* * *

I held onto Noah as I watched him lay there lifeless. I didn't want to kill him I just wanted him to leave me alone. What had I done? How was I going to explain this to his parents? To Lenny? To Isaac? Panic started to set in as all these questions started to roam through my mind. I looked up at Jaxon thinking he would have the answers but he was just stuck in the middle of this. I could see the pained look on his face as he just sat next to me with a hand on my shoulder, unable to console me. I looked down at Noah, surprised to see his eyes wide open staring at me.

"Noah?!"

Just as I said his name, he quickly grabbed the gun, aimed at Jaxon and shot him right between the eyes.

"Jaxon!" I screamed out in agony as I crawled quickly towards him.

"No!" I cried out.

"Why would you do that! He had nothing to do with this!" I screamed out. The tears were free falling down my eyes as I placed both hands on either side of his cheek. I slowly stroked his face as if to think it would bring him back to life. I was a complete mess, crying harder and harder every time I saw him just lay there.

"Avery." Noah said.

It was the way he said my name that made me slowly look up to him, only to see the gun was now pointed at me.

"I'm sorry." He said, before pulling the trigger.

"No!" I screamed out.

My body jerked up screaming as I patted my entire face and looked around the room, only noticing I was in my current bedroom, no longer the house that carried all my pain.

"Hey, you just had a bad dream." Jaxon whispered.

I quickly looked over at him before crying out loud and hugging him.

"Hey, what's wrong, babe?" Jaxon asked, pain evident in his voice as he wrapped his arms around me. I couldn't find the words so I just squeezed tighter, to make sure he was really there. I continued to cry as I ignored his question and just hugged him, taking in the scent of his shampoo. He understood as he just continued to hug me, rubbing my back slowly while trying to calm me down.

"I'm sorry. I just had a really vivid dream that I don't want to ever see come true." I said, forcing the words out in between my cries.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked softly.

"No. I just want to forget about it. It was just a dream." I whispered.

"Babe. I don't mean to bring this up again but, you really need to talk to someone." He said before kissing my shoulder.

"Can we talk about this tomorrow please?" I asked as I looked at him.

He wiped the tears from my face before nodding and laying back down, bringing me with him as I laid my head onto his chest. I took in his presence as I tried to remind myself that it was a dream. I now knew for a fact that Noah was never going to hurt us again.

I couldn't say much for the rest of his gang though.

* * *

Two Weeks Later:

It's been two weeks since that night with Noah and I've had bad dreams ever since that night. I was a complete mess at the hospital when the insisted they check my injuries even though I told them I was fine. I've told the police what happened that night so much that's it's forever imprinted in my mind. My dad went into complete panic mode when he arrived at the house and saw me covered in blood. My lawyer was now working over time to make sure I didn't get charged for Noah's death because it was in self defence, but his family won't see it that way.

I let out a sigh as I now stood in front of the house where it all began two weeks ago. My dad had delayed the reading of my mums will because I clearly wasn't fit to be there, so here we were back again to finish packing and then go to the reading tomorrow. My dad walked ahead of me to unlock the door as I couldn't find my footing.

"You ready?" Jaxon whispered.

I looked into his eyes and smiled lightly, "Now I am." I said as he grabbed a hold of my hand before walking alongside me to the front door. A part of me was trying to remind myself that I was safe in the company of my dad and my boyfriend but there was a small part of me that had doubt, doubt was always hiding around the corner waiting for me. We spent most of the afternoon placing our belongings in boxes and placing them in the back of the two cars we had with us. I felt bad for leaving Alena again with Isaac, she was in hysterics when I saw her at the hospital, crying because she thought she lost me. Just thinking about the way she hugged me as she cried constantly brings tears to my eyes. I let out a sigh as I looked up to the sky, trying to reign my tears in.

A few hours later we were all done with packing our items. I looked around the house as I took in how empty it looked all of a sudden. All that was left was the furniture which I had no intention of keeping, who ever owned this house now can do what ever they felt was necessary. All I know was that I was tired and ready for bed, just as I was about to get up the doorbell rang making me jump.

Jaxon quickly placed his hands on my shoulders, "Hey, it's okay." He whispered.

I watched as my dad opened the door, moments later Drew walked in greeting everyone. As I greeted him he leaned over the couch where I was sitting to kiss me on my forehead. I was glad my brother was here for the reading. I know he was here more to support me than what was written but regardless, it was important for him to be here.

The next day arrived quicker than I expected. I sat in the back hand in hand with Jaxon, Drew sat passenger as our dad drove us to the lawyers office. I wasn't going to lie, I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect. I honestly wasn't expecting much, my mum was probably heavily under the influence when she wrote her will. There was a slight chance Henry had the power to everything, I knew I would be able to fight it but I didn't have the energy anymore. If he was given everything, whatever my mum even had. He can have it. I was emotionally drained and done with it all.

"We're here." Jaxon whispered as he tugged at my hand. I looked around to see my dad and Drew were waiting patiently outside. I looked over to Jaxon who was still sitting next to me, waiting patiently. I smiled before nodding my head.

It was now or never.

Here we sat, waiting for my mums lawyer to read out the will. Under normal circumstances, from what I know, we shouldn't even have a lawyer be reading her will but I guess she didn't trust any of us to be the executor of her will. So, here we sat waiting patiently for the will to be read. Mr lawyer, whose name I forgot because I wasn't a paying attention when he greeted himself, cleared his throat before opening the sealed envelope and began reading.

"As her lawyer, I was given the responsibly to lodge a claim under her life insurance." He began.

"My mum had life insurance?" I asked, skeptical that my mum was actually paying for something like that.

