I'm Back. New year, new story. Well it's one I've had the idea for, for about a yeah and a half and slowly started planning. It's darker than my other stories but I hope you love it just as much.

The style of it will be a little different as well. I know in the past, in odd chapters i've had song lyrics and i've seen other people do it as well. Each chapter of this story will have either song lyrics or quotes. There will also be several flashbacks. If the first few chapters, which yay i actually already have written out, seem like they're moving a little fast, it's for that reason. A lot of Cassie's past will be revealed in either flashbacks or conversations with other characters later on.

Lastly, often people ask what my OC'S look like. Cassie is portrayed by the beautiful actress/model Olympia Valance.

I'm now going to shut up and let you read the first chapter. Enjoy my lovelies :)

2nd April, 2007

Malibu, California

"The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

She was nearly there. A few more meters and she would be at the front door and she had gotten really good at opening it without making any noise. Just like she had gotten really good at jumping the gate. If her family somehow lost their fortune, she could have a pretty good career as a burglar. Career criminal could be fun. Plus she knew all the tricks on getting past security gates, where the rich hid certain valuables and she was getting good at picking locks. But once she was in the house, then came the hard part; she had to get to her bedroom, which was normally easy when she was sneaking back in at 3am. Tonight though, she'd completely lost track of time. Well, she had passed out at the party and it was after four when she woke up. Now it was five am and she had to get to her room before her dad was up, which could be at any moment. Samuel Montgomery-Greene had always been an early riser, which was never good when you were often sneaking back in from parties or your boyfriend's or just hanging out with