FULL CIRCLE

Justice and Penance

Lauren knew exactly what she was doing when she sent the men guarding her away, and she hoped her family would forgive her.

She knew what this day meant to her friends and family, and suspected that their minds would jump to Leah's protection, which she was grateful for. Leah always came first when it came to Lauren, her family and friends knew that, and of course would do the same. Leah was the most important thing in Lauren's life. Save Leah, save Lauren. They all knew that, which Lauren had counted on. She expected them to think the way they did because she knew how much they had worried for the teen with Brad lurking around.

But none of them could understand the pull she felt today, or what today truly meant for her. Except the one person that knew exactly what she had sacrificed and experienced that day.....

Brad.

Today was a day of remembrance. To miss what could have been for her, and relish what was for him. She knew he would come for her, don't ask her how she knew, but she did. Today was shared between them, forever tying them together in a way that made her ill, but she it was the will of fate. Who was she to fight it.

So she went to Demi's office after everyone had gone their separate ways. After the men guarding her had left, and the house was shrouded in a stillness that left a hard tension of foreboding that felt like it was choking her.

No. She wouldn't allow him to take her sanity. The one thing he would never get from her. She steeled herself for what lay ahead, with the iron will that she had always been known for.

She was no victim. At least she wouldn't be today.

Leaning back in Demi's office chair, her phone in front of her sitting on the desk, she knew the second he had entered the house. Having linked her phone to the home security system, she moved as though she had prepared for this day for the last fifteen years.

Because she had.

Since the day of Leah's birth she knew this day was a possibility. When she found out about Demi and the other girls resembling her had been attacked, she knew this was never about Leah. Sure he wanted her daughter, but he wasn't fantasizing about her the way he was about Lauren.

Lauren was his first, and knew he would always treasure that, yearn for it, try to copy it. But nothing ever was as decadent as the first thing that truly called to you was it? No, substitutes wouldn't be enough for Brad. He would need to recreate it with the original.

That was her.

She quickly set a timer on her phone, and knew she only had fifteen minutes before the home security rerouted itself to Dinah's phone, which gave her about twenty five minutes. Plenty of time to do what she needed to do. If this was the last sacrifice she had to make sure her daughter was truly safe, then it was one she was willing to pay. To die so her daughter could live...

Yes, she could do that.

But that doesn't mean she wasn't going to at least try to survive. She owed her daughter that at the very least. But she was going to make sure he never lived to see another day.

She positioned herself exactly where she needed to be and waited, listening to every creek on the hard wood floor, and knew the house she had grown to love in her late teens would never betray her.

She waited until she could almost hear him breathing next to her as he entered the office slowly, and the second he cleared the door, she struck.

Slamming the door that she had been hiding behind, she thrust the hammer that she had in a tight grip and struck his face hard enough to hear a sickening crack.