Joy was in her room, curled up in a ball, she was worried and tired, really tired, and she felt really scared now, the arguments of her dad and Lia had been enflamed she could hear them literally screaming and shouting, but she still could not make out what they were arguing about.
Joy didn't really care, not at long as Lia did not harm her dad in anyway.
"Oh where is uncle Pete, what is taking him so long??" asked Joy in worry as she felt like crying, this was horrible, everything was horrible, why was this happening to her and her family, it was unfair, this whole thing was unfair.
...
"*Ugh* That trip was way too long for my liking" said Charlie as he groaned and stretched and opened the car door as soon as Michael parked the car in the driveway.
"I agree with you, but we had to go over to the port, no one else would have been able to handle the situation except us" replied Michael as he stopped the car and removed the key from the ignition while Nine removed his seatbelt as he was the one sitting in the passenger's seat.
"Next time we should send someone, what's the point of us stressing ourselves if we have several employees present to do their jobs" said Charlie as he groaned, everywhere was aching him extremely.
"I agree, what's the point of paying people if we can't trust them enough to do their job?" asked Nine as he got out of the car and Michael did the same.
"You are right Nine, but the both of you stop complaining, you weren't the one driving I was" said Michael as he stretched and Charlie scoffed rubbing his aching back.
...
"No!! No shut up, don't say that Dom, I love you!!" said Lia as her eyes filled with tears, she had been holding her emotions in for so long, and his words had forced them out.
Yes she knew she said that she didn't care, but it was too hard not to care, she loved Dom, she had always loved him ever since they were children, and she thought that he had loved her too, and he did, but never in the way she wanted.
"No you don't Lia, stop saying that, you don't love me, you hate me in fact, you hate me enough to cause me indescribable pain" said Dom as he shook his head and Lia began to cry.
"No don't say that, I don't hate you, everything I did, I did for you to finally love me Dom, please understand" said Lia as she pleaded with him, all her prior strength had left her, she was just tried, depressed, alone.
"I can never understand your definition of love Lia, I don't see any love, all I see is selfishness and hate, hate for yourself and everyone else" said Dom as he needed to tell her the truth, she needed to hear it from him and everyone else.
"You are so selfish that you killed your friend, you are so selfish that you don't care how I feel, all you care about is no one but yourself" said Dom.
"You are so selfish that you are prepared to shed more innocent blood just to have your way" said Dom strongly as Lia cried.
"No stop it Dom! Stop it!" said Lia as she could not take this harsh reprimanding from him, she just couldn't.
"I've been listening to you speak all night, now it's my turn" said Dom.
"No one ever compared you to Natasha, you did, you did that on your own, you were the one who decided to let your negative emotions get the better of you and grow into something else entirely" said Dom as Lia cried.
"You were the one who compared you two together, you were the one who nurtured hate for her" said Dom.
"You caused yourself to turn out like this, you and no one else, only you, because you were to shallow, too vague and insecure to be happy with yourself" said Dom as Lia sobbed, she shook her head, she couldn't take this anymore.
"No, no, stop it, stop saying such words, stop it" said Lia as she covered her ears with her hands and she shook her head, crying bitterly.
"Look at yourself Lia, you turned into this monster, you turned into this unstable woman, you turned into a murderer because of yourself" said Dom as Lia couldn't take it anymore, she screamed and pointed the gun at him, releasing her finger on the trigger as the gun shot with a loud bang!.
...
Joy got off her bed in fear when she heard the loud gunshot from downstairs, she could only fear the worst as her eyes went wide.
"No!" she screamed, her eyes filling with tears as she rushed to her door, unlocked it and ran down the stairs, already starting to cry.
...
"What do you think we should eat for dinner tonight, I could go for cra..." said Charlie as he was cut off by the sound of a loud gunshot coming from inside the house that caused both he, Nine and Michael to drop down on the ground to take cover instantly in the driveway.
"What the hell was that??!" asked Michael as he got up as soon as he realized that the sound didn't come from out here but in there.
"A gunshot, coming from inside" said Nine as he stood up.
