Love, Lies, and Other Ties

Chapter Forty-Eight

Carter's POV:

The minute we pulled up outside the house, the front door was thrown open and Liam was the first one out followed by Loki and then Christian. Kay had called Liam on the way back and briefly explained what had happened while I kept my panic attack at bay in the backseat. All I could do to keep myself calm is thinking about how safe I would be once I was back at the house.

Before I could even open the door and get out, Liam ripped it open and pulled me out to engulf me in hugs and kisses saying that he was thankful that I was okay. He asked me what had happened in detail and I reiterated every bit of detail that I could remember as he and the rest of the guys listened intently.

Liam ran his hands down his face in exasperation and Loki spoke, "How did they find out where you were? No one knows where this house is and why didn't he do worse than just threatened you? This doesn't make any sense."

"I'm guessing that this guy just happened to run across the girls while they were out and either followed them until they got her alone or just happened to see her going into the bathroom because if it was a planned threat, they probably would have done a lot worse," Bash said from the back. Where did he even come from?

"Wow, that makes me feel so much better," I said with a roll of my eyes, "can we just go and cuddle for a little bit, please, Liam?" I asked in a hushed tone only he could hear.

"Of course, baby." As we were walking inside, Bash gently grabbed my elbow to get my attention.

"Hey, Carter, could I talk to you for a minute?" I looked back to Liam who gave me a slight nod that I took to mean that I was going to be fine to talk to Bash without him even though I didn't fully trust him yet. I gave him a small nod and followed him to a small meeting room on the first floor of the house. We walked in and Bash pulled a chair out for me, which was surprising, then he sat in the chair across from me.

"First, I wanted to apologize to you," he said to me, catching me off guard.

"Umm, what exactly are you apologizing for?"

"For my behavior. It was inexcusable and I'm sorry," he said while looking at the table.

"Well, thank you," I went to get up but I just had to know why he was so horrible to me for so many years when I had done nothing to him. "Wait, I just have to know, why were you so horrible to me for so long? What did I do to you?"

"It's a long story but the short version is that I was jealous."

"Jealous of what? I had nothing compared to what you have."

"Oh but you did. At first, I was jealous that you had a loving mom and dad when I had no mom and a dad who would rather work than be home. Then, I was jealous because Liam wanted to hang out with you more than me. I finally started to be okay with everything while we were away from you, especially since dad married Amanda but then we decided to come back. When we did, you finally got the one thing that I had which was my dad. It was all very irrational and I'm finally seeing it now. I'm so sorry that I acted like a spoiled, entitled brat."

"I forgive you, Sebastian."

"How can you forgive me after everything I have ever done to you?" I asked and looked at me with nothing but pain and raw emotion in his eyes.

"You're my brother, Sebastian. We have to stick together in this world. One of these days, we will have to make a decision on which old folks home to send our parents to and we will have to be on the same team," I said with a slight smile.

"You're right," he smiled back at me. I went to walk out the door and he stopped me again by saying, "Oh and Carter? Please call me Bash."

I gave him a bright smile and decided it was time to go cuddle with Liam and watch disney movies to get my mind off of today.

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Liam's POV:

We just got done watching Tangled and Carter looked to be deep in thought and not even paying attention to the movie. She has gone through a lot the last few days and I can completely understand if her thoughts and emotions were going crazy.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked her when the credits started rolling.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine," She says.

"No, you're not. What's going on in that beautiful head of yours?"

"I'm just confused about why Trevor is after me and you. I mean, I never did anything but what he asked even though he treated me as a slave and it still wasn't enough. I know he's after your family because he's power hungry but it's been years. You would think he would have given up by now. It's just not making sense to me."

"Baby, the only reason he is after you is because you mean something to me. He thinks that if he gets you, that I will give up everything to get you back. He's right, of course. I would e give up everything in the world to get you back if you were gone but I'm not going to let that happen. I just got you back and I'm not risking the love of my life. I love you so much, Carter. I can't and will not lose you, baby."

"I love you so much, Liam."

With that we collapse in each other's arms and fell into a deep sleep.

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I wake up in the middle of the night to sounds downstairs. It sounded like someone was in the kitchen. I immediately went into high alert mode. With as many people that live in this house, it's not uncommon to hear someone in the kitchen late at night but this sounded like someone was trying their hardest to be sneaky.

I slowly slid my arm out from underneath Carter's head and made sure she didn't wake up before I reach over and grab my gun from the bedside table. I open my door quickly as to not let it creak and alert the person that someone else was up and to not wake Carter. I walked down the stairs and noticed that none of the lights are on in the kitchen which immediately raises suspicion.

Once I get to the kitchen, I see a figure standing in front of the open refrigerator door and notice that it's a woman but not one that I immediately recognize. I silently walk to the light switch and flip it on and am stunned into silence when I recognize who it is sneaking around my house.

"Mom?!"