"Hello?"

"You are staying right where you are until I can come and pick you up.  You are in more trouble than you know, little girl, and your behavior is unacceptable.  You're going to be on the next flight to New York when I get you."

"Aw, nice to hear from you too, Daddy.  I've already beaten you to that, though, I'm already going back home.  Don't worry, I won't ruin your plans to replace us with a brand new family with Ellen, and my evil birth father isn't anywhere near your new baby."

The room grew deathly silent as they realized who I spoke with.

"Is that dad?  Can I talk to him," Sloane asked, her hand jutted out to take the phone from me but I waited, wanting to see if he acknowledged what I'd just told him.

"You still there?  Or did I surprise you for once?"

"He's after you, Katrina Randolph.  I told your mother to watch over you, but since she's clearly not doing her job correctly, I suppose I'll have to come and correct the situation."

"Ooh, goody.  It seems like your business partner isn't all too trusting of you at the moment, though, so maybe you should take him golfing or something," I told him in the snarkiest and most sarcastic voice I could muster, noticing as Lachlan edged the door open after knocking and Lincoln answered.  Lincoln shot me a wary look but I only rolled my eyes.

"What are you talking about, Katrina?"

My father's voice was murderous ice.  I focused my own frozen glare upon Lachlan as I spoke next, lightning laced into my voice while I contemplated the many ways that I could hurt him most with my words just like he had hurt me.

"Oh, nothing, he just sent his little son to do his dirty work for him.  Let's hope you have nothing incriminating you that he could've got through my phone, because he doesn't trust you as far as he can throw you, and considering that son broke into my phone to take what he wanted, I don't think you'll have a leg to stand on if you're planning to double cross his father."

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Lachlan who sported a pink slap mark across his cheek and a busted lip, from what I didn't know, but his eyes zeroed in on my foot as regret and guilt flashed across his face.  Whatever, I didn't have time for his feelings, not when mine were balancing on the precipice of something ferocious and on the verge of spilling into a chasm of chaos and fire.

"Why the hell would he do something like that?"

I focused back in on the conversation with my father.

"Oh, maybe he learned it from your playbook, Daddy.  You know, you did the same thing to me with Ian, except you did it without me knowing, so I wonder who that paints as the worse man.  I think its a tie, but no one's got my birth father beat, no, that asshole takes the cake for Worst Dad of the Year, but it's okay, you were in the top three, don't worry."

"Katrina, I know you're angry with me, but-"

"Oh, no I'm not angry with you.  I'm indifferent to you, to your business partner, and his two sons, because you're all insignificant little twats who know nothing about basic human fucking decency.  The man I'm really angry with is my birth father, and he's where I'll pin all my rage on- until he's gone, then you'll get your share of hatred back.  All of you will," I said, pointing the words directly into Lachlan's eyes as I spoke.

"So don't you worry your balding little head Daddy, I'll take care of the problems in my life, just like I take care of everything else- alone."

I ended the phone call as he yelled something at me and I looked up to find the twins staring at me with amused grins at how I'd just told off my father and Lachlan at the same time, everyone else staring daggers at Lachlan, including myself.

"All of my stuff is packed up thanks to Sloane, can you all be ready within the hour?  I have a need to sleep in my own bed tonight," I said, again pointing my emotionless eyes into Lachlan to make it positively known just what I thought of him and the nights that we'd spent together.

I was only grateful that I hadn't given him all of me completely, otherwise I would have been even more completely and utterly wrecked- even more than I already was.

"Kat-"

"Get the fuck out."

He didn't listen to my snarled words, hands brushing through his thick dark hair.

"If you'd just let me explain, you don't know what he was going to do and-"

"I just told you not an hour before that I knew exactly why you did what you did.  You don't have to explain anything.  Your explanation doesn't excuse your behavior, and I won't accept them, just like your apologies.  Like I said- I don't.  Fucking.  Want.  Them."

Fire ignited within his eyes as the rest of those in the room either slipped out or hung back on the walls, but I couldn't discern who was still there and who had left for the life of me.  My entire entity was focused on Lachlan, his presence seeming to fill in the cracks and fissures within me, no matter how badly I wanted to hate him for the part he'd played.

"Fine, then I won't apologize that my father is a piece of shit who was going to beat my sister into submission if I didn't do what he said.  I won't apologize that I'd do anything to keep my family safe, and I won't apologize to you for breaking into your phone and getting exactly what he wanted.  I won't apologize to you for getting close to you those first few times, letting you think that I actually liked you when really you disgusted me, the fact that you were working for your father proof enough for me that you were evil, but then, I was doing the same for my father, so how was I any better?

"I'm not going to apologize to you for wanting to be near you, for craving your touch after I got close enough to learn some of your secrets, after I learned who you really are, and I won't apologize for wanting to protect you from anything and anyone who would hurt you after I fell in love with you."

"You know nothing about me, Lachlan.  Absolutely nothing more than what I allowed you to see.  I can understand you wanting to protect your family, but when I spilled one of my darkest secrets about my birth father, you weren't able to do the same.  You told me about what he'd done to you, but not your reason for ending your hatred towards me.  All you had to do was tell me the truth, and we could have worked something out, but you decided that I was better off in the dark, just like my parents decided to keep the truth about my birth family from me."

He took a step close to me, arms outstretched, but I flinched, picturing those hands pummeling his brother to a bloody pulp, and he noticed the flinch.

"You know I'd never hurt you, Kat," he said, voice filled to the brim with agony.

"My cut up foot and migraine from hitting my head on the wall say otherwise," I spat out at him, and then he became defeated as Evan came to stand beside me, followed by Holden and Sloane, then Lincoln and Taylor as they formed a wall around me, my heart swelling as the tears came cresting to the surface once more as they protected me.

"I think she told you to get out, man," Taylor choked out and I turned to bury my face in my hands as Blythe and Vera's hands came around me for support.

The door shut and I cried harder. 

"How dare he?  He said he was in love with me?  You don't treat someone you're in love with like that," I rationalized through thick tears, realizing the sickly truth that bubbled to the surface with my pain.

I was in love with him, too, and he'd just signed my heart's death sentence: Warning- Will Never Love Again.

I choked on my sobs as the others packed the room up in a hurry. 

Drying my face and pulling up my unfeeling wall of resolve, I'd use barbed words and low blows to protect what was left of my emotions, praying that it would be enough for me to survive long enough to stop my birth father and whatever it was that he had planned for me.

I only hoped that I didn't choke on my own misery while trying to swallow down my pride while doing so.