"What the hell, let's go, maybe something dangerous happened!?" said Charlie as he got up and wasted no time as the three of them rushed into the house.
As soon as they opened the door and rushed in they happened to meet the crying Joy who just got down the stairs.
"Joy, what's wrong, why are you crying?" asked Michael in immediate concern as soon as he saw Joy.
"Uncle Michael... Aunt Lia... she, she has a gun I saw her, and she was pointing it at my daddy" said Joy as due to her crying Michael was barely able to make out what she was saying, but he had heard enough to know that something very serious was going on here.
Michael glanced at Nine and Charlie, they did not even need to communicate verbally for them to know what they needed to do, Nine and Charlie rushed on to Dom's office while Michael tried to calm Joy down.
"Calm down Joy, it's alright everything is alright" said Michael as he coaxed her and she shook her head.
"No, stop lying to me, nothing is alright Uncle, nothing" said Joy as she cried, shaking her head as she ran past Michael, she knew he wanted to keep her away and lie to her, and she wouldn't let him do that at all.
"Joy" called Michael as Joy ignored him and ran to Dom's office as he followed after her, if Lia had truly shot that gun, then he didn't want her seeing anything horrific.
...
Dom breathed a sigh of relief as he managed to dodge the bullet since Lia's hands were shaking, instead of the bullet hitting him, he moved away and Lia shot the gun, causing the bullet to go through his desk causing it to be damaged.
Dom quickly took advantage of Lia's distress as he rushed to her, took the gun removed the bullets from it and threw the gun across the room.
Once Dom took the gun away from her Lia broke down sobbing heavily as her legs gave out and she fell down to the ground crying in despair, her heart was heavy, she was tired, she just felt like dying right now, she was hopeless.
Dom looked at her, having nothing to say to her... what could he say? Nothing, he had said more than enough.
In the same moment as Lia was crying and Dom sighing in relief, Charlie and Nine burst through the doors, expecting to see something horrifying, but to their relief, they were only met with the scene of Lia crying and Dom standing over her, the gun thrown across the room.
"What happened?" asked Nine as Dom looked at him and sighed, not knowing where to start.
"A lot...I need you to watch over Lia, make sure she doesn't get away, and Charlie, call the police" said Dom as he sighed and both Nine and Charlie wasted no time at all as he brought out his phone to call the police.
"This is the police, everyone put your hands up" said Pete as he suddenly rushed into the room, his gun in hand as he looked at the scene, making a vivid image in his mind as Charlie didn't bother calling the police anymore.
"What happened here?" asked Pete as he put away his gun as soon as he saw there was no threat anywhere.
"She... she needs to be arrested, she committed a crime... several crimes" said Dom as that was all he could say, he did not want to say any more right now, here was neither the place or the time.
Pete noticing Dom's hesitancy to say more, didn't bother asking any more questions, he brought out his handcuffs and he raised up the crying Lia and cuffed her hands.
"You are under arrest" he said as judging by how everything looked, he had gotten here in just the nick of time.
"Daddy!!" called Joy her eyes filled with tears as she rushed into the room and as soon as Dom saw her and heard her voice, he could not help himself, he started to cry.
"My princess" said Dom as Joy rushed to him and gave him a tight hug as Dom bent down to her level and hugged her.
"Daddy, I was so worried, are you okay?" asked Joy as she cried and Michael walked into the room, he could only hold her back for so long.
"I'm fine princess, I'm fine, everything is fine" said Dom as he smiled and caressed her hair, he could feel her trembling, he knew that she had been scared, and he also knew that she was the only one who could have called Pete over here.
"Daddy, I'm sca..." said Joy as Dom shushed her and hugged her tighter as she cried.
"Don't be princess, don't be, we are both safe, no one will ever tear us apart, everything is fine, everything is fine" said Dom as he was assuring the both of them while holding back his tears as Joy nodded and sniffed.
"It's alright princess, it's alright" said Dom as he kissed her forehead gently and hugged her tightly.
No one would ever separate them, no one, he might have lost her mother, but he would never lose her, never.