I could smell something cooking as we made our way through the large tile foyer. My mind had no doubt that my mother had hired help for this occasion, when in reality my brother and I were both happy with a sandwich and chips. My mother had no idea who either of us were anymore, which was sad because she used to be the exact same. All of this pretentious make believe show she puts on for everyone on the Upper East Side would have my father rolling in his grave.

I let my fingers trail along the large circular table in the center of the room, before I dropped my hand not wanting to have touched anything Maxwell once did. Cameron squeezed my hand as we walked through one of the openings in the house, one that led to the kitchen.

I was right when I saw four people in chefs aprons working tiredly around the stainless steel stove. "They're in the sitting room Ma'am" One of the chefs said to me, motioning to the room ahead. I smiled gently before dragging Cameron along behind me. "It'll be ok sweetheart" Cameron whispered in my ear as we rounded a corner and we both heard the annoying cackling laugh that belonged to my mother. I just nodded to him before letting out a deep sigh and waking into the lions den.

"Oh Avery darling you're here!" My mother said when we stepped into the room full of ugly white expensive furniture and fake flowers. Fake. That was the perfect word for everything having to do with the two of them. Fake flowers, fake smiles, fake compliments, there life was full of fake things that made me want to vomit on their overly white carpet. My mother's fake exuberance to me being here was no exception.

Cameron squeezed my hand tighter when he saw my mother rise from her seat across the room and make her way over to us. "And you brought your boss?" She asked looking with admiration at the tall man beside me. Her eyes were of course checking Cameron out from head to toe, but the twitch in her lip told me she was anything but happy he was here.

"I am more than just her boss Mrs.Preston" Cameron said removing his hand from mine to move it around my waist, pulling me closer to him. My mothers eyes went wide at the interaction, and they rested on Cameron's hand that was gently grazing my hip. "Well it seems Avery sure has a thing for the men she works for" She said with a sneer before walking away from the pair of us.

Ok that one stopped me in my tracks. I gently shoved Cameron away from me, suddenly overcome with confidence to stand up to my mother.

"Did you seriously just say that mother?" I asked taking a step closer to my mother who had turned her back to me. She turned around, the fake overly white smile never leaving her lips. "Avery dear, it was no secret you had a crush on Maxwell when you worked there, who could blame you" She said with a chuckle as she stood beside Maxwell who I saw was sitting in a armchair by the fireplace watching the interaction with both confusion and intrigue.

"I wouldn't willingly touch that man with a ten foot pole" I growled at her, crossing my arms across my chest. I wished nothing more than for Maxwell to look in another direction, feeling disgusting as he continued to look at me. My mother laughed loudly and kissed Maxwell on the mouth before taking the seat beside him.

"Please don't start this Avery, your brother just got here for Christ's sake!" She swore, reaching over and taking my stepfathers hand in hers.

"And maybe I should inform Tommy what he missed while he was gone!" I shouted. "Should I tell him that our stepfather shoved me against the window of his office and took what wasn't his? Should I tell him it lasted for years and I couldn't tell anyone because he threatened to kill me? How about the fact that our mother knew about it the entire time and the only thing she said was to stop my dramatics?! How could you mother?! How could you let this filth touch your little girl? let him force himself onto her and push her away when she came crying to you."

By this point I had tears rolling heavily down my cheeks, I wanted to throw up and cheer for joy at the fact I just stood up to these two since everything happened. Maxwell was looking at me with wide eyes, and his eyes moved from me to something behind me. Shit. I forgot Cameron was standing behind me watching everything that just happened.

"What?!" Someone shouted, but that wasn't Cameron. I looked to my left to see Tommy standing in the doorway to the kitchen, his fists clenched at his sides, his lip twitching in anger. Tommy wasn't looking at anything but Maxwell, Giving him a look that would stop a demon in its tracks. I was worried that Tommy was going to kill him, walk over to him and start wailing on him until he no longer breathed.

