Author's Note: I began writing this story ages ago, forgot about it, remembered it and decided to change it into a BTR fan fiction. Normally I would not write with Kendall being a main character, as I find it hard to write about him, however for this story he was the one that best fit the bill. So I hope you like this story, I will be uploading more chapters as soon as I have the available time.

This chapter and the entire story will contain flashbacks, but this chapter more so as for the story you need the background. This chapter is more of a prologue, as I said before to give the back story. I hope you like it. R&R!

Also, in this story Katie will be 18, Eva will be 19 and Kendall will be 20. BTR has not happened in this story, however in future chapters it will be included, but James, Carlos and Logan will still be included in this story.

Eva pulled her thin, worn cardigan around her shivering body. It was the only warm piece of clothing she had left. Glancing at the clock it was already 11 p.m. He would be home soon, she knew. The bruises around her face from the last time he came home were still purple and shining, but she knew there were just more to be added. She heard the door slam and the sound of a slap hitting flesh. She ran out of the room, as much as she despised her mother for allowing their lives to get to this, her mother was all she had left.

"I'm going to beat you this time Evie!"

"Not on your life, Kenny. I'm gonna win this!"

That was how their Wednesday afternoon was always spent, the only day when they weren't together as a trio. As Katie left for her tennis lesson the two would walk down to the park with Kendall's old football. The three had been best friends for years, they mothers having known each other since they were little. Eva was almost a year older than Katie, but Katie was still in the same class, while Kendall was a year older than Eva. Though, they all were as thick as thieves.

Just as Eva was about to kick the football through the trees they had decided many moons ago were goalposts Kendall grabbed her around the waist and tackled her to the ground. They sat there, Eva on top of Kendall's 15 year old chest, laughing until they finally needed to stop for air.

Neither of them knew the mess they were going to face when they arrived home.

"You have no right telling me what to do Jennifer! It is my life, my decision and she is MY daughter!"

Kendall and Eva could hear their mothers screaming at each other inside the house from Kendall's driveway. They gave each other a worried glance before going inside. Eva followed closely behind Kendall as they walked in to the kitchen to see both their mother's fighting.

"It maybe your decision, but it doesn't just affect you! Do you think moving in with that man is a good choice at this moment; it's barely been a year! She spends more time here than she does around you, she is still so upset and you think making her move hours away from friends and family to live with a man she has never met is a good idea? Do you even notice how you not being there makes her feel? Ever since Patrick was killed you have distanced yourself from her! You don't even notice when she isn't home, because she is here crying! You don't notice because you're too busy trying to forget. You don't notice how she has never gotten in a car once with you since that day! You don't know how many times she has ran over here in the middle of the night and I have found her crying in Kendall's arms because she doesn't want to be alone when you're out all night with him! John and I have practically become her parents," Kendall's mother retorted.

Kendall turned to Eva and saw tears in her eyes, he wrapped his arms around her afraid she would fall to pieces.

At that point both women noticed their children in the room. Eva's mother grabbed her bag and walked towards the door, grabbing Eva out of Kendall's grasp and pulling her with her. Eva glanced back and saw the hurt expressions of both Jennifer and Kendall.

That was to be the last time she would see the Knights. Her mother dragged her to her car and forced her inside. Eva sat gripping the door handle the entire ride. She had no idea where they were going, just that it was extremely far away and that she was utterly terrified. They pulled into the long ride-around driveway and stopped outside a mansion-like house in Washington. There was a tall stern man standing at the front door with arms crossed. He looked to be around 45with greying hair and a hard face.

Eva sat still gripping the door and chair unable to move as she watched her mother get out of the car and walk over and kiss the man.

Her mother had been, I guess what you could call, dating Nathan Dunstan for about 6 months or there about. He was a politician who lived in Washington. You may have thought that would mean he was a good man, but he was a self-centred, greedy, violent pig. Mandy started going with him 3 months after Eva's father, Patrick died. Eva had met Nathan once, and that one time was enough to know she never wanted to be near that vile man. After that she had taken to be at the Knight's whenever they were around, or out for that matter. To Eva, the Knight residence was her home now, because her house felt anything but.

Grabbing her bag out of the car, she walked inside following her mother and him. They pointed her in the direction of what was to be her room and walked to what she assumed would be theirs, and from the sounds being emitted down the hall 10 minutes later she knew it was definitely their room. She stood in the middle of the room, for such a large house the room was so small and bare. There was a single bed in the middle, a desk and bookshelf. All in all the room was about 3 metres by 3 metres.

