~*~Trey's POV~*~

I paced the halls of the corridor outside of the hospital wing that Caley was occupying. I stopped and closed my eyes when she screamed, feeling the shout echo inside of my body, shaking me to my core.

I shook my head.

No, this was her own fault. She deserved this. She betrayed all of the people that she loved. It was her fault that Abbey wouldn't ever walk again. It was her fault that Jason was dead. It was her fault that my father was dead. All of it was because of her. She let it happen. She let it happen because she was a traitor.

I turned on my heel and walked out into the courtyard outside of the hospital building. I could still hear her screaming in pain.

It was early morning. The sun had just risen and there was a fog that had settled on the burnt remains of Trinity University. I could still smell the smoke in the air. The grass was wet and the sky was grey, the sun hidden behind a layer of ominous clouds.

I walked around, kicking charred blocks of wood and brick out of my path. I had a blazing headache. I hadn't slept much in the past few days. It was hard to believe that a few days had already even passed. It still seemed like the war had been just yesterday.

My father's funeral was to be held today. They were going to bury him in the Trinity Cemetery that was near Trinity Hollow. My mother had been completely distraught and secluded in the past few days. I couldn't imagine what she was going through, losing the one she loved in such a horrific way. We brought Cole to the university yesterday and I had to watch my mother tell Cole that our father had passed away. It was one of the most terrible things I'd ever had to experience. And he wouldn't know the reality of what had killed our father until he was much older. It wasn't fair.

I heard Caley scream again; I felt it inside of me again.

I kept telling myself that I hated her, that everything that had happened was her fault. Which it was. She pretended that she was helping our side by joining the Order and the whole time, she was feeding our information to the dark side. It all made sense now. All of the small details that we had tried to keep secret that the dark side somehow found out about. It was her. It was all her doing.

What made it worse was that we all defended her. Whenever Blackwell pointed his finger at her, whenever he doubted her loyalties, we were all so quick to jump to her defense. None of us had ever thought it would be Caley that would be the one to betray us. But I guess that's why her plan had worked so well, because she knew that no one would truly suspect her. She had us all wrapped around her finger and that, to me, made her truly evil. But what hurt me the most was that the entire time, she had been lying to me.

I had known that she was keeping something from me and that she wasn't always telling the truth. But never in my wildest imagination had I ever thought that she was capable of a betrayal such as this. She kept telling me to remember what she always told me whenever I asked her what she was hiding. But it was so hard to remember through all the lies and deceit. I couldn't forgive her. Not after what she had done.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. The sun was still hiding behind the clouds. It was now 8 in the morning. The funeral was to be held at ten. I turned back towards the hospital building. I figured I should go visit Abbey and see how she was doing.

I pushed open the door to where Abbey's room was. She was in a ward with several others that were injured. Caley was in a room by herself at the other side of the building. And yet, when she screamed, I could still hear her.

Abbey was propped up in bed. Her leg had been amputated. After the wall had fallen on her leg, she had a clean break that had ripped through her tendons and ligaments as well as her bone. The injury had become infected because the wall had been charred and burned. The doctors had no choice but to cut the leg off completely from the knee down. They were exploring options in re-growing her limb, but it was going to be a long and painful process. For now, she was rendered a cripple.

Abbey's face brightened up when she saw me walk into the ward. Lance was sitting by her bedside, his arm slung over his face, fast asleep.

"Hey," I said, pulling up a chair on the other side of her bed.

"Hey," she replied, a small smile on her lips. "How's it going?" she asked me. I shrugged. "Did you get any sleep last night?" she asked. I shook my head.

"I've barely slept at all these past few nights," I said.

"I think that's the same for everyone here. How is anyone supposed to sleep with Caley's screams?" she said sadly. "Have you been to see her, yet?" she asked. I dropped my gaze, but I could feel her eyes on me.

"No. I don't plan on it, either," I replied.

"Trey..." she began.

"I don't care what you say or what anyone says. I'm done with her. Forever," I said.

"She's your fiancee," Abbey said.

"Not anymore. She's dead to me," I replied. I narrowed my eyes and looked at her. "Why aren't you more mad at her? Look what she did to you!" I exclaimed. Abbey let out a long sigh and shook her head.

"I was mad at her. Especially when they told me they were going to cut off my leg. I was furious. But then...I don't know. She was the one that tried to get me help after I broke my leg. All of the hospitals were under Elijah's control, but she still made sure that I was safe," Abbey said. "She told me I was her best friend," she added in a small voice.

"Some best friend," I said gruffly.

"She never gave me an explanation as to why she did what she did. But she said she did it with the right intentions. I think we owe it to her to get her side of the story," Abbey told me. I shook my head.

