Max looks at me stunned. "You want to tell him?"

I give a small nod. "I have to. He deserves to know."

"I..." He shakes his head. "I can be the one to tell him. You can go do something to distract yourself while I..."

"No." I say cutting him off. "I think this needs to come from me." I say, and when Max opens his mouth to speak I quickly continue. "You're not really in a place with him where you can have this conversation with Dominic. And I know he's not exactly going to take it well, but he's softer on me. If you tell him and he realises what you left me with when you left to move here, how do you think he's going to react?"

Max's Adams apple bobs as he swallows. "I regret that every day, Ellie. I wish I had have gotten you out of there sooner."

"I know." I reassure him. "I don't blame you. You did what you had to do to survive and I'm doing the same thing now too, I moved here to survive. But Dominic won't see it like that, you and I both know it. He will only see it as you leaving me behind, which is why I need to be the one to tell him. I can get him to calm down and accept it for what it is."

Max seems hesitant as his eyes scan my face. "I suppose you're right. He would kill me and blast me to smithereens if I was the one to tell him." He agrees with me. His hands cover one of mine and squeezes lightly. "I'll just be right in the other room if you need anything though, ok?"

I nod, leaning to rest my head on Max's shoulder for a minute. "Thank you." I tell him quietly.

Max and I stand from the sofa and walk back to the kitchen together. 

Dominic and Pops are now sitting at the breakfast bar together eating pancakes, they're completely silent. The silence in the room is almost an awkward one, as if they prefer not to be talking to each other.

"Dominic." I say quietly, in a soft tone.

His head snaps up from his plate and turns around to look me dead in the eye, his burning green eyes boring straight into me. His gaze flickers over to Max as he walks over to the counter to put some breakfast onto a plate of his own. As Dominic's eyes return to mine I can see the worry encasing them. "Ell."

"Can we go talk in the other room?" I asked him with as much confidence as I could. I had to hide my hands behind my back so he didn't see how much they were shaking. I'm petrified to do this, to tell Dominic this.

Dominic nods slowly. He rises from his bar stool and walks over to me. His eyes are glued to mine as if he's afraid I'm going to leave. Dominic looks scared, this is a new emotion to see on him.

I give him a small smile as he reaches me. I lead him into the living room where I take the seat I'd previously been in when I was in here with Max.

Dominic is hovering near the door, hesitant to come any further into the room. "Ell." He says quietly.

"Come sit down." I tell him.

He shakes his head. "I'm not sure that I want to." He tells me truthfully.

"Why is that?" I ask him softly and mildly confused. Surely he had to know this was coming, he was the one who said we needed to have this talk did he not? So why was he now so scared and hesitant that the time has come for this talk?

Dominic's eyes are stuck to mine and I can now see the panic flowing through them. "I..." He shakes his head. I've never seen Dominic looking vulnerable, it's breaking my heart. "He's forced you to change your mind about me." 

"Ohhh. No, Dominic. No, no, no." I stand quickly from the sofa and walk over to him. I take his face in my hands, stepping up on my tip toes to get closer to his eye level. "Honey, Max didn't change my mind about anything." I tell him softly. "I still want this, I still want you."

"You do?" I nod and I can see the relief flood through his face. He bends down and wraps his arms around me, holding me firmly against him as he stands back up straight so that my feet are no longer touching the ground. "Thank fuck." He whispers in my ear.

I giggle into his neck as I wrap my arms around his shoulders. "Why would you think that I would change my mind so easily?" I ask him, running my fingers from one hand through his hair.

Dominic groans into my neck. "Because he knows me, a different me. I thought maybe he'd told you something that you didn't like and it had changed your mind about me."

"No, honey." I whisper to him. "I haven't changed my mind, and Max didn't tell me anything like that." I reassure Dominic. "I talked to Max, I got him to understand that this is real for both you and I, and that it's going to be happening whether he likes it or not."

Dominic pulls his head out of my neck and pulls away enough only so that he can look at my face. "And he's just all good with that?"

I laugh lightly. "Probably not. You may not want to do anything to throw him over the edge for the next little while. But he'll be fine. You were right, he will come around. He's my brother and he only wants me to be happy. And I am happy with you, so when he can see that for himself I'm sure he'll feel better about all of this."

One of Dominic hands comes to cup the back of my neck where the bottom of my head is, holding me in place as his lips descend on mine. His lips attack mine feverishly and passionately. I can feel relief and warmth rolling off him. Dominic is the first to pull out of the kiss, he lowers me back down to my feet gently. He presses his forehead to mine and his hands rest firmly on my waist. "Then what did you want to talk about princess?"

"Last night." I say quietly. "About who that man was and why he showed up." I gulp. I can feel my hands trembling lightly at my sides again.

Dominic nods and leads me back over to the sofa, we sit down next to each other and he takes my shaky hands in his when he encases them within his big strong ones. Dominic makes me feel safe when he does this, he will never know how much small gestures like this make me feel so safe with him. "Who was he?" Dominic prompts me softly after we'd been sitting together in complete silence for several minutes.

My eyes search his, though I'm not quite sure what for, before I drop them to focus on my hands wrapped in his. "My Dad."