Pete sighed as he heard her words on the other side of the line, he had expected this, there was nothing that he could tell her, but he knew that she needed comfort right now.
"Slow down Lia, calm down and breathe" said Pete calmly as Lia nodded and took deep breaths.
"Peter, this is horrible, Natasha completely hates me, I feel so horrible right now, so terrible" said Lia as she sobbed.
"You need to calm down Lia" said Pete in worry.
"I can't Peter, I can't, Natasha hates me, she wants nothing to do with me, she thinks that I was never her friend, and it kills me on the inside" said Lia as she cried, she thought that she would feel relief, but right now, she just felt more pain, she felt as if it would have been better if she had said nothing and just kept things the way that they were.
"Lia, it's only expected that she reacts like that, what you did was nothing small at all, you caused her so much pain, and right now that's all she can think about" said Pete as he explained softly and Lia cried.
"I know, but you should have seen the hurt, the coldness in her eyes, her eyes were filled with betrayal and I caused that, I asked for her forgiveness, but I don't think that she will ever forgive me" said Lia.
"If she doesn't forgive me I don't see the point of going on in life, Natasha is my best friend and now she hates me" said Lia as she continued crying.
"Please calm down Lia, don't say that, Natasha will forgive you, she will, I know she will, but she just needs some time right now, you need to give her time to process this, and you need to give her some space" said Pete.
"Are you sure that she will forgive me?" asked Lia as she stopped crying and sniffed.
"I am certain Lia, I know Natasha, she won't hold onto a grudge for long, just give her time, and you were very sincere with her, you told her the truth, and that's all that counts" said Pete as Lia felt relieved, whenever she heard Pete's voice, she felt like all her worries and problems were carried away with the wind.
"Thank you Peter, thank you" said Lia as she sniffed.
"Don't cry Lia, everything will be alright" said Pete as Lia sniffed.
"And what about Dom? Have you told him yet?" asked Peter as Lia's eyes filled with horror.
"No, No I haven't" replied Lia.
"Lia, you know that you have to" said Pete.
"No! No I can't, I can't face him, I can't tell him, he's going to hate me forever" said Lia as she shook her head violently, her voice shaky with fear.
"Lia you know that you have to tell him eventually, you need to tell him, it's better if you do it now than later" said Pete.
"Peter, I can't I can't" said Lia in fear.
"No don't say that Lia, you can, you can, you are stronger than you know, you can do it, you can do the right thing" said Pete as Lia started to cry again, with what she had faced with telling Natasha, she was sure that she would face even worse with Dom, she just couldn't tell him.
"Peter please, please I can't do it, you have to understand, you do it, why don't you tell him for me?" asked Lia as she sniffed.
"I can't do that Lia, I wasn't the one who caused their problems, you did, and because of that you have to be the one to fix it, it's not my place to interfere in something like this" said Pete as Lia sniffed.
"But I can't do it, it's hard Peter" said Lia as she cried.
"You can do it Lia, believe in yourself you can, just do it and make sure that you close this ugly chapter in your life, do it for yourself, do it for your peace, do it because you want to do the right thing" said Pete as Lia rubbed her runny nose, she knew that he was right.
"You are right Peter..." said Lia as she sniffed and Pete smiled.
"And you can do it" said Pete as Lia sighed.
"I'll do it..." said Lia.
"And you won't regret this, they might punish you, but at least your conscience is clean" said Pete as Lia sighed.
"When are you coming back? I want to see you" said Lia as she wiped her tears.
"I should be back tomorrow, I'll see you then, but for now I have to get back to work, I love you, and be strong" said Pete as he smiled.
"I love you too Peter, thank you for everything..." said Lia as she smiled sadly and Pete ended the call as she put her phone down.
Lia looked in her rearview mirror, fixed her hair and wiped away her tears, sniffed once more and got her keys, started her car and drove away.
...
Dom was busy in his office when he heard a knock on his door as he answered that the person come in.
"Am I disturbing you?" asked Lia softly as she walked into his office and Dom looked up from his desk and smiled at her.
"No not at all Lia, you know that you are always welcome here, have a seat" replied Dom as he smiled and Lia sat down across him.