"There is a lot that you don't know when it comes to what your mum truly sacrificed for her kids." He responded.

That statement got my attention as I was now questioning what he was referring to. What was my mum spending her money on, other than drugs?

"I'm just going to begin reading everything, if you have any questions please hold off to the end." He said. I just stared at him, not bothering to respond.

He cleared his throat once again before he began, "Your mother had life insurance, after lodging a claim we were successful in claiming over $500,000."

I looked at my dad who was just as dumb founded as me by that. I didn't even know she had life insurance and now they were paying out her policy of $500,000? Surely there was a catch to that, right? I honestly have no idea how this whole life insurance crap worked.

"The house has been written in Avery and Drew's name to do as they see fit with it."

"What? Why me?" Drew asked as he looked at me. I smiled warmly at him as I shrugged my shoulders. Even when Drew wasn't in the picture, this was my mums way of still having him in her mind when she wrote the will.

"Lastly, the trust account of $300,000 is in the name of Avery Winters. This belongs solely to Avery to use as she sees fit."

"What? What account?" I asked, I was beginning to get a headache from all this information that was offloaded on me just now.

F  L  A  S  H  B  A  C  K

"I'm so glad that she's finally getting help."

My head whipped around in shock to look at my father who was already starring at me.

"How did-"

"How did I know?" He interrupted.

"She called me sobbing that you two had left, she was talking all non-sense about ending her life. I told her this was her opportunity to get clean and show you girls that she can do it. She didn't have any money for it, because all her money was put in an account that no one could get access to."

"Why did she do that?" I asked in confusion.

"To keep the money away from Henry."

I looked into his eyes as realisation creeped over me slowly, "You've been paying for her rehab."

E  N  D   F  L  A  S  H  B  A  C  K

I looked over to my dad as realisation sunk in, all he did was give me a small smile before winking at me. So that's the account he was referring to, what feels like a thousand lifetimes ago.

"Avery, your mother wrote you a letter. Would you like to read it or would you like me to read it?" He asked.

My eyes began to tear up at the thought, none of this mattered without my mum in my life. I wasn't going to lie, the money would help with Alena and I but it meant nothing without our mum. My mums life was the sacrifice for this money. If I had to choose one or the other, I would choose my mum being alive over this crap.

I shook my head as a lone tear fell down the side of my face. He nodded as he watched me wipe away my tear.

"To my two beautiful girls,

I write this letter during my third attempt at getting clean. Your father was kind enough to pay for my treatment as long as I promised to stay away from Henry, get clean for you girls and make you proud.
I was speaking with one of my therapists who said when you have a lot to say but don't know where to start, you write a letter and it will all flow out. So, this is what I'm doing.
I'm taking the opportunity to explain a few things, things I couldn't explain back then when I didn't put you first when I should have.
I know I may have been using drugs, but I always put money into a trust account for you beforehand. I know it doesn't make up for the way I behaved but I always wanted to make sure you girls were going to be okay, financially, should something happen to me. I didn't tell anyone about this account because I couldn't risk having Henry find out about it, so I hope you understand and aren't mad at me for lying about this."

I could feel my throat swell up as I tried to hold back the tears. Even though this lawyer was reading the letter, I could just hear my mum's voice reading the letter to me. I looked back at him and nodded as if to give the go ahead to continue.

"I know words will never be enough but I am so so sorry for all the pain I have caused you. You girls make me want to be a better mother and I'm sorry it took me this long to finally find my way. I'm feeling so much stronger now and with my release just around the corner, I can't wait to start this new life with you girls. Having said that though, I'm not going to lie, something inside of me is telling me my time is almost up. I hope it's not but if it is, I just want to say how proud I am of the woman you've become Avery. You were a better a mother to Alena than I will ever be and you make me so proud to call you my daughter. I hope one day, when I'm clean, I will make you girls just as proud.

I love you girls and I can't wait to see you."

It was dead silent for a long minute as I tried to reign in my emotions, but I couldn't. I was a complete mess. I leaned forward placing my head in my hands as I began to quietly cry into my hands. I could tell by the letter that she wrote it when we spoke about her getting out to move in with us, she wrote this just before Henry took her away from us. I tried to stop crying but I couldn't. I think I was at that point where all I wanted to do was just cry and punch something. I felt someone place an arm around my shoulders, I could tell by the scent that it was Jaxon as he kissed the side of my head.

"Do you want to go outside for a bit?" He whispered in my ear.

I just shook my head as I kept crying, I couldn't stop it no matter how hard I tried. I was emotionally drained and this was the cherry on the top of it all.

"Come on, let's go." Jaxon whispered as he gently lifted me up by my upper arms to get me to stand. I stood up and pushed my chair back in anger, watching it fly back.

"This is such bullshit!" I screamed out, my anger was getting worse and worse the longer I stood there.

"Avery." My dad called out, as if to warn me to be careful.

I looked around the room at everyone who was now staring at me, waiting for my next move. I took one look at Jaxon who was looking at me, eyebrows creased in pain as he stood there. One look at Jaxon was all I needed, I walked towards him and instantly wrapped my arms around his waist and began crying into his chest.

Immediately he wrapped his arms around my back and began to consolidate me.

"Lets get out of here." He whispered. I nodded into his chest, not saying anything. Allowing him to pull me with him and leave the building.

* * *

A/N: Listening to this song while reading this chapter just tugs at my heart! I hope you guys loved it as much as I did!

P.S: Please don't hate me for almost scaring you guys at the beginning of the chapter lol

Next Chapter: We say goodbye to Noah one last time.