"What are you doing here?" I demanded, already feeling so apprehensive.

"What do you mean?" my mother gasped, placing her hand over her heart in an act of pain. Her already leaking eyes began to water more. "We flew out as soon as we heard." The words sounded so earnest coming out of her mouth.

Her arms were around in a second later. I could feel her tears soaking into my clothing and her chest heaving as she sucked in uneven breaths. Her hug was tight and completely motherly, something that I used to crave so deeply.

I stood perfectly still with my arms locked by my sides and my eyes were looking beyond her, meeting my father's heavily.

"I'm so glad you're okay." My mother sniffed, pulling away. Her hands tenderly cupped my face in an effort to get me to focus on her. "We've been so worried about you. We thought you were dead, Cami."

Cami. My mother had never called me that in her life, she always deemed nicknames informal and useless. And it certainly didn't pull at my heart strings now. In addition to this, my father had always been the one who couldn't contain his emotions. By now he should've been threatening to rip someone's throat out if they didn't find someone loosely accountable for what Josh had done. I kept my eyes on him, trying to see if those unfeeling eyes would glimmer with tears or blaze with rage. He remained perfectly still and so emotionless it was almost comical when considering my nearly hysterical mother. Then again, she had always been a fantastic liar.

"Jasper." I said evenly, turning my head away from my parents. My mother's hands fell away instantly. "Take me to Alistair, please."

I couldn't bear to be around these imposters for a second longer, knowing so well why they were actually here. Having my parents near me right now made my skin crawl.

"Yes, we need to thank the man who saved your life." My father agreed, finally speaking up. "And that girl."

And that was the comment that broke me.

"You will go nowhere near them." I hissed, narrowing my eyes, "That girl did everything she could to protect me from Josh and from you. If you were reasonable, moderately acceptable parents you would know exactly who Sophie was and you would never let me marry Josh."

"Camila, we had no idea." My mother said, the soft sobs slipping from her voice rather quickly. Though she was trying to hold her composure it was fading.

"Bullshit." I hissed, "You knew what kind of man you were working with. You spent years in business with him, how could you not know? You just wanted to me to marry him to increase your less than legal business deals and I was too young and too ignorant to see it. Now, you're here claiming you are so grateful that I'm okay far before any of this information has been released to the public and you certainly aren't my emergency contacts. I know that this is just a failed attempt at damage control."

"Camila." My father snapped, losing his temper so quickly. He snapped back into the man I had always known. "You know nothing about what we have done for you."

"You're right, I don't." I agreed, "But I do know that you never looked for me after I fled to Canada and you never confronted Josh about why I had suddenly disappeared. Even if I had been kidnapped and it hadn't been Josh's fault you never fought for me. You never looked for me. All you ever did was make public appearances and ask for my safe return even though you knew I was never coming back."

"That is absurd!" my father protested.

"Hey Paul." Jasper said, stopping one of his coworkers, "Can you please take this two back to headquarters. I'm going to have to ask them a few questions later on."

"You can't do this! You have no right!" my father denied, his face already red with rage.

He took three long strides towards us, looking like he might strike me or strangle Jasper. But he was thankfully intercepted. One of Jasper's men grabbed his arm firmly, preventing him from moving any further. He still fought like hell, never knowing when he was defeated. My mother began crying again, rough choking sobs that made Jasper hesitate. His eyes flickered to me uncertainly.

"She's never shed a tear in front of me in her life." I whispered.

With one swoop of his hand Jasper indicated that my mother also needed to be taken into custody.

I didn't think twice about what I had said or what I had done to my parents. Some part of me loved them, I knew that much. And it was that part that kept me in denial, thinking that these people loved me so dearly, that they only wanted what was best for me. That they hadn't known what kind of man Josh was. But I knew they saw the change in me after we got together. I saw how much their business had grown from the shady deals that our engagement encouraged. And now they were simply trying to prey on me when I was weakened once more.

My choice was beyond clear. I was never going to see either of my parents again. But instead of feeling distressed and torn I only felt relief. The looming authorities that controlled my life and forced me into dangerous situations were removed from my world forever.

