- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:

Thank you everyone for the reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I hope I continue to write a good one!

Marcus and the girls showed up as they were moving AJ to a private room.

 “How is he?” Leigh asked her husband.

 “In rough shape. We decided to have another family meeting.”

 “I hope it’s about rehab.”

 Once AJ was settled, everyone piled in so that they could talk to him.

 “We love you AJ but this is the last straw. You need to go back to rehab.” Kevin demanded. “Seeing you like this is killing all of us.”

 “Really? I thought it was just killing me!”

 “Please AJ.” Leighanne pleaded. “You have to do something. You have to listen to someone.”

 “Yeah and not Kat.” Nick added.

 “Excuse me?” Kristen asked.

 “Kat’s back.” Nick responded.

 “What the hell is she doing here?” Leigh asked loudly.

 “He called her.” AJ yelled pointing his finger at Ray. Everyone turned to look at him and he held up his hands.

 “Why on earth would you do that!? Hasn’t she hurt him enough?” Kristen yelled.

 Denise begged everyone to calm down. Nothing was going to get resolved until this whole mess was straightened out.

 Ray sighed and sat down. He thought about what he was going to say and he decided that it was time to break his promise.

“You guys don’t understand what’s really going on and I think it’s time I told the truth.”

------------

 Kat checked into her room and collapsed onto the bed. She dialed Brenda’s number with shaky hands.

 “Hey, how’s it going out there?”

 Kat burst into tears and told Brenda the entire story. When she was done, there was complete silence on the other line.

 “I shouldn’t have come out here.”

 Brenda felt awful that she had pushed her too but she really thought it would help.

 “Are you at least going to stay the weekend and try to talk to him?”

 “No.” Kat said firmly. “I’m checking into flights and I’m on the first one out in the morning.”

 Brenda knew there was no changing her mind this time.

 -----------------

 “The truth?” Denise asked.

 “The truth.” Ray replied. He looked at AJ and just started talking. “Kat didn’t leave you for the reasons she wrote in the letter.”

 “Oh great, she had better ones!” AJ said harshly.

 “She thought they were AJ. She didn’t want any of you getting hurt.”

 “What reasons?” Kevin asked.

 “The night AJ and Nick left she got a visitor.”

“Who?”

 “Michelle.”

 “What?” Nick yelled. “What did she want?”

 “She told Kat that she had one week to decide if she was going to continue to see you or not.”

 “So she decided to just walk away because Michelle asked her to?” AJ asked stunned.

 “She didn’t really ask. She told her.”

 “What could she have said that would make Kat think that is was the best idea?” asked Leigh.

 “She was trying to avoid all of you getting hurt.”

 “All of us?” said Brian.

 “Yeah. Michelle showed Kat some pictures of her all beat up.”

 “Kat was beat up?” AJ screamed.

 “No.” Ray said shaking his head. “It was pictures of Michelle with bruises and a black eye. She told Kat that if she didn’t break up with you that she would release the pictures to the media and claim that you beat her while she was pregnant.”

 Everyone was stunned.

 “That’s not the worst.”

 “There’s more?” Denise asked with tears in her eyes.

 “She also told her that if she told AJ or any of you about this, she would release some digital recordings.”

 “Of what?”

 “She played Kat some remixed conversations between all of you that would have sounded, to the public any way, like you all knew about the alleged abuse and that you didn’t care enough to stop it. In fact, it made it seem like you guys were saying it was her fault.” Ray paused for a minute to let it sink in. “I wanted her to tell someone but she was petrified that Michelle meant what she said. Kat didn’t want anything lies coming out in the press that could not only hurt all of you but would cause huge legal problems for AJ.”

 “She should have told us!” Nick said.

 “She wasn’t going to take the chance the Michelle was sick enough to do it. And honestly, from her behavior the other night, I wouldn’t put it past her.”

 Ray stared AJ in the eyes. “She truly loves you J. She was trying to protect you, protect all of you. Hurting you was not what she wanted to do but she couldn’t bear the pain you all could have been caused.”

 “What about all the pain she did cause?” AJ asked quietly. “She should have told us and let us deal with it.”

 “She knew how much it would hurt you but she thought that you would move on with Michelle and Ryan and forget her. She said that the pain of losing her would subside but all the pain that could have been caused could have ripped everyone apart and she couldn’t bring herself to do it.”

 Denise knew what Ray was saying was the truth. When AJ showed her the note Kat had written, it didn’t make any sense to her. Kat had spent most of her relationship with AJ trying to convince her that she wouldn’t hurt her son. They had many conversations about it and it seemed wrong that all of a sudden, Kat’s feelings had changed and she was willing to break AJ’s heart.

 Everyone looked at AJ who seemed to have sunken farther into the bed.  Everything that had happened over the last year and half was drowning him and he knew, at that moment, if he didn’t do something soon, he wasn’t going to be alive to do anything.

 “I’ll go to rehab.” he said quietly. “I’ll go tomorrow.”