"Thomas, don't believe your sister" My mother said, she stood from her chair and walked over to Tommy trying her hardest to defuse the situation. When Tommy's eyes moved from Maxwell to my mother, they turned darker. He sneered at our mother and looked at her as if she was the scum of the earth. She was to me.

I heard a grunt to my right and moved from looking at Tommy to see Cameron had Maxwell pinned against a bookshelf. My mother shrieked as she watched Cameron lay punch after punch into her husbands face. I never saw Cameron that way, not with anyone. Sure he got angry around the office occasionally, but it was nothing to the look of hate across his perfect features right now. I thought he was going to do more, but he let Maxwell drop to the ground and took a step away from him. I noticed he looked to Tommy with the same look of disgust for the man lying on the ground. And with one simple nod, Tommy replaced Cameron in providing Maxwell's pain.

My mother wouldn't shut up, she just kept yelling for Tommy to stop, and pleading with Cameron to pull them apart. Cameron walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my trembling body, letting me bury my head into his chest. His hands soothed over my long hair as I cried into his chest. He mumbled things to me but they were lost over the sounds of my cries and the sound of skin hitting skin in the background.

It wasn't long before Cameron had picked me up and was carrying me out of the apartment. I heard the ding of the elevator, the doors closing and the occasional bystander ask Cameron if I was ok. I kept my face buried into him until I heard him hail a cab and he slid the both of us into the backseat.

I curled myself into his lap and clutched onto his shirt as if it was the only thing keeping me going right now. The only life line I had to the outside world. Other than Talia, this was the first time someone had comforted me about the whole situation, something that was long overdue and I desperately needed. "Come on sweetheart" Cameron mumbled into my hair, and I saw the cab was parked outside my apartment building.

I nodded into him and let him help me gently out of the cab, and through my lobby until we got to my front door. Cameron gently took my keys from my trembling fingertips and opened my front door with ease, keeping one arm around me at all times. He led me to my couch, sitting me down before taking the seat beside me. He sighed before reaching down and taking my face into his hands, as if looking through me trying to read my soul.

"Baby why didn't you tell me?" He asked, his tone almost angry. I could do nothing but shrug. I never thought I would actually end up with this man, end up making love to him and he would actually want me but it happened. Everything bad that happened to me floated away when I was with Cameron, including this. I didn't want him to think of me as broken and treat me any differently.

A knock on the door made Cameron sigh and let go of my face. He kissed my forehead and stood before opening the front door. "Where is she?" I heard my brother's voice full of pure desperation ask. I turned my head and saw him stomping through my front door. I stood from my chair and walked halfway to meet my brother.

Tommy had tears streaming down his face, his shirt and fists both still stained with Maxwell's blood. Tommy opened his mouth several times, but he just couldn't get the words out. "It's ok Tommy" I whispered and wrapped my arms around his waist. He buried his face in my hair and held me tightly. I could hear his cries in my ear, his tears falling down and dampening the black cardigan I wore the night before.

"Ray why didn't you ever say anything to me? I would have come home. Fuck I would have-"

"Didn't you hear the part where he threatened to kill me. Not only that, he threatened you and Talia as well, I couldn't risk anything." I said cutting him off.

After several heated hours of arguing with my brother over why I never told him, why I didn't let him protect me. Cameron finally got us to calm down and have a seat on the couch.

I sat with tear stained cheeks, trembling hands and an ache in my stomach that wouldn't go away. I leaned my head on Tommy's shoulder while I let Cameron hold my hand, he would kiss the back of it every so often. I loved these men dearly, and was so thankful I had them both in my life. They were the only thing keeping me from going into my bathroom, grabbing a razor blade and ending everything like I wanted to years ago.

"Tomorrow morning that man wont know what hit him" Cameron said looking out my large window at my view of Central Park. Between the look of determination on his face, the look guilt on Tommy's and the sense of hate between the other of them, I found myself growing weary of the days to come....