot too or not. Becker's father fled the scene, believing that all three of them were dead. I arrived at the scene moments later and explained the background to the detectives. FBI we're immediately contacted."

"Somehow, Becker was still alive when paramedics arrived. We blocked off the house while treating Becker and formulating a plan with the FBI. Becker's father was still nearby somewhere watching so we needed him to believe that Jack, Becker and Anna were killed. It was the only way to protect them. We needed everyone to believe it, until the police could catch his father."

"We're so sorry we put you two through all that! It was the only way to keep Becker and Alec and Anna safe, if no one knew the truth."

I'm beyond hurt, so is Cohen.

"What happened after that?" Cohen grits out angrily.

"Anna, Alec and Becker were placed in protective custody. All given a new identity and moved to a new location. Becker miraculously survived after extensive surgery and over a year in a rehabilitation hospital. He needed to learn how to do everything all over again, talk, eat, walk."

"And he was alone... He went through that recovery alone," I'm crying again.

"But he still can't do a lot of things, we've seen him and tried talking to him. He doesn't remember us at all!" I add.

"Anna stayed as Alec's guardian, while Alec was by Becker's side the whole time. Becker has no memory of his life before being shot. It's been better that way and has helped keep them safe. He only knows his new identity and Alec is known as Liam now. Everything, even their social security numbers reflect their new identities and they've been safe from Becker's father ever since. A year ago, his father was arrested for multiple crimes and is in prison for life without parole. So, we've helped Anna, Liam and Loxley transition to L.A. so the boys can attend college. Unfortunately, Anna's paranoia caused her to take off and she left the boys as soon as Alec turned 18. But, fortunately the grandfather still deposits money into a secured bank account and it pays for the boy's apartment and medical expenses and what ever they need."

"What does Becker think happened to him if he has no memory?" Cohen asks what we're both wondering.

"He thinks he was in a car accident and suffered a brain injury. The brain injury part is true. We didn't know if he'd make it through surgery and once we thought he was stable, he suffered a stroke. It's been a long road for him and he still has a long road of recovery ahead," Mrs. Collins explains.

"So you helped him and Alec get into UCLA, hoping we would run into them? And then what? He doesn't know who we are! How are we supposed to help him?" Cohen releases his mothers hand and leans back in his chair frustrated as I am.

"You be his friend again. But you must keep his new identity intact to keep them safe and we won't need to relocate them again. Can you both do that?" His dad questions us this time.

"How am I supposed to explain this to Chase? He suffered from their deaths too and is now doing well. I'm supposed to tell him they're alive now?"

Cohen answers this time. "He's a smart kid, Grey. He's handled this better than the both of us and if you and I explain to him what really happened, I know he can handle that too."

"We're telling everyone this weekend," Cohen admits to his parents.

The ride back to L.A. is silent again. We're both processing everything we learned tonight. Who would've thought knowing the truth would be more painful than the lies.