Asides from his sore wrist caused by the cuff, Devlin had survived the whole ordeal without a scratch. Rodgers had left in anger. And good riddance to him forever he hoped. Campbell and Vivian had both gone inside, raising their voices, blaming each other for their bad luck. Good riddance to them both very soon.

He decided to stop thinking of his enemies and focus on the two most important women in his life. "Thank you Mama." He said moving to hug Fiona.

She was ready, arms out, eyes moist with tears of relief. "You don't have to thank me." She said against his chest, her voice cracking. "I swore that I would die first before they throw you in jail. I would have if they had succeeded."

He pulled back and wiped her tears with his thumb. "And it didn't happen because of you Mama. Thank you."

She snorted and waved him off. "Oh, please. I guess my brain started to work overtime and was able to bring up those points. It's no big deal."

"Stop, it is a big deal. I can't thank you enough. You're the best woman in my life."

Pamela cleared her throat. They both looked at her and she shrugged. "No problem, go on. I'll just stand here and be, uh, useless."

Fiona and Devlin laughed. "Mama, let me rephrase. Apart from my darling, beautiful and really sexy wife, you are the best woman in my life." He drew Pamela close and kissed her forehead.

"Fiona you were so good. I had no idea you could be that bold. I loved it." Pamela said.

"I know! I'm still in shock that I stood up to Vivian for the first time in my life."

Their giggles were doused with a dry, "Well, congratulations."

The three turned to come face to face with Vivian who was giving them deathly stares. "Why don't you bask in your glory for the little time you have because trust me I will not rest till I see you all gone."

"I'm very flattered that you've decided to dedicate the rest of your life to "seeing us gone." We thank you Vivian. But first, before you embark on your holy mission, you'll need to leave my house. I give you three days."

"Devlin."

He allowed Fiona one glance then sighed. "One week. The end." Vivian said nothing but kept starring at him like she was cooking up grisly things to do to him. "Anything wrong Vivian? Oh! Pardon me, do you have anywhere to stay or..?"

Vivian's harsh laughter broke him off. She seemed to have caught on his sarcasm. "Of course I do." She bit out.

"So this is it?" This came from Campbell.

He was ascending the stairs and he looked angry. Devlin had not really given the man much thought but now, he realized he looked like a bully. The fact that he was not in jail after what he did to Lily was enough to make his blood boil.

"So we are going to accept that Chernyshevsky willed everything to his bastard son? Everything?"

"We have talked about this already Bart --"

"I am not willing to accept it! You will make sure he doesn't leave us penniless or I will --"

"Or you will what Bart?! I have told you times without number that he left nothing for me or my children --"

"I don't care about your children!"

"Okay Wifey, Mama, let's get the hell out of here." Devlin muttered to the hearing of Pamela and Fiona.

"I can't leave Vivian." Fiona whispered.

"Why the hell not?"

"You promised me!" Campbell raised his voice louder. "You swore that everything would be mine if I married you or have you forgotten?"

"No I have not! Stop reminding me!"

He raised his hand and smacked Vivian on the face which made her fall. "Don't raise your voice at me you worthless bitch!"

Devlin, Pamela and Fiona all gasped in shock and watched as Campbell took Vivian by the hair, forcing her to her feet. She cried out in pains as he pulled harder.

"You are a useless woman, you know? You are a good for nothing!" He rammed his fists into her guts and Vivian bowled over, groaning painfully.

"Bart, stop!" Fiona screamed, rushing forward to help Vivian. "Stop, please." She said nearing a sob. She knelt before Vivian and offered her hand but she refused Fiona's help.

"Stay out of this." Campbell said with a snarl. "You hate her, your son hates her, everyone hates her, so leave her to me! I will appropriate the right punishment to her for all her sins."

"Who the hell do you think you are, God?" Fiona shot at him and then looked at Devlin desperately.

Devlin shook his head. "It's not our problem. She brought this upon herself. Let's go. Now!" He added when Fiona looked reluctant.

"Yes, go away I don't need you help." Vivian said. She was trying to act tough, Devlin knew but it was a sorry act because she looked every part the victim. He didn't care.

He angled his head towards the door and the three of them started out. But Fiona stopped when they heard a slap. Devlin tried to make her move but she dug in her heel. Tears were filling her eyes.

"Help her please." She croaked.

They heard another slap and Vivian's grunt of pain. Devlin shut his eyes and balled his fists. He didn't want to get involved or feel pity for her but one look at Fiona's teary eyes and the look of disappointment on Pamela's face, he made a decision.

