It was the last place she wanted to be.

But somehow, Kylie found herself sitting in the guest room in Libby's home.

After her mother had decided that Kylie had no place in their home anymore, Kylie's first thought had been to call Jess and Elijah. But could she have honestly allowed herself to go back there knowing that it had been the temptation that had led her to the predicament she was in now? The answer was a resounding no.

And so, with no real friends to rely on, and Libby's constant annoying text messages, she decided to finally take the woman up on her offer.

Although, when Kylie did finally call Libby back stating that she'd needed a place to stay for a couple of nights, Libby had half-thought the girl was joking until she actually eventually rocked up at her front door.

"Kylie..." Libby said aloud, as the girl waited at her doorstep, with two large bin bags placed behind her.

"Yeah, it's me. I can't believe I'm here either." Kylie sighed, exasperated. Of course, she knew she had no one to blame but herself for her foolish actions and of course, she was thankful to Libby for allowing her to stay over but the irony really was hysterical.

The woman she had loathed for years for stealing her father from her mother was the only one that was helping her today. And even now, as she stood staring at the blonde babe, she could see her own downfall clearly.

Kylie had become Libby; the woman she had hated all along.

"Come in, please!" Libby squeaked, clearly struggling to contain her excitement. "I'm so glad you finally came...even if in such dire circumstances."

From the corner of Kylie's eye, she spotted the three children. Three blondes, blue-eyed little dolls. One boy and two girls. She'd later learned their names and ages; Colby, Allegra and Genevieve aged fourteen, twelve and eleven respectively. They were spitting images of Libby, and nothing like their father – appearance wise at least. Kylie almost laughed internally, the children that dad had chosen to stay with and be an actual father to barely resembled him, whilst the children he'd chosen to leave had features that seemed to be copied and pasted from his face directly.

"I was so shocked to hear about what happened to Jaxon...it was so sudden, so premature. I can't even imagine what you and Valerie are going through right now, and I'm sure Valerie probably still doesn't want to see me but if I can help either of you in any way, like maybe help with meals or something...then...I'm happy to do so." Libby rambled awkwardly. It was evident that Libby was more than just slightly uncomfortable given her previous unsuccessful encounter with Kylie.

"Thank you. I really do mean it." Kylie replied kindly. She offered Libby a feeble smile, showing that she would be civil.

Libby returned a grin, tiny creases formed around the corners of her eyes showing her sincerity. She swayed, turning her gaze back to her children behind her and opening her mouth, in what Kylie assumed was her preparing to introduce her children but then she closed her mouth abruptly. "I guess I'll show you to the guest room, so you can unpack and go to bed...if you'd like?"

Kylie registered Libby's clear reluctance and briefly recalled her harsh words at her fathers' wake, she wondered if that was the reason behind the hesitance and felt a sense of regret wash over her, "are you not going to introduce me to my siblings first then?"

"Oh!" Libby exclaimed, distinctly caught off guard by Kylie's words, but a small flush of colour filled her cheeks, indicating she was both relieved and pleasantly surprised, "Oh, yes, of course, I will!"

And that's when Libby began showing her garrulous side. She provided Kylie with a long-winded explanation of her children's lives, all the way from their future aspirations to how many pounds they'd weighed when they'd been born. She stammered over some words as she spoke and Kylie wondered whether she was uncomfortable or whether the woman suffered from some kind of anxiety. But nonetheless, she was miles away from what Kylie had expected her father to marry, or what her mothers' perceptions of Libby had been.

Kylie laughed when laughing was appropriate and offered "aww's" and "aah's" to show she was intrigued by what Libby and her children were telling her. But it was all a fake show, despite everything that had happened, she still wasn't ready to forgive. Her tragic past was something she was sure she'd be taking to her grave with her.

Nearly a whole half an hour later, Kylie finally sat in the guest room alone, rummaging through the tattered bin bags that her mother had kindly thrown some clothes into.

At some point, she heard a rustling behind her bedroom door which had been left ajar by Libby earlier on, and she noticed the small pair of eyes peering through the tiny gap. Followed by a small child-like gasp and then the eyes disappeared.

"You can come in." Kylie sighed, slightly annoyed at the unwanted disturbance.

There was no movement at first, but a minute or so later, the youngest child Genevieve stepped into the room, a piece of pink paper placed in her hand.

"Is that for me?" Kylie cocked her head to the side when the child failed to answer.

Genevieve nodded coyly in response eventually, bending down to place the paper on the floor, a few centimetres in front of where Kylie sat before returning to stand beside the door. She tardily pushed a few strands of her dirty blonde waves behind her ear as she peered up at Kylie.

Two poorly drawn stick figures stared back at Kylie as she collected the paper. A drawing of what she assumed was a boy – with chestnut brown hair and stormy grey eyes holding the hands of a small blonde girl.

A drawing of Jax and Genevieve. On the top of the paper, scribbled in almost ineligible handwriting was written I miss our big brother.

Kylie was moved at the simple gesture and wondered how close Jax had actually been to the family. "Thank you, Genevieve." Kylie beamed up at the child.

"You can call me Gen. Everyone else calls me Gen." The child shrugged, her eyes glued to the ground as she spoke.

"Does anyone call you Evie? I think you look more like an Evie than a Gen."

Gen shook her head almost aggressively and opened her mouth to speak before her mothers' voice sounded from behind her.

"Gen, what are you doing? Go to bed and stop annoying Kylie." Libby murmured sternly at the child.

"No, it's really fine. She can stay if she wants."

"Actually, I'd like to speak to you alone, if that's okay with you?" Libby enquired.

"Oh, erm...sure?" Kylie replied, wondering when she'd get a moment to herself.