Jasper said nothing after that and I was grateful. I didn't want to have to explain my actions. I didn't want him to know the childhood I had that only validated my actions. Right now, I just wanted to progress and move forward. And that meant going to Alistair.

Jasper led me to his room and we entered it together, side by side. Almost like we were a little team of two. True, I had hated him more than anything at one point, but now I couldn't imagine going through this experience without him. And though he would never say it I was sure he felt the same way.

The first thing I noticed was how crowded the small, private room was.

Firstly, there was all kinds of machines in the room, some of them making soft noises but the majority of them silent. Then there was the cumbersome bed with a very still person on it.

Seeing the unearthly still form made me want to panic. He couldn't possibly be okay if he hadn't even responded to any of the noise around him. But Jasper had told Sophie that Alistair was heavily sedated and I had to believe that it was for the best.

To distract myself I turned my attention to the others in the room. Emma was standing by the window and her husband, Brad was seated on an outdated chair in the corner. Neither of them even flinched when we arrived. Emma stayed perfectly still. Brad didn't move to brush away the tear the trickled down a single cheek. The strong, parental agents were breaking at the seams and it was heartbreaking to see.

I wanted to comfort them. But I had no idea what I would say and the fear that they blamed me plagued my mind. I began to second guess my choice to enter the room at all. I had no real right to be here. I was the cause of this.

"Dad?" A little voice murmured, shattering my thoughts.

"What's up Dallas?" Jasper asked, smiling softly.

And just like that the immensity in the room eased. No one spoke unless they were spoken to by little Dallas who clearly couldn't grasp the severity of the situation. But his young voice and gentle questions helped reduce the violent noise that was competing for dominance in my mind.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stop myself from sitting down in the last open chair, the one closest to Alistair, and just staring at him.

He was pale. So very pale. And it made all of those vile lacerations and bruises that much more apparent. I hadn't been able to clearly see the damage during the attack but now it was tremendously apparent. A large cut was descending down from the center of his forehead and curved to the side, slicing through his right eyebrow. Both of his cheeks were covered in intense, dark bruising and his lips were cracked in several places, like he had been punched in the mouth repeatedly. The exposed skin on his collar bones told the tale of violence and anger. His left ankle was in a bulky cast and in that moment I was so deeply thankful for the fact that he was wearing a hospital gown and covered with blankets. Seeing the damage now was enough to make me take slow, deep breaths to keep the tears away.

"When is he going to wake up?" I asked softly.

"It'll be a while, Camila." Jasper answered. "But it's for his own good. He'd be in a fair amount of pain if he was awake right now. And he lost a fair amount of blood. He needs his rest."

Like he could sense how close I was to teetering over the edge of an emotional breakdown, little Dallas approached me. He looked so much like what I imagined a young Jasper would. It soothed my tender heart and kept the tears at bay for now.

"Will you come help me with my puzzle?" he asked.

"She might not want to right now, bud." Jasper warned.

"I'd love to, actually." I said softly.

I pulled myself out of the old chair and went to the little table in the corner. There, Dallas had a small Spiderman puzzle dispersed into hundreds of little pieces. I worked slowly with him, letting him do the majority of the work and always encouraging when he got frustrated. Every now and then I would glance over my shoulder, trying to see if Alistair had woken up even though I knew he wouldn't have. And out of the corner of my eye I would see Emma talking gently to her husband, or I would catch Brad watching me interact with Dallas. And if I was very discrete I would see Jasper whispering things to Alistair, looking so devastated and relieved all at once. The damage had been done but the war was over.

And Alistair was here. Yes, he was heavily sedated. Yes, his body needed to heal. But he was breathing. He was alive. And he was the reason I was alive, I was sure of it. He had always been my savior, now more than ever.

Then there was Sophie. I knew that she was across the hospital with one of Jasper's best men hovering around her door, just in case. I hoped her parents would be arriving soon; she would need all the support she could get to tackle the months ahead. But already, she was proving that she was wildly strong and so brave in the face of danger. She could conquer anything.

Yes, I had blatantly cut ties with my parents. The last shred of my old life.

But my new life was taking on quite a beautiful shape. And sitting at the table with little Dallas beside me, frowning so hard when he couldn't quite line the pieces up, I didn't mourn my old life at all.