It was a warm afternoon on Thundercrest Lane. Sasha Cawson watched her three children, Lucas, Jason, and Holly playing in their backyard. She smiled warmly as she saw them furiously digging a hole in a patch of soil far away from their mother's garden. The last time they had dug there had not been pretty.

Jason looked up, his one blue eye twinkling with laughter. His other eye had been clawed at by a thorn on a bramble patch, gotten infected, and his eyelid had sealed up forever. Now, he was one-sidedly blind. She sighed in pity. My poor, little Jason, she thought. Then she glanced at Lucas, Jason's twin.

If you looked at them standing together, you would've never thought they were twins. In fact, they didn't even look like they'd be friends. Lucas was unusually muscular for a seven-year old and had a tendency to tackle his siblings in an almost cat-like way. He was very outgoing, as well and hated to stay at home for too long.

Jason was more of a homebody but more cheerful when his brother was serious. They were different in appearances, too; Jason had a messy fringe of faded brown, almost grey hair that flopped all over his face while Lucas had bright blonde hair that always stayed spiky and straight.

It's amazing how that boy can get his hair spiked yet not have himself look like some kind of punk rocker, Sasha thought with amusement as she remembered the way her father, Frank Hawthorne had worn his hair total punk-style when he was younger. One of her childhood memories was sitting in her father's lap in a chair with him pointing out the pictures of the younger him and Sandy, her mother in the photo album with her giggling.

She sighed as she remembered how her younger days had been, filled with laughter and happiness. Then I rejected Asher, she thought sadly, twisting her wedding ring to her husband, Brayer uncomfortably. She had been with Asher for a while, but she felt like they'd just be friends.

But then the poor man had gotten down on one knee to propose to her….. She suddenly had a flashback to what had happened.

Asher Fortner and Sasha Hawthorne were out on a walk along the moonlit street of Thundercrest Lane. Sasha had reluctantly agreed this time only to not hurt the lovesick man's feelings. Somehow, she knew that something was going to go wrong tonight.

As they walked together, Asher began to clench his hands nervously to his jean pocket as if he was feeling for something. "Did you leave your phone at your house?" Sasha asked in an amused tone. Asher laughed in an odd way, his cheeks flushing with red. "Oh, uh, yeah," he said quietly.

Sasha smiled at him but quickly turned her head to observe a potted moonflower in Parker Dane's yard. She laughed, shaking her head. "That old man will die someday from all his toxic flowers," she said. Asher chuckled with her, but didn't respond.

Halfway along the road, Asher suddenly stopped and began to kneel down almost as if he was tying his shoe. But Sasha recognized that pose and held a hand to her mouth in horror and sadness. "Sasha Hawthorne, will you marry me?" Asher said desperately, his eyes hopeful.

It took Sasha a moment to choke out the word, "No." She felt like there was something lodged in her throat. "No?" Asher repeated uncertainly. "No," she said again. "I can't marry you, Asher. Brayer Cawson is my fiancée."

After that, Asher never did repair or fix himself up. He never found love for so long even after Sasha and Brayer had Holly, Jason, and Lucas.

Brayer didn't hold anything against Asher for once loving his wife, but Asher obviously didn't. One day, he was found dead in a creek with blood around his head. The doctors said he had slipped and fractured his skull, but Sasha knew that without her in his life, he was miserable.

She turned to the children, watching them when she felt her heartbeat begin to drop. For some reason, Jason seemed to notice something strange and turned to Sasha. "Mom!" he called in a concerned voice. "Is something wrong?" Her shoulder and back began to ache and she suddenly began to feel nauseous.

Then just as sudden as the strange symptoms, Sasha dropped on the ground, her pulse beginning to race and she couldn't breathe. "Mommy!" Jason began to wail. Brayer burst into the courtyard and, being trained in medicine he began to look all over her body. His eyes widened. "She's having a heart attack," he breathed.

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At the hospital, the doctors rushed around frantically, trying to help the young woman. Holly watched in horror as they attached her to machines. "What are they doing to her, Dad?" she whispered, terrified of the nurses. "They're helping her," Brayer said tensely, not wanting to face his children if his wife died.

The horrid thought struck his mind completely as soon as he thought it. And then….it happened. Sasha lifted her head one more time and gazed at her sister, Leonna Hawthorne who worked at the hospital. She smiled a peaceful smile that made Brayer's heart melt.

Then, she turned to Brayer. "Brayer, Leonna is the mother of our chil-"She took a rasping breath to say the last syllable and then…..

"I'm sorry to inform you, but Sasha Cawson has suffered from a fatal heart attack."