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(T/W: Mentions of suicide, brief mentions of rape and abuse)

TJ Haxton was wanted for the murder of Hugh Richardson after shooting him in a duel. He was on the run for years before he finally died.

At least, that's how it happened in your universe. In this one, TJ never left the duel alive.

-

Angel looked into the casket, her face expressionless. TJ was dead. Gone. Killed in a duel, like Tommy, like Geoff. What had she done to deserve this?

She sat, holding TJ's baby blanket as they began to lower his casket into the ground. Suddenly, she stood.

She ran to her son's body, tears streaming down her face. "My baby! You can't bury my baby!" she screamed.

Oh, he was only 17. So, so young. She sobbed.

A man- Tommy's brother, Sam- put a hand on her shoulder, trying to pull her back. "Mrs. Haxton-"

"You can't take him from me! TJ, come back to Mama!" Angel shouted. She fell to her knees. "Please, come back..."

She was a woman ruined.

-

Claire screamed. How could the universe be so cruel? She'd lost her brother and the girl who was like a sister to her practically the same day. She punched a tree, blood dripping down her knuckles.

"Goddamnit," Claire whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "Damn you, TJ! I hate you! I hate you for that awful duel!"

She slid to the ground, her tears flowing freely.

-

Ruby's hair was in her eyes. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think.

TJ was dead. Her big brother, her protector, was gone. Shot in the head by a rapist, woman beater, and murderer.

She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't live in a world with a mother who didn't care, a dead father, and Elizabeth and TJ gone forever.

She knew what she had to do.

She stood on the stool and slipped the noose around her neck. It would be a quick and painless death.

At least, that's what she'd heard.

No. She didn't need to think about that. She shook the thoughts from her mind and took a deep breath.

This was it.

"Goodbye, world," Ruby whispered, stepping off the stool.

-

Paul sat in TJ's room. He'd always wanted that room. It was the biggest out of all the siblings'. But now TJ was dead. 

Sure, death was part of life. Everyone lived to die, right? So why did this hurt? Paul finally got the room he wanted. He was the only boy now, Angel's only son.

But why did it hurt so bad?

Because, he'd loved his brother, he guessed. However bad he'd wanted his room, he didn't want it like this.

-

Addi ran, her feet pounding on the ground as she bolted through the woods. She had to get away. She couldn't stay in that awful house a moment longer.

TJ, Elizabeth, and Ruby were dead. Angel was gone, drunk off her ass and who knows where. Claire was hitting everything that moved. And Paul, fucking Paul...

That brat was moving his things into TJ's room.

Addi stopped, panting hard. Goddamnit. Why had this happened? Was her family cursed?

Her grandpa Geoff had died in a duel. So had Granddad Alexander. Tommy was killed in a duel the year Addi was born. And now poor TJ.

He was only seventeen. He'd never drank, or run away, or fallen in love. And now he'd never get a chance to. He'd never get to do any of the things he wanted. He was six feet under, buried with his baby blanket.

Addi leaned against a tree. She was so fucking tired. She just wanted all this to be over.

She pulled her father's old fishing knife from her pocket and cut her hair. She couldn't bear looking at it anymore. All she could think about was the was Elizabeth used to braid it.

Her hands shook. When she was done, she tossed the knife in a river. She wanted no reminders of her old life.

That day, Adrienne Belle Haxton died.

And Susan Elizabeth Hamilton was born.