His hand reaches out to me, pushing me towards him as he steps forward successfully exchanging our positions as I see him punch one man, who has apparently come closer in the given time.

The second follows, and soon enough they are fighting two on one, with Jay clearly winning. A hushed groan brings my attention to the rest of the crew that had attacked me. I peek from the side of Jay's car to see two of them dragging one of their friend to the side.

The man being dragged looks in pain, but is conscious so I am assuming he must have broken something when Jay hit him with his car.

And despite the circumstances I was in, I let out a muffled giggle at Jay's antics. Though I soon sobered up when I realise that the one with gun is still okay, and will be here soon.

I wince at the sharp movement when I turn to look at Jay.

One man down, he looks to be at his leisure while toying with the other. I gulp at the amusement that glints in his blue eyes, dark and sinister.

The boy I knew had definitely changed, for better or for worse is still unknown.

Not wanting to be one of the stupid girls, I keep a look out for the men, scanning the area and cursing when I soon spot them.

Both had their weapons drawn and were coming from two different sides of the pick up truck that was parked there. The one on the right had a gun and the one through the left had a long baseball bat.

"Jay... nine o clock, gun and six o clock has a bat." I urgently inform the gang leader who has the man he was recently toying with in a head lock.

I smirk at him when he glances up at me and grins boyishly, though the dark and predatory look in his eyes make him look anything but harmless that a young boy should be.

And the man he had, fell from his grip as he let him go once he is unconscious, gesturing me towards the car, "Get inside then love, I will take a few minutes to finish it all. We need to leave before the police comes."

I nod, knowing I am hardly of any use to him and the pain in my head making it hard for me to think of any moves, I open the door and slide in.

Once inside, the throbbing in my head becomes more apparent and the pain in my back added to the cramps I already felt makes me feel faint. I groan in agony, unable to deal with the pain, so I rest my head on the cool surface of the glass.

My eyes go blurry, my mind finally catching up to the events. Tears slowly start falling, one and two going down slowly before the damn breaks.

Tears of pain, physical and mental.

Tears of despair.

Tears of once again being this close to dying,

And all I wish for is to curl in my bed and cry myself to sleep. I hear the driver's side door open but I refuse to look at him. Bowing my head slightly, I bite my lips to prevent any sound from escaping as tears remain unstoppable.

I feel the car moving, and the intense stare of his, yet I don't look up.

Not even when I feel the car come to a stop again.

Soon enough, my door opens, and Jayden bends down to unbuckle my seat belt, his hands brushing my sides and familiar scent filling my mind.

His hands wrap around me and he lifts me up, shutting door with his foot and carrying me as I bury my face in his chest, not ready to face anyone yet.

Once he stands me down, I sniffle, turning around only to stumble at the unfamiliar place. I turn around to face him in question.

"I didn't want to take you to the apartments right now. This is my place, safer than that building."

His voice is soft, and low, hesitant as if he is not sure if his decision was right or not. I give him a small smile to show my gratitude, which I think hardly looked like one.

I am barely hanging to my sanity, and it is clear he can see it.

He steps forward, closer to me. Close enough that his chest brushes against my shoulder, unknowingly making me relax. When he sees that I am not pushing him away, his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me into his embrace.

Tears threaten to spill again but I hold them back, not wishing to seem weak.

One of his hands travel up from my waist, to my head as he caresses my hair, whispering in my ear softly, "Let it all out, princess. You have been so strong, but you don't have to in front of me. Cry and let all the fear out."

His words break me.

I bring my hands up, clutching his shirt desperately as I sob in his arms with his hands still caressing as we stand in the middle of his home's living room.

I look in the eyes of the girl staring back at me.

The grey orbs seem lifeless, accompanied by dark bags under her eyes. Her hair, wet, clung to her neck, the roots now more blonde than before. Despite all this, she smiles.

Relief.

Relief makes her smile. Make me smile.

I look at myself in the mirror as I feel free of the heavy burden I had since the moment I made the life altering decision of killing Kane. I knew killing him will get me in a mess.

I just never expected it to be this big.

Despite that, I had come clean to all my friends to who I am. I had cried my emotions dry and it was refreshing.

Once I had calmed down, Jayden had asked me what I was doing out there, and once he knew, he called the house phone in his servants quarter to ask his maid to bring the necessary items for me.

Soon enough, he showed me his room and asked me to take a bath as he prepares something for us.

Which leads me to where I am right now.

After the cold shower I took, I had accepted all that had happened to me. Though, each I look into the mirror, my eyes seem to be drawn to the long strands of brown that falls down my back.

