I watched the man that once put the birthday candles on my cake and attended my dance recitals pale, feeling nothing - because I know that the man he was when my mother was alive is as dead as she is now. He was buried the same day in the same plot, replaced by the man before me that brought his mistress and love child - two years older than me - into the house the same day as her funeral.

Where warm smiles and supportive hugs had once been normal, my home was suddenly filled with curses and punishments for existing in the wrong place at the wrong time. A scheming woman and her daughter's silver tongues were all it took for everyone to forget everything they'd ever known about me, and abandon me in a matter of only a couple of years.

Even my childhood sweetheart and fiancé - two grades ahead of me, though he'd promised we'd marry when I graduated - eventually turned away from me.

"Mars," Lukas rasped, panic and anger warring in his eyes as he struggled against the officer's grip, "This is enough. These actors you hired... this is going too far. You need to stop now!"

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at his insanity.

I'm not going to justify that with a response.

"You were right," James said, tilting his head as he scrutinized Lukas, "they all really are lunatics, aren't they?"

"Yes," I sighed, looking to my brother, "they all are. Delusional beyond reason - it's literally pointless to talk to any of them. Facts? Evidence? Nothing matters unless it fits the narrative they've decided is true. It's a waste of time to even engage. Just let the police handle it."

"If you don't stop this now, there really is no chance I'll ever forgive you Mars!" Lukas roared, anger replacing any of the worry that was there before, "You better fucking stop this now!"

"Did the police get anything from the call?" I asked, ignoring the screaming ghost of my past.

"Yeah," James confirmed, cupping my cheek with clear worry in his eyes, "You did good, sis. David is already working on getting the surveillance - he couldn't leave Stevie with his fever still so high, but you know how he is. No way he was staying idle even with me and Dad on our way. He's got footage from the store you were grabbed in front of, and from the cemetery. The groundskeeper called after you left saying he had noticed you were upset when you'd arrived. He was worried by what he saw when he checked the cameras, so he sent us a copy."

"There's surveillance here too," I noted, nodding up to the corner of the ceiling where a camera could be seen, "the footage is stored on the server in the basement. You'll have everything from the moment I tried to escape from the car when we parked to the second you all kicked down the door."

James nodded, turning to one of the officers standing nearby to make sure he got it. The police officer simply nodded, turning to another officer - then they walked briskly forward, clearly in search of the basement door.

"Come on kiddo," Dad said gently, squeezing me a bit, "let's get you checked out then get you home. That man of yours is already blowing my phone up - it's been vibrating in my pocket since the second we arrived."

"Marcy, what... how do you know the Esters?"

My sperm donor earned a sigh of irritation and a look of boredom from me, but luckily I didn't have to respond to that.

"She saved my son once," Dad said seriously, studying the man I used to look up to, "not too long before you abandoned her to die, as a matter of fact. He fell at a construction site - goofing off like the youngster he was in a place he shouldn't have been. She had run there to hide from you, as it turns out - though we didn't get that story until much later."

Dad glared at him, ignoring the way the man that abandoned me paled, as he continued.

"She got him help that day. He'd have been crippled, if not dead, if she hadn't been there and called for help.

We knew something was wrong the second we saw her - bruises on her arms she tried to hide with long sleeves in the summer - but before we could do more than give her my phone number, you showed up and stormed off with her. Didn't even realize I was standing right there the whole time watching you yank her around."

Nick and Lukas' faces were morphing now from anger into confusion, their eyes darting between Dad, James, me, and each other like they didn't know where to look to get the answers they needed.

"You abandoned her to die," Dad explained, "so she called me. I did what you wouldn't - I acted like a father. I showed up, talked to the doctors, signed the forms, paid for the surgery, and then took her home to recover from death's door. It took her months to finally open up about everything even after the months it took her to learn to walk again, and by then James and she were attached at the hip - two damn peas in a pod of trouble."

Dad looked down at me, still in his arms like I didn't weigh a thing, and smiled warmly.

"They made college a competition, and both graduated in nearly half the time as they raced to beat each other in everything. Best damn Director of Transformation and Strategy I've ever had work for me, and the only one that can keep this shit of a future-CEO son of mine in line," he chuckled dryly, though it didn't reach his eyes as he turned his attention back to the paling failure of a man before him, "She is my daughter, not yours. Now you will deal with the consequences of everything you've done since the day you stopped being the father she deserved."

"You don't understand who she is," Nick spit, his glare returning, "she's manipulative and a liar! She bullies her own sister! She probably tricked you into-"

"You're an idiot," Dad cut him off impatiently, "and it's embarrassing for you. Stop talking before you make it worse."

"Do you realize," James said lowly, fixing Nick with a look that could make any man worth his salt flinch, "how easy it was to prove her innocence? How easy it was to prove she wasn't the manipulative liar your step-mother and half-sister painted her as?"

Nick froze, his brow furrowing - but James didn't give him a chance to respond.

"The day they claimed she pushed your half-sister into the pool? There were cameras. The cafeteria incident? Cameras. The day you left her at the hotel, and then claimed she ran away while she waited there for you to come back? Cameras. It wasn't hard - it took almost no effort, especially with our resources. Resources you all also have."

James paused, running his gaze over the bug-eyed three men before him.

"You didn't care about the truth, so it's easy to brand someone a liar because it's the convenient excuse for your laziness. For your abuse. For your contempt. You never did the bare minimum to make sure the person you were abusing even deserved it... because the truth is you never cared."

James reached into his pocket, lifting the thumb drive we prepared - all the evidence James had gathered about my step-mother and half-sister after learning everything that had happened. It contained far and beyond their schemes to have me ostracized by the very people that promised to love me, and included everything else - the cheating, the money they were siphoning away, the horrible things they'd done to anyone they considered a threat to their positions.

I was supposed to mail it from right here in the city before I left, planning to leave it in the mail slot at the hotel as I walked out. No sender, no explanation - just the drive in an envelope addressed to my father.

It had been in my purse, which I think I lost when I was running for the gate. James must have seen it when they pulled up and snatched it.

He tossed it on the table by the stairs unceremoniously.

"When you're out of jail, you can keep living in your delusions or decide to man the fuck up. I don't care either way, because if you ever come near Maria again, the restraining order we'll be arranging will be the least of your worries."

Then, without another glance at any of the men I hoped remained fragments of a past I no longer wish to remember, James gestured Dad toward the door with his chin.

"Come on, her ankle is swelling up, and that goose egg on her forehead has me nervous. We need to get her seen then get her home to her boys."

I nodded energetically, clutching Dad close and reaching for James' hand.

"Yes, please!"

I should probably be embarrassed by the way my whole I'm-a-badass façade cracked the second my Dad and brother showed up... but I'm really not.

I'm just relieved they made it in time, and now I really, really want to get the hell out of here.

"Mars," Lukas' voice was quiet - almost pleading.

What for, I have no idea... and I couldn't give two fucks less.

Dad turned on his heel and walked out with me in his arms and James right behind him, the police handling all the details of the arrests and surveillance they needed to collect. A few curt statements about getting to the hospital and adding my medical records to the report later, and we were on our way.

Snuggling into James in the backseat with Dad behind the wheel, I clutched him a bit too tightly - but he didn't complain. Instead, he held me close and helped me leave the terrors of my past in the dust where they belonged.

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Thank you for reading this short story! It was a blast to write and I genuinely appreciate you taking the time! As always, votes and comments are much appreciated <3