"Thank you Dom" said Lia as she smiled softly at him, her eyes were red and puffy, but she used some makeup to cover how horrible she looked right now.
"So what brings you here today? I haven't seen you in a while, you used to visit more often" said Dom as he chuckled.
"Yeah well... I've been busy lately... I actually came here to talk to you" said Lia as Dom noticed her red eyes.
"Lia your eyes are red, have you been crying? Is something wrong?" asked Dom in concern as he leaned forward and wiped away residue of her tears from her face.
Lia looked into his eyes, his ever caring eyes, he always cared about her, and everyone it was his nature, and yet, once she opened her mouth and told him the truth, he would stop caring for her, it hurt her so much to think of that certain possibility.
"Dom, I have something very important to tell you, and I only ask that you try to understand me" said Lia as she held his hand and he narrowed his eyes but nodded.
"Alright, what is it?" asked Dom as he leaned back into his seat as Lia took a deep breath before she opened her mouth to tell him everything that she had done from beginning to end.
At the end of her words Lia looked at Dom whose face had twisted into a mix of disbelief, hate and contempt.
"Dom you need to try to understand me" said Lia as Dom cut her off.
"Try to understand what Lia? That you are crazy??!" asked Dom as he couldn't believe this, he couldn't even believe that the things she said she did were coming out of her own mouth.
She had framed Natasha... all this time Natasha had been completely innocent while the true culprit was someone that they all did not expect at all, Dom felt stupid, angry at himself for letting this happen, for refusing to believe Natasha for so long.
"Of all the things you could have done Lia, you did the worst thing in the world!" said Dom as Lis started crying again.
"Are you out of your mind? You would do that to your friend... to your friends, and all because of what?? You claim to love me??! That isn't love Lia, that's madness, that selfishness, that's being inconsiderate to the feelings of others" said Dom as Lia cried, hearing her scold him.
"I know Dom, I know that now, and I'm sorry, very sorry" said Lia as she cried.
"Apparently not sorry enough, if you were sorry you wouldn't have done the things that you did" said Dom as he scoffed, he was an idiot.
"I would have never thought that it was you, you played on all our intelligence, you made a fool out of me, I was there, accusing and hating a poor innocent woman whose only crime was falling in love with an idiot like me that couldn't trust her words" said Dom as he sighed.
"I can't believe that you did this Lia, you are the most terrible person I know" said Dom as he stood up from his desk and grabbed his blazer as Lia remained crying.
"We are no longer friends Lia, not now, not ever, what you did is unforgivable" said Dom as Lia cried even more and he ignored her, Dom picked up his phone and dialed a number as his call was answered.
"Yes, I need you to come to my office right now, escort Miss Thomas out, from now on she is no longer allowed to enter this building" said Dom as he ended the call and Lia cried heavily.
"Dom, Dom, please don't do this, don't hate me, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry" said Lia as she looked at him and cried.
"Yes, I'm sorry too, I'm sorry for letting you get away with this for so long" said Dom as he scoffed and walked out of his office only to meet his secretary in front of his door.
"You called for me sir?" she asked.
"Yes, escort Miss Thomas out of here, give the order that she is no longer allowed to step into the premises, and I am not going to be returning to the office today" said Dom.
"Alright sir" said the secretary as Dom thanked her and left as she looked into Dom's office to see Lia crying as she was surprised, she didn't know what was going on here, and she quite frankly didn't want to know.
"Miss Thomas, I am sorry to bother you, but the boss said that I should escort you out" she said as she looked at Lia who looked at her.
"I know, it's alright, I will leave on my own" said Lia as she sniffed and rubbed her eyes, she got up and left his office.
...
"Michael, Michael, I need you to get a hold of Nine, I can't reach him, tell him not to take Joy home, he should take her to my parent's house" said Dom as he spoke with Michael on the phone.
"Alright, but why do you want her to go there all of a sudden?" asked Michael confusedly.
"Michael, Lia just confessed... she's the one who drugged me and Natasha... Natasha was innocent, always was and always has been" said Dom as he sighed and Michael's eyes went wide once he heard that.