Dressing up in a pair of shorts and one of his t-shirts, I dry my hair using his dryer before searching his cabinets for a pair of scissors.

Finding it, I comb through my hair and start chopping it off.

Cutting it till I had long bob length hair, I gathered the fallen strands and dump them in the bin. This time when I see the mirror, my smile turns wider as I see the hair that were left were mostly in shades of blonde.

My original hair colour.

My original identity.

I am done hiding. Hiding from everyone and hiding from myself.

I have nothing to lose now do I? I have already come clean to Abby and the boys. And... and I have Jay in my life again, I will have answers and I will decide what to do when that happens.

For now, there is someone who is cooking food for me, and dinner is what I want right now first.

I make my way out of the grey themed bathroom, to an equally decorated bedroom, looking around it for the first time now that my head is clearer. Like the room in his apartment, the walls are barely personalized. The only thing that makes the room his is the few photo frames kept on his bedside table.

I go closer to it, sitting on the bed near the table as I scan the frames. My breath gets caught as I see out of the four, three of them have me in them.

The one on the back is of him with Sarah and their parents when they went to Hawaii, which was about a decade ago. The two in front of it were of us three, Sarah, him and I together. The right one was his seventeenth birthday with him standing as I cling to his back in a piggy back ride and Sarah standing next to him and drawing on his face with paints.

I let out a chuckle remembering the day quite well.

We all were so happy, wrapped in the bubble of innocence, where the worst we had done was prank an officer or something.

The other with all of us was of his senior prom, when he took the two of as his dates. He stood in the middle on the photo booth, themed horror-comedy with the Corpse bride and Frankenstein. On his right stood Sarah, her hair styled in a 60s up-do that matched her dress as she had used her pale skin to the fullest, winning quite a few games a vampire.

I stood in front of the two, dressed as a witch with purple streaks in my hair, black rode dress and purple accessories

My gaze then falls on the one that is kept the closest to the bed, facing it as if he has been looking at it while lying on the bed.

It was from the day I graduated from high-school and my parents refused to come due to some work related excuse and he came as my family. He had the whole wall of the hall behind the seats of family decorated in my name. I remember laughing at his enthusiasm and being embarrassed as everyone gave us weird looks.

And him tearing up as he got called up to get the honorary degree of Sarah, worth the favour I had to pull for it.

It was us standing in front of the decoration but we were looking at each other as I stood on my tip toes to put my graduation hat on top of his head as he holds Sarah's degree.

It take a few minutes to come back to the present. And for the first time in a few years, memories of her, us all and memories with him didn't hurt as much as used to.

I get up from my place, ready to leave the room when I remembered he had asked me to get him a pair of sweatpants to change in. I go to his walk in closet, snorting at how it is organised in colour codes and all. I huff, going to the informal section and choosing a random pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt for my sanity's sake.

The man had an unfortunate habit of walking around half naked.

I am about to close the closet when I mistakenly drop something. I keep the clothes I have picked a few minutes ago on the stool next to me and drop on my knees to pick the leather cover up, along with the only sheet of paper that it held.

I open it, trying to arrange it properly before keeping it back, but the sign in the end catches my attention.

The sign, in black ink, that sits in the bottom of the page was my name.

In my handwriting.

It shocks me, considering I had never, in my entire life had written any sort of note to Jay and signed it.

I read over it, unable to comprehend what it says as words jumble in my head. I shake my head, sitting down on the cold, hard floor reading it over and over again.

"Jay,

I am so sorry that this has come to this.

It's been so long since I have been a part of your life, enough to know you. And enough that you should have known me too. But it seems as if you don't.

You don't know me enough to know how I am suffering as I stand by your side. You have been a safe corner for me, a place I can stay protected, but that's all you were. For me.

But, silly you thought I was in love with you.

And pretending to be in love with you as well has made me so tired.

I have wished for death for me a thousand times, yet it didn't happen because of you. So here I am, deciding to give up the pretend life I was living beside you. I am going to use the same house trap we have made together in honour for you.

Love, Your Princess Ashlyn."

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A/N: Oh oh oh! Now that's fishy.

How do you all think this is about to go? Who would do this? And to top it all, what is Ash supposed to do?

And does any one of you pity Jayden now?

Btw, lovely readers, I was not about to update till later this week but due to @Jj10407 being a great supporter and reader asked for an early update. So here you all are.

Secondly, Ash has cut off her hair so to give you an idea I will attach a picture right here, though please remember, Ash still sports a fading brown color so it's not exact.

Picture credit to google.

Anyway, Vote, Comment and Share.

Love, Rupanshi.