She sat down on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest, she had never felt so alone.

The weeks passed, and she had not talked to any of the Knights since she had moved to Washington. Nathan had taken away her phone, she wasn't allowed to use the computer or use the home phone. None of which her mother objected to, all her mother wanted to do was please Nathan it seemed. She didn't even care about her own daughter or her emotional wellbeing. It was 2 months since she had moved in when they allowed her to write a letter for the Knights and that Nathan would post it on his way to work.

Eva sat at her desk, with a blank sheet of paper. She couldn't get anything into words. She wanted them to come rescue her, to take her home.

She gave Nathan the letter that night and he said he would post it as Eva turned to go to bed. Once she was gone from his office he opened the letter and read it. Both Mandy and he had agreed she should be allowed no contact with the Knights, but with the way she was acting they had come up with a fool proof plan. How could she want to go to them if they hated her?

Writing his own letter based extremely loosely on Eva's he slipped it into the envelope with an evil smirk.

When Eva got a letter addressed to her she was over the moon, even more so when she saw it was from Kendall. Opening it, the smile faded and the tears came at what she was reading.

"Eva,

It's nice of you to finally write to us. We were worried, but seeing how wonderful your life seams I guess we were just wasting our time. We're glad you have new friends and like school there so much better. A new girl moved into your old house and has joined me and Katie. We go down to the park every Wednesday. We're best friends now, it's like I have known her for years. I'm hanging out with James, Carlos and Logan more these days. They got me into hockey, it's so much better to actually play than what we used to do in the winter.

Everyone at home is fine, Lisa, the new girl is friends with Katie and in the same class. They do everything together now. Mum and Dad are good. Nothing's really changed.

Hope everything stays is as good for you as it is for me,

Kendall"

Eva's heart broke with every sentence. What was he talking about, how wonderful everything had seemed? In that letter all she had said was how she wanted to go home, to be with them, how much she missed them. That she hated Washington, that her mother didn't care about her, that she had no friends, that she was all alone.

She sank to the floor of her bedroom and cried, re-reading the letter. Katie and Kendall had replaced her, they didn't need her.

Eva wrote a few more letters, each time receiving as cold a reply from Kendall as the first. It was the second last letter she got from Kendall that hit her hard. His father had died. He had a heart attack one night and Kendall's mother had found him dead on the floor of his study. Kendall had said that the funeral was on Saturday.

She had begged her mother and Nathan to go to Minnesota for the funeral. They had refused point blank. They said it cost too much money. It was then that Nathan started to continuously tell Eva how lucky she was that he let her stay with them, and that it cost so much to keep her.

Eva wrote back immediately telling Kendall she was so sorry, but her mother and Nathan would not let her go to the funeral.

The next letter that came was the last letter that she ever received from Kendall.

"Have a good life Eva, obviously you never wanted, needed or loved us. You hurt not only me but my family. I can't forgive you.

Do not write again, because we don't need you, want you or love you anymore.

Goodbye, Kendall"

Eva slowly began to hate Kendall Knight as the weeks turned into months. She had no idea what he couldn't forgive her for. He may as well have hit her in the stomach with his words. They were the people who had become family to her when her own mother wasn't. She had torn the necklace Kendall gave her for her 13th birthday off her wrist. She had put it along with every other thing she had received from the Knights' in a small box and put it in the bottom of her wardrobe. To be forgotten.

She reached the living room and he was there beer bottle in hand, on top of her mother, hitting her, slapping her, slugging the beer bottle across her face. Eva could see the blood pouring out of her mother's nose, and busted lip.

She ran over and tried to pull him off her. No one deserved to be treated like that. He stood up to his full height and turned to face Eva. She shrank back in fear, glancing at her mother, who was trying to drag her body off the floor.

"What have I told you about staying in your place, you little bitch," he snarled.

Eva tried to back away but he was too quick, he grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her closer to him. He lifted his arm, the one that held the beer bottle and slugged it across her face; she could hear the crunch as it impacted with her nose and broke it. At least it was better than her mother getting the entirety of the beating. After all it was mostly Eva's fault, she had taken the money without asking her mother and her mother was the one getting punished.