"Whatever it may be, nothing justifies what she did. Nothing justifies her lying to us this whole time. I mean, do we even know who the real Caley is? The one we were friends with? How do we know that was the real Caley? She was so good at acting and telling lies. Maybe when she told you you were her best friend, she was just lying to get you off her back," I said. Abbey shook her head.

"I don't believe that. Caley was fighting for something and we should try to find out what it was," she said. "Trey, you have no idea how much she loved you. You should hear her out. You don't have to forgive her. But just get her side of the story," Abbey said.

I shook my head again and crossed my arms over my chest. I refused to accept that Abbey had a point.

"I'm going to go. I have to get ready for the funeral," I said. Abbey reached out a shaky hand and wrapped her fingers around my wrist.

"I'm really sorry about your father, Trey. Christopher was a really good man," she said. I pulled my hand away from her.

"And now he's dead because of my fiancee," I said, my tone bitter. Abbey frowned.

"I wish I could be there with you," she said.

"You're bed-ridden. It's completely fine," I said.

"I'll send Lance to you when he wakes up. He should attend," she said. I nodded and leaned forward, kissing the top of her head.

"Feel better," I told her.

"Doubt it," she muttered. I pursed my lips and turned away, walking out of the hospital ward.

After leaving Abbey, I went and found my mother and younger brother Cole. My mother was tying Cole's tie for him. Her hands were trembling so hard, though, that she couldn't get the loop right.

"Here, Mom. Let me do it," I said, moving her aside gently and crouching down in front of my brother.

"Why don't you just teach me?" Cole asked as I undid the knot that my mother had made.

"Maybe some other day, kid," I replied, finishing up the knot neatly. I stood and looked at my mother, who was wringing her hands together, her eyes wet, her nose red.

"I didn't think this day would come this soon," she said to me when I faced her.

"None of us did," I replied, my voice low.

"We were supposed to grow old together," she said, tears escaping her eyes. I sighed and pulled her into an embrace.

"We have to be strong for Cole," I whispered to her. She nodded and pulled away, wiping her eyes with the edge of an embroidered handkerchief.

"You're right. We have to be strong. We have to get through this," she said. I nodded, but as I stood there looking at my mother with her puffy eyes and my brother who was too young to deal with all of this, I couldn't help but feel like it was easier said than done. Getting through my father's death wasn't going to be easy. It was probably going to be the hardest thing we'd ever done. And yet, there was a small part of me that screamed that this was just going to be the beginning of all of my hardships because I still had Caley to deal with.

The funeral was nice. Or rather, as nice as it could have been given the circumstances. A lot of people showed up. It seemed like the entire army that fought with the Order that wasn't injured had showed up. I didn't even recognize the majority of the people. But the fact that so many people attended the funeral made my father's life seem more significant. That there was a possibility that my father had somehow helped or touched each one of those attendees made it seem like my father hadn't died for nothing. He had died fighting for a cause he believed in, for the greater good.

Michael Lucia delivered the eulogy which moved everyone to tears. I had been asked to make a speech, too, but I was afraid I would be too emotional or that I would get angry. I was extremely unstable after learning about Caley's betrayal and I was afraid that if I had gotten up there in front of all those people, I would have lost sight of what I was actually there for. I didn't want to ruin my father's memory, so I declined to give the eulogy.

After the ceremony, people came up to me and my family to offer their condolences. As nice as it was, it seemed like a lot of empty words. I wanted nothing more than to just go somewhere quiet and think. Ever since the war ended, I had constantly been surrounded by people. I needed time to myself to sort my thoughts out.

I took it as my cue to leave when my mother told me to take Cole back to the room we were staying in. People continued to mention the war and the curse that took out my father and Cole was getting to an age where he could understand things more. We couldn't have him asking questions, so I took him back and dropped him off in our room on campus. After making sure he was fine by himself, I took off to find a quiet place to sit and think. However, this proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated because Caley's screams could be heard everywhere on campus. I couldn't get away from them, no matter how hard I tried. If I wanted to be alone, I was going to have to leave the campus.

As I made my way out of the reconstructed dorm building I was staying in, I ran into Michael.

"Trey," he said, "I've been looking for you."

I smiled fakely.

"Have you, now?" I asked.

"You ran out of that funeral pretty quickly. I didn't get a chance to talk to you," he said.

"I had to get Cole out of there so he wouldn't suspect anything," I replied, digging my hands into the pockets of my black slacks.