Gen waved at Kylie before leaving the room and Libby finally closed the door behind her. "Is everything okay with you...like at home?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"I mean...you being here is really nice, don't get me wrong... but it's weird and kinda sudden. Oh, and most people pack their clothes in suitcases, not bin bags." Libby added, smartly.

"My mum kicked me out of our home earlier today." Kylie allowed her eyelids to flutter closed as she was forced to remember the confrontation she'd faced earlier. She'd secretly been thankful to Libby, and then later Gen for the distraction but she knew sooner or later, she'd have to face the truth. Have to face Jess and finally tell her the truth about both her and Elijah as well as the fact that Pattie had been the one to cause her miscarriage.

"What?! Why would she do that?"

"Because I'm responsible for Jax's death," Kylie whispered in response. The last thing she wanted was to be reliving it all, especially with Libby but it seemed that she couldn't escape the truth anymore, wherever she went.

"Kylie, that's not true. Everyone who reads the bloody news knows it was Leon that was driving that car! You can't blame yourself for something that's quite obviously not your fault."

"My best friends' getting married in five days." Kylie let out a low pitched chuckle, realising how crazy the whole situation really was.

"Yeah...Jax mentioned Jess and Elijah a few times, but...what's that got to with anything?" Libby said slowly, caught off-guard by the sudden change in topic.

"What Jess doesn't know is that I've been fucking Elijah for the past five months and that my possessive ex-boyfriend knew about it, lost the plot and ended up running Jax over as a result." Kylie was numb as she finished summarising the events of her time in London to Libby. It was the kind of numbness she'd experienced when she'd been informed of her fathers' death. Like she'd lost the ability to care.

"Oh my god." Libby exclaimed, "oh my fucking god."

"I hated him so much that I became like him, and you."

Her words emitted self-loathing. The kind of self-hatred that first clung to Kylie's skin and then somehow managed to get under her skin, growing exponentially as it pumped itself through her veins, becoming an entire entity in its own right.

Libby saw it clearly, in the way that Kylie spoke, in her eyes. She was fighting her inner demons, and she was losing the fight. Or more accurately, she was giving up, allowing the self-loathing to win. "Kylie, I know you hate me and I understand that. I played a part in ruining your childhood and I will spend the rest of my life being sorry. But I'm not the villain you think I am. I was just a nineteen-year-old girl who made a bad choice and is having to live with that choice every single day. And I know, I know that you're not bad either. I don't think you have a single bad bone in your body. Because you haven't just lost your way, you've never known the proper way since you were a child."

And that's when Kylie began bawling her eyes out, and Libby held her close to her – offering her a mothers' love when no one else had.

Libby just hoped and prayed it would be enough.

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"Five days. Five days until we're husband and wife." Jess murmured into Elijah's chest as the two remained nestled in the bed together.

"I know. I can barely believe it." Elijah mumbled in return, his fingers intertwined in Jess's red locks. He wasn't entirely sure whether he himself meant it in a good way or not.

"I'm glad we cleared everything up. I really thought we weren't going to make it for a while." Jess replied, glancing up at Elijah.

"Yeah, me too. Hopefully, everything gets better from now onwards." Elijah wasn't really given a choice as to whether he would've told Jess or not due to Pattie. But now, as he laid beside his future wife, he thought this was the right choice, staying with Jess.

"It has to, doesn't it?" She grinned. "I was thinking...I want to try again. Us, getting married and then having a baby, the right way. Have you given it any thought?"

"I can't say I have. I mean, yeah I obviously do see a child or two in our future. It's a bit soon though, isn't it?" Elijah asked genuinely, he really didn't want Jess to run away with her ideas again and have to find out she was pregnant as soon as they'd got married. It'd be better if they waited at least a year or two.

"I don't know. I guess we can talk about it more after the wedding. Speaking of which, do you know what Abdul's planning for your stag night? There better not be any strippers, I don't want you straying the night before the wedding." Jess joked.

Elijah felt his stomach turn at the mere joke. He wondered if there'd always be reminders of Kylie and his actions wherever he turned. If even after he and Jess married, he'd still feel the pangs of guilt.

"Got no clue, honestly. Everyone's being dead cagey about what the plan is."

"Same with my hen party. Kylie's not messaged me in days, I know she's dealing with Jax's death and everything so I gave the hen party preparations to Lola instead but I hope she still turns up. Won't be the same without her." She turned in the bed, attempting to grab her phone located on the bedside table and proceeded to text Kylie for the first time in days.

"Oh well, whatever's planned. I hope it's a night to remember. And not like the engagement party." Jess hummed away to herself as she tapped a message out to Kylie. 

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Authors Note: So, this chapter is slightly overdue, but I've really been struggling with actually having the motivation to write recently. I know exactly how everything is going to pan out, it's more just getting it written that's proving a little difficult. I've also noticed that the number of people voting has plummeted quite a bit recently and unfortunately, I am one of those people who is more motivated when people are commenting and voting so with that in mind, I've decided to put Lethal Lust on hold for a while. Unless I suddenly have a burst of inspiration, the next update will probably be in about 2 weeks. I'm sorry to the few readers who message me eagerly asking when I'm going to update but I just want to make sure I'm putting out quality content and if I'm not feeling the motivation, it just won't be very good.

I've also recently started a new book called Brainwashed! If anyone would like to check that out and offer some feedback on it in the meantime, that'd mean the World to me! But only if you want <3

Anyway, what did we think of this chapter? I really wanted to show a slightly different side to Kylie here and I hope I did an okay job of showing that actually, she's not an unredeemable character.

And with the end nearing, what do we think of Jess? How do we think Jess will find out? And what are the futures of our three main characters? Please let me know what you think in the comments and please do vote! Love you all x