Bringing her back to reality, she winced as her back collided with the corner of the coffee table, before her body slid to the floor, only to have him kick her entire body into submission. Her body was screaming in pain, but she did not make a sound, for fear that the beating would only intensify

She could see the headlights coming straight towards them.

"No Dad! No!"

Eva sat up, breathing heavy. She wiped her eyes to try and get rid of the images; however no matter how hard she tried there was nothing in the world that could make her forget that night.

She had been at a birthday party. A girl that lived in her street was supposed to take her home, but left without her, so Eva called her dad. She loved her dad, they were really close. They were only 5 minutes from home though when her life would be changed forever. She saw the lights first, they had been laughing and joking and the next they were hit. The truck rammed them driver side on. She came out of unconsciousness and saw her dad, lifeless beside her. She knew he was gone. She knew it was her fault.

Eva had not forgiven herself for that night. If only she hadn't gone to the party or caught a ride home with Kendall instead, things would be different, she wouldn't be in the situation she was in now, her mother wouldn't blame her for what happened and act like she didn't exist and she wouldn't be forced to live with a man that physically abused her.

Nathan and her mother had a fight one night, he went out and got drunk, her mother stayed home and got drunk. Needless to say when he came home and she was the first one he saw things were never going to end well. Eva remembers it vividly, Nathan yelling at her that she was a mistake, a waste of space, cost too much to keep, was worthless, useless, disgusting, ruining everything. At first she refused to believe it, but as the beatings became more frequent he began to manipulate her mind, made her think it was her fault. Her mother dealt with it to, but refused to leave him. She would rather be unhappy with him and suffer the consequences when she had 'done something wrong' than be alone. So her mother married him, as if it would be a way to make him stop. If only, it made it worse.

Things took a turn for the worst one night. Nathan came home drunk, nothing unusual though. Eva was in the kitchen and the minute she saw his face she knew she was in for it tonight. He had lost his job, and blamed it on her, why she didn't know but he did. He beat her bloodied, and then carried her up to her room. Slipping in and out of consciousness he ripped her clothes off, Eva too weak to stop him. She gasped in pain as he rammed into her, tears streaming down her face as he finished, pulled his pants up and left the room as if nothing had happened. That was the first night he had sexually abused her, but it most certainly was not the last. She was just 16 and her step-father had forced her virginity and for the first time in a year she thought of Kendall. Where was her knight in shining armour when she did need him?

Eva was about to turn 18 when they moved back to Minnesota. Nathan had lost his house, after he lost his job he couldn't get another one, and then went on to spend the money he did have on alcohol. She stayed at home all day, if he found out she went out she would get punished for being bad. If she spent any money she knew the consequences. She had not seen Katie, Kendall or Jennifer since moving back, nor did she want to. She hated them, for leaving her, for not saving her, but more than that she didn't know how to face them. Kendall had said he never wanted to speak to her again, that she was basically dead to him.

Sitting in the same room that she couldn't even call hers she trembled. This house was not her home; these people could not be called her family. How had her life gotten to this? She had no one to turn to, no one left. How was she ever going to escape?

He smashed the bottle against the ground, resulting in the top of the bottle breaking away jagged from the bottom. He pointed it at her and hit her with it; she could feel the blood seeping into her ripped shirt, running down her bruised arms. But then he was off her, she could see her mother wrestling with him. Mandy yelled at her daughter to run, but Eva stood there in shock. Pulling away from her husband, Mandy pushed Eva out the door, telling her to find somewhere safe, not to come back and that she was so sorry and loved her so much.

Eva ran, and ran and ran. She had no place in mind to go; she just needed to get away. Her mother had done that one thing that showed to Eva her mother was still in there, she had saved her. Her thin clothes got soaked as rain started to pour down. She had no phone, no money, nothing. She turned into the familiar street subconsciously.

She finally took in her surroundings and stood, unable to move past the gate of the house. It had been 5 years since she had seen the house. They mightn't even live here anymore, crossed her mind as she opened the gate. She knocked on the door before she could stop herself.

Hearing a knock at the door, Jennifer Knight groans, she was about to hop into bed. Who on earth would be at the door at this hour? Katie was out, but she knew where the spare key was and besides it wasn't late enough for her to be home yet, and Kendall was in his room. She unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. She couldn't help the slight gasp that came out of her mouth.

"Eva?"

Author's Note: So I hope you guys like the premise of the story. The next chapters will be more present day, the characters dealing with the situations they have faced and coming to terms with their struggles. Please review and let me know what you think.