"Ah, yes. That makes sense," he said, nodding. He reached out and clasped my shoulder. "Are you busy now? Come take a walk with me," he said. I wanted to tell him to shove off and that I didn't want to be around people, least of all the father of my ex-fiancee. But he was one of my mentors and he had delivered the eulogy for my father. The least I owed him was a few minutes of my attention.

Michael placed his free arm around my shoulder, steering me towards the forest. His other arm was in a sling. I had heard that Elijah had cursed the wound that had been in his arm so much so that it was irreversible. His right arm would forever be in a sling.

"Let's try to go somewhere a little more quiet," he suggested as another one of Caley's screams rang throughout the campus. We walked towards the forest where we used to have training. Although we could still hear Caley's screams, they sounded more faint after being blocked by the trees. We sat on two tree stumps in a clearing in the center of the forest. I tried to focus on the sounds of the birds and the nearby stream to block out the distant screams of Caley.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

"The one whose screams we're trying to avoid," he replied.

"I'm not really in the mood—" I began.

"She's your fiancee, Trey," he said.

"Not anymore. Not after what she did," I said.

"You haven't given her a chance to explain. She has a reason for everything that she did. You need to hear her out," he told me.

"That's what Abbey said. And again, I don't want to speak to her ever again," I replied stubbornly.

"What kind of love did you have where you would let a betrayal such as the one Caley committed come in between you two? Did the past 3 years together not mean anything to you?" he asked me.

"The past three years were rooted in a lie. Lies were the foundation of our relationship. I don't even know if the girl I fell in love with is the real Caley or if the real Caley was just someone that was a traitor to everyone who cared about her," I said.

"If you truly loved her, you wouldn't be doubting her like this," he said.

"Then maybe I don't truly love her. Maybe I never did," I said.

Michael looked at me sharply, his eyes narrowed. I knew I was being stubborn and that maybe Abbey and Michael might have had a point. But what they didn't understand was how much it hurt.

When I had seen Elijah attacking Michael, the only thing I was thinking about was trying to protect my future father-in-law because he would be the closest thing to a father that I'd have left. But when I had gotten there and had seen Caley at the scene of the crime on the opposing side, the only thing I had felt was pure sadness. And ever since then, I couldn't see past that hurt and anger.

I felt betrayed that the one girl I had ever truly loved turned out to be a liar and a traitor. I wasn't as upset at the fact that she had betrayed the army; I was more upset that she had betrayed me. She had consistently looked me straight in the eye and lied to me. When I had pretended to break up with her before I proposed to her, she had made this big ordeal about me not trusting her when the whole time, it was she who never trusted me. And the sting from that betrayal hurt too much to face.

"Trey, I understand that you're hurt and that you feel like you've been betrayed. I felt the same way when I found out about Caley's mother;s betrayal. But I saw past that and chose to forgive her because she was my wife and she was bearing my one and only child. You need to do the same. You need to find it within yourself to forgive her," Michael pleaded.

"The difference between your situation and mine's is that you had a child that was at risk. Caley and I aren't even married yet. Nothing between her and me is permanent," I said. Michael stood up and began pacing, running a hand over his tired face.

"You think that I forgave my wife because of Caley alone?!" he asked me incredulously. "While she may have been a huge factor in my decision to stand by her side, Caley was not the reason that I forgave my wife. I forgave her because I loved her and I trusted that whatever she had done, she had done for a good reason. I stood by her side and watched the poison slowly kill her like it's killing Caley right now and I couldn't do it. I couldn't let her die. Because I loved her," Michael told me.

"And how many times am I going to have to tell you that I don't love Caley!" I shouted, standing up as well.

"You foolish idiot! You are so blinded by your anger that you're allowing an innocent person to die!" he exclaimed.

"She's not innocent!" I shouted back at him. We stood facing each other breathing heavily, our fists clenched. We were both angry and frustrated and we were redirecting that anger towards each other, which was counterproductive to both our situations. He wanted me to forgive his daughter so that it would ease her pain a little bit. I wanted everyone to leave me alone and to get as far away from Trinity University as possible. But he couldn't get what he wanted if I got what I wanted and vice versa. So instead, we became angry at each other.

Michael was the first to back down. He shook his head and turned his back to me, holding his head in his hand.

"You're angry now and I can understand that. I'm only asking that you try to see past that anger because I know without a doubt that in the future, you will regret not doing anything sooner," Michael said. And without another word, he left me alone to my conflicted thoughts.

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A/N: Sorry I took longer than expected with this chapter. I got writer's block for a bit, but I think I figured it out last night. I really want to just finish this story. There are maybe 4-5 more chapters left. Even though it might not seem like it, the end IS near.

The next chapter will also be in Trey's POV, which is why I didn't put "End Trey's POV" at the end of this chapter.

Until next time...

XOXO