It was a quick one, one that needed to be executed in seconds, else he feared he might change his mind. His hands balled into fists, he turned, walked over to where Campbell was beating the shit out of Vivian and placed his hand on him.

"That's enough."

Campbell rudely shrugged his hand off. "Stay out of this big guy. You know, you should be thanking me. I'm taking care of the woman who you hated all your life. The woman that destroyed you."

"I didn't ask for your help. Now, let her go while I ask nicely."

"Or you'll what? Beat me up?" When Devlin didn't reply, he chuckled. "That's what I thought. Now scram. Run off to mommy. Go on. Just stay the fuck out of my way." He turned and grabbed Vivian by the hair and she screamed. He placed his hand on her throat and punched her face.

Vivian cried out.

Fiona cried, "Leo!"

Pamela cried, "Devlin!" All at the same time.

Devlin saw red at that. He lunged at Campbell with three, heavy and brutal punches to his neck. Uttering a high pitched squeal, Campbell caught the fourth and twisted Devlin's ankle then launched a counter attack by punching Devlin on the face.

His hands landed like heavy concrete on Devlin's face and it made him buckle, but Devlin was quick to regain his balance. As Campbell came at him again, he moved out of the way and then with all his might, kicked him from the rear side. Campbell collided against the wall and went down.

He moved towards him and held him by the shirt. Campbell was still breathing, although it was shallow.

"Don't you ever touch my -" He swallowed and pushed out the word. "My mother."

He let Campbell go and walked towards Vivian who was giving him him a shocked look -- well, out of her good eye. He offered his hand.

She turned away stubbornly. "I don't need your help," Then she turned to look at him again. "And I am not your mother."

He gave her a fleeting smile. "You look pretty scary, you know. With your one eye." Then he gave Fiona and Pamela a look. "She needs a doctor."

"Viv," Fiona moved towards her and helped her up. "You need to go to the hospital."

"No, I am fine." Then she yanked her hands from Fiona's. "And don't touch me. You betrayed me! Insulted me too."

"Vivian, please let me help."

"No! I'm not going anywhere. And I didn't ask you to help me! I didn't ask you to beat him up!"

"He was going to kill you."

"It's none of your business. It's my burden to bear."

"Vivian please, you need to go away from this man. He abuses you."

"Don't use that word, Fiona! He doesn't abuse me. He only gets a little aggressive when he's angry. Besides, Bart will find me wherever I go."

"No he won't. I'll see to it that his ass is thrown in jail."

She laughed at Devlin. "This is your plan isn't it? You want to ruin me! You want to tarnish my image. You want him arrested so he'll talk. You want him to tell the whole city everything about my miserable life, don't you? You want him to do the job you're too chicken to do."

"Is that all you really care about?" Devlin asked, genuinely baffled. "Your image?"

Vivian didn't respond. She was busy wobbling and the next second, she fainted.

~

"You should go home, honey."

Devlin's troubled train of thought ended with Fiona's gentle whisper. They had called an ambulance and had gone with it to the hospital. Thinking about it now, he wished he'd stayed back. He hated hospitals. Hated their white walls and the smell of blood. He hated seeing blue scrubs and hated seeing wheelchairs.

It reminded him of the bad times and of Dorothea and how she'd died. Now, he glanced at Pamela and she smiled at him. They were hand in hand in the waiting room. She didn't seem to feel sad or show any indication that she was thinking of her mom. She looked like she wanted to support him, like he was all that mattered. She was really his missing rib. He kissed her hand.

"You both should go home." He said. "Go rest. I insist."

"Vivian would feel more comfortable with me around." Fiona said.

"I want to be there when she regains consciousness. I want her to know how I feel about her now that I know Campbell's been abusing her."

"That's why I could never leave." Fiona whispered and her eyes filled with tears. Pamela took her hand and squeezed it. "He was punishing her. Believe it or not but Vivian is a good woman. There are so many things that Vivian would have wanted to stand against but because Bart knew things that could destroy her "precious" image, she swallow it up with a smile. Philanthropist on the outside, broken on the inside.

"Despite it all, her harsh exterior is just a wall built to conceal the sad woman on the inside. Put yourself in her shoes. The man she loved cheated on her with me, right under her nose, then he was taken away by death. As if that was not enough, she found out that he willed all of his fortune to his mistress's son. How could a person take all that in and still be sane?"

It was a while before either of them spoke. Then Devlin finally said, "That does not in anyway excuse what she did."

