Miranda could not believe the hatred that had come out of Brettly’s mouth right before she left.  All those times she had thought about sleeping with Thomas and never did because she loved Brettly too much and here he was yelling at her.  Wasn’t he the one who had said right before she left that he wouldn’t have blamed her for sleeping with Thomas?  She had already finished her first bottle of whiskey as she sat on the couch at the cabin.<br/><br/>All she could think about on the drive up to the cabin was everything that had transpired over the last 24 hours.  She had heard the bottle hit the double doors when she had closed them.  She was trying to remember all the times they had fought like this and she could not remember things getting this bad.  He had never hit her before, or thrown things at her.  He always said he didn’t want to be like his father and here he was being the spitting image of him.<br/><br/>Sitting in the cabin all alone she began to think things over.  Maybe she shouldn’t have survived the attack on her, it was all her fault.  If she would have been dressed Thomas would have never raped her.  Hell if Brettly would not have been an ass through the whole marriage she would have never liked Thomas to begin with.  Hell her whole life has become nothing but what ifs.  What if she took a few pain pills on top of the whiskey maybe she would go peacefully in her sleep and no one would miss her.  Miranda took out her bottle of Vicodin and looked at it for a few minutes and then took the lid off of it pouring a couple of pills in her hand and stared at them.  Miranda popped one pill in her mouth and opened the second bottle of whiskey and downed the pill.  She knew it wasn’t enough to kill her, but it would help her sleep away the pain for awhile.  The next thing Miranda knew was she passed out knocking over the rest of the whiskey and the bottle of pills all over the floor.<br/><br/>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br/><br/>Alfred had been standing in the library during the whole fight between Brettly and Miranda and he could not help but sigh just a little.  Alfred had always known that there were feelings between Thomas and Miranda, but he also knew that Miranda thought the world of Brettly even after everything that had happened between them.  After listening to Miranda’s comments to Brettly and both one sided phone conversations he knew something was up.  He had heard Brettly’s comment about the bruises and Alfred just shook his head.  Was the man not thinking straight?  A person does not get bruises like that from simple sex.  Alfred had seen Brettly’s mom one too many times after Brettly’s father had beaten and attacked her.<br/><br/>Alfred finally went over to where Brettly had let himself fall on to the floor and he went and got him up off the floor and had helped him into the parlor and mixed him up a cocktail to help get rid of the booze in his system.  Something he had learned a long time ago to make for Brettly’s father.  “Brettly, Sir you need to drink this so you will start thinking clearly.”  Alfred said as he basically shoved the drink down young Brettly’s throat.  “I cannot believe after everything Ms. Miranda has gone through that she did what you are accusing her of.”  Alfred commented.<br/><br/>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br/><br/>Thomas could tell that Brettly had a little more to drink than he did, but he honestly could not believe he was not standing up for his wife.  He honestly thought Miranda had cheated on him.  “As usually your being a complete ass.”  Thomas said through his own slurred words.  With that Thomas hung up the phone and then called a local cab to come and pick him up.  Thomas was on a death mission for himself, but he was not going to drive to do it.  He would take whatever beaten that Brettly would give to him.<br/><br/>By the time the cab had shown up Thomas has finished a couple of bottles of beer trying to build up his liquid courage.  Climbing into the cab he gave the driver the address to Brettly’s house and when the cab finally arrived he threw the man the money and went to the door.  He was sure they would not let him in, but Thomas had his own key and pass code so he let himself in, after pushing the buzzer to at least let them know someone was there.  Alfred had heard to buzzer and had come to the door to see whom it was only to discover it was Thomas.  “I sure hope you are here to come clean Mr. Thomas.  I am sure you are sorry for whatever it was that you did, but you need to fix them.  They need each other and we both know this.”  Alfred said, “He is in the library, hopefully getting sober.”  Alfred said and then walked away.<br/><br/>Thomas looked back at Alfred and understood all too well what he was saying and Thomas knew that Alfred was right he had to do this and he would deal with the consequences.  Walking into the library he found Brettly, and Brettly just glared at him.  “I told you I had nothing to say to you.”  Brettly yelled and then tipped his head back.  Thomas walked over to him and stood in front of him and just blurted it out.  “Miranda was trying to protect me, because I am your best friend, well was because what I did I don’t deserve your friendship anymore.”  Thomas said as he started to ramble.<br/><br/>“When I arrived to the cabin, she was only wearing a towel because of course she wasn’t expecting me.  She was drunk, fell and I went to help her and she lost her towel and I just ignited.   I kissed her, she kissed me, and then called me your name and I lost it and I RAPED HER!!”  Thomas said everything so fast, but made sure to add emphasis the end, but he was not sure everything that Brettly caught.