Nick's eyes fluttered open just as the car stopped moving, and I yanked the door open to bolt the second I heard the door unlock.

My heart plummeted into my stomach the moment I saw where I was, but it didn't stop me from dashing as fast as I could down the lane toward the gate away from the house I once considered my home.

I didn't get far, a blow to my back earning a scream of pain from me as I was tackled to the ground. My head bounced off the concrete and absolutely every part of my body exploded in pain between the impact and the weight that landed on top of me.

"You're going to pay for that," Nick hissed into my ear before grabbing my hair and slamming my head into the pavement once, "but that will have to wait until after you face father and explain your little tantrum these past five years."

"HELP!" I croaked out, trying to scream but failing, "I've been taken and assaulted! HELP!"

Nick scoffed, standing and yanking me up to throw me over his shoulder. He and I both knew there was no one around to hear me, but I didn't care.

I tried to thrash and get out of his hold, but it was useless with the injuries I'd already sustained.

Him dropping me unceremoniously in the entry way on the tile, leading me to gasp in pain when my ankle twisted, just added to it all.

"Father," Nick yelled, "I've brought her."

I had barely caught my breath before I was yanked to my feet by a familiar grip on the same damn arm - that's going to be black and blue by tomorrow!

"Don't fucking touch me!" I screamed, lashing out and hearing a satisfying crack across Lukas' face, "Fucking pig!"

I limped backward and tried to hobble as fast as I could toward the door before being grabbed by a different set of hands - at least Nick grabbed the other arm.

"You're not going anywhere," he said coldly, grabbing my wrist before the slap I aimed his way could land.

"You are kidnapping and assaulting an adult," I said loudly, "This is illegal, and I am absolutely going to file charges if you don't let me go now!"

"How dare you behave like this, young lady!" the voice of the man that assisted in my creation had my head snapping to the side and my eyes narrowing, "You have been gone for five years! Five! We thought you were dead! We mourned! How dare you-"

"Save me the speeches," I snapped, "I don't care. Haven't since you left me for dead. You can't keep me here against my will, it's kidnapping! Let me go!"

I immediately began fighting Nick's hold again, ignoring the way his face darkened as I dismissed the old man's ranting.

"You will show father respect!" Nick roared, shoving me forward and kicking the back of my knee, "Kneel!"

I hissed in pain as my knees snapped to the floor, but I lifted my chin despite the attempt to humiliate me.

"Respect?" I laughed, making everyone around me freeze as I glared at the man that I once called my father, "Like the respect you showed me the day the hospital called you while I lay on the operating table bleeding to death, requiring a parent's authorization for the surgery that would save my life? I don't respect you and you are not my father, just the way you wanted that night."

His face turned red as he seethed and he raised his cane to strike me - but I didn't flinch. I glared at him and faced his violence head on in a way I never did before.

He froze, clearly surprised.

"Go on then," I yelled, "strike me for telling the truth, just like you always have. Beat me because you failed as a father, just like Nick failed as a brother, and Lukas failed as a fiancé. Do you think a few new bruises and cracked ribs will change how disgusting you are to me? No, it just proves I'm right. So go on, act like you're disciplining me while you commit assault. Why not add to the charges I'll be filing the second I escape?"

"What happened to you, Mars?" Lukas whispered from beside my father, looking at me like I'm the mad one.

"What happened to me?" I laughed incredulously, "Are you fucking serious?! You walked down the aisle with my half-sister, my father's love child, while I laid bleeding to death under the ruins of a car with cut break lines! I called you having no idea you were marrying another woman while you were still claiming to love me, and what did you do? You claimed I was throwing a tantrum to try and ruin her special day - a day you intentionally hid from me, so how would I even know to ruin it?"

I turned my gaze around, fixed on the man who claimed to be my brother.

"So then I called my so-called brother," I scoffed, rolling my eyes, "a disgrace to the title. I was in the ambulance by then, having called for the police when my own fiancé tossed me aside because he couldn't have faith enough in me as a person to believe I was actually hurt. And what did you say, Nicolas?" I challenged, not waiting for his response, "You told me that you didn't have a sister like me that would fake an accident just to get attention."

I snapped my head back to the worst part of my gene pool with a final growl, "and you? I didn't even bother. The hospital did, though, when the blood loss was critical and they worried without surgery my legs may not recover. They called because I was still 17, and I needed a parent to sign the forms. A parent I did not have, because when they called you - you said, and I quote, 'she's no daughter of mine.'"

I let my eyes move back to Lukas then.

"Now you abduct me off the street, beat me, and act like you're the victims? You all disgust me. You mean nothing to me. I died that day, just like each of you asked."

My father raised his cane then, preparing to beat me within an inch of my life I bet, when the doors behind us were kicked in with a crash.

"MARIA!" the roar had my shoulders slumping in relief, and I turned and reached toward it instinctively.

"Dad!" I cried, thankful for the sight of the blurry figure of the man that adopted me when I was at my lowest - his figure rushing toward me with the sun at his back like a halo.

He shoved Nick away from where he loomed over me - still holding me down on the knees that never fully recovered after the accident - and scooped me up as another figure blurred past us so fast I barely registered it.

"James," I whimpered in relief.

I buried my face in Dad's neck, missing the sights that came with the sounds of flesh and bone crunching followed by a grunt of pain.

"Is she alright?" James asked seriously, and I felt a hand on my arm that had me lifting my face to look at him with a pained smile.

Everything hurts.

"Hey big bro," I croaked, the tears finally making their way free now that I knew I had backup.

"Hey sis," he muttered, his face pinched in a mix of anger and worry, "we got you. You did good."

"What the hell is going on here?! Who do you people think you are?! Get out of my house!"

We ignored the man spitting and cussing as the police walked into the house behind two of my favorite men in the world and started arresting all three of the demons of my past.

"You've made a mistake, she's my sister. This is a family matter. They're the ones that broke in and assaulted my father!"

Dad finally looked up, and James and I followed his gaze to Nick who glowered at me even as the police held his arms.

"Tell them who you are, Marcy," he said lowly, the threat obvious in his words.

I raised an eyebrow and responded slowly so every single word could be heard clearly.

"My name is Maria Ester-Grimes, adopted daughter of Marcus Ester and sister of James Ester. Wife of two years to David Grimes and mother of Steven Grimes. Victim of kidnapping and assault at the hands of Nicolas Logan, Timothy Logan, and Lukas Masters."

Nick's eyes went wide, flicking to the two men standing before him that were both pinning him with murderous stares.

"Marcus Ester?" the name was croaked from the throat of the man that gave me the embarrassing half my DNA, drawing the gaze of everyone in the room except Lukas and Nick - who were both still staring at me in shock.

"Indeed," Dad said, glaring at him, "and make no mistake that Ester Enterprises will be re-evaluating every single contract and project we have ever had with Logan Industries. My daughter insisted that there was no reason to let drama impact business these past few years, but I will no longer take her advice. It's clear that you are not a man of ethics or morals, and your business practices likely reflect that fact."

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