She nodded. "True. I will never understand why she didn't care to find you and I don't think I could ever forgive her for that but she doesn't deserve what she's going through or what she'd had to endure all these time. I mean, Bartholomew was sexually assaulting Lilian and Vivian couldn't do anything. Even an animal will fight off a predator from her offspring, how much more humans? I feel there is more to this than we know, and that man is right at the middle."

"He probably was a gold digger who advised her to make you go away so they could have your inheritance." Pamela said.

"She didn't have to take that advice."

A set of double doors wooshed open and a pretty lady in blue scrubs walked towards them. "Doctor David will be with you shortly."

"Thank you." Fiona responded and got to her feet.

The doctor walked up to them shortly after. He was a grey haired sixty-ish man who looked healthy and fit. Too fit for his age. Doctors had always intimidated Devlin. They made it seem like every single thing a person did wrong would lead to their untimely death. It seemed Fiona knew him because she kissed him in greeting.

"That's my son and his wife." She said with a proud grin and Devlin frowned at her. She caught his frown and laughed.

"It's OK honey. He helped deliver you."

"Oh? Well then, I appreciate you helping to birth me."

He laughed. "Don't mention. Now about Mrs. Fiona, She's stable. She needs adequate rest and some medicine but she'll heal. But I found something disturbing. There were scars on her back, fresh ones, and it looked like they were inflicted by welts or something of that caliber." He paused briefly. "If she's going through some sort of abuse, I advise --"

"The son of a bitch is in police custody as we speak."

He nodded. "Alright. Good." He then looked at Fiona. "Would you like to see her?"

Fiona opened her mouth to speak but Devlin was faster. "No. They're both going home to bring her a change of clothing. I'll see her."

They looked helpless. There was no arguing with him and so they had to agree. Dr. David asked a nurse to take him to where Fiona was and pleaded with him to be gentle as she was sore -- physically and emotionally.

There were no live support machines that would be beeping annoyingly. It was only a drip being passed to her arm. Her other arm was in a cast and her head was bandaged.

When he entered, she didn't move and so he knocked once, hoping she wasn't asleep. Disturbed by the noise, she turned. When she saw it was him, she looked away but he had caught enough image of how her face looked; it was badly bruised and one eye was swollen and purple. She was a sight for sore eyes and to his amazement, he felt sorry for her.

"Go away."

"No." He drew up a chair and sat. "I want to speak with you."

"I don't need your pity."

"I'm not here to pity you."

She turned her head to face him. "Then are you here to take me to jail?"

"Why are you being this way?"

"You think because you defended me once and called me Mom I'll become an angel?"

"No, but I expected something, anything, like a truce maybe?"

She turned her face away again. "Sorry to disappoint."

He sighed. "I had no idea Campbell was abusing you." His voice was gentle.

She didn't reply.

"The same way he was abusing Lily. I thought you didn't want to do anything about it but now I know he had a leverage over you. It doesn't in any way excuse your actions but I feel better knowing that at least there's a reason. And I know it wasn't just to protect your reputation. It was something else. Whatever it is, I've not come to judge you. I just want to understand you. Why didn't you look for me? What happened?"

She didn't reply and he realized that she might be struggling with her emotions. It won't be easy to trust each other after their years of feud. He wasn't even sure he could trust himself. His throat became tight with emotion but he willed himself to keep talking.

"What you're worried about will not happen. He will not get within six feet of you. He'll be tried and jailed. If he as much as opens his mouth against you, I will pull his tongue out of his mouth and tie it round his fat, ugly neck." He stood and started for the door then stopped and returned. "I just want you to know that despite it all, you're still my mom." He touched her arm briefly and headed for the door again.

"It was either that, or your dead body."

Devlin stopped in his tracks, then turned. "What?"

Her eyes was filled with tears and her voice cracked as she whispered. "It was either you disappeared or he killed you. He was that hungry for money."

He hung his head. Now he understood her. "And you didn't stop him because of the leverage he had against you?"

She turned her head away again and said nothing but he could see her shoulders shaking with sobs. He walked up to her, took her hand and squeezed it. He then placed a kiss on her forehead. "He will rot in jail, I swear to you."

He was shocked to find that there were tears in his eyes as he left the room.

~

Hello guys! Thank you once again for reading!

I have made references to sexual assault/abuse, physical assault/abuse and emotional assault/abuse in this story and so I am using this medium to apologize to whomever might find this triggering or as a reminder of bad memories. I have not received any complaints about this but I feel I should create the awareness. I send love, light and fortitude to whomever might be going through something of the sort somewhere and I hope they all pull through.

Thank you again for reading. Please vote for this chapter, comment your thoughts, and if you haven't add to your library and reading lists and share with others. Thank you!