Ashley's mouth just hung open as she stared at me in complete shock. It was a memory I didn't like to visit a whole long with good reason. I also remember when the police came to our house to deliver the news to my parents that my sister had died. They wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to tell them that Sally didn't take her own life and that someone else took it from her instead. But no one listened to me.

"My sister and I were doing our nightly routine of talking to each other before bed. She was trying to convince me to go visit her because she met someone she wanted me to meet. But I told her that our parents wouldn't let me visit because I was the child that was going to misbehave while on campus," I opened up, "I remember hearing the knock on her door in the background. Her telling me that it was the guy she met and maybe we could video chat so I could see his face. But it didn't turn out like that. Instead I heard my sister yelling and screaming while there were sounds of a struggle. Then a loud bang of a gun shot right before the phone call ended. I had screamed her name through that phone until my throat was sore."

"Did you tell your parents?" Ashley asked.

I nodded my head as a response, "They were away for my father's business dinner. I told them as soon as they walked through the door." Tears were freely falling from my eyes at this point, "But they didn't believe me. They just thought I was playing some sick joke on them. As if I would so something like that. They wouldn't even believe me after the police told them that my sister died by suicide."

At this point I just couldn't stop crying. Ashley didn't say anything as she wrapped her arms around me and held me in a comforting embrace. She was like a mother comforting their child. It was also so nice to finally talk about something that no one believed me about. She also didn't make any promises to get me answers on what had happened to my sister. It was something I appreciated the most.

After what felt like an hour of crying, I pulled away from Ashley and wiped the tears from my eyes. She even pulled a small package of facial tissue from her pocket to hand me. Earning a questioning look from me. "Ricky has a habit of interacting with things that he knows he has allergies with. Like cats, because he is just a bundle of love that loves all fluffy things," she answered. Making me laugh as I blew my nose.

"I missed you, Ash," I told her with a smile, "You seem to be the only one in this family not trying to make me do something I don't want to."

"Probably because I was the same way when I first joined the family. Upset and overwhelmed with how they ran things," she said. Looking at the city lights again. A smile playing on her lips while she spoke, "It's not easy being with Ricky. They expect certain things because of the traditions they go by. I didn't grow up in that world and neither did you. We grew up in a world were women can make their own choices and didn't need to be constantly protected.

"But you need to understand why they are always on guard," she was now looking at me, "The king, Ricky's dad, was killed by his own son while the queen jumped to her death after seeing what her sons were going to grow up to be. One naive and the other a murder."

"Can Donny change?" I heard myself ask.

Ashley shook her head, "I'm slowly starting to think that there is no chance for him. Ricky has tried many times, only to have it bite him in the ass later. Many people die when Ricky tries to save his brother and it is getting to the point that we just can't do it anymore."

"So why me? Why think that I can save everyone from this war between the two brothers?" I had to ask. I needed to understand.

Ashley looked back at the city lights, the look of uncertainty on her face. Then she got up from where we were sitting and held out her hand, "I can't explain it, but I know someone who can. I'll make sure the boys leave you alone on the way to the person I want you to meet."

I grabbed her hand and let her pull me up. Ashley was the only person I felt like I could trust in this new life of mine. She was the one familiar face from back home besides Jack. We then walked together through my room and out into the hallway. David was sitting in the hallway and stood up as soon as he saw us. Ashley held up her free hand and shook her head. Then lead me to the elevator and didn't say a word until the doors closed behind us and we were on our way to the floor that she had selected.

"It was about time you meet Nana," Ashley said as she stood in the middle of the elevator, watching the numbers count down.

"Nana?" I didn't mean to say it, but it came out anyways.

Ashley looked at me with a proud look on her face, "Nana is the oldest Seadonna to live. You can say that she is one of the first to be born into this world."

Just hearing about someone being around that was old enough to be one of the first Seadonna's amazed me. It also told me exactly how little I knew about this family and their history. I know they mentioned that they knew very little about Gene V and where it originated from. It was more believable when the only source they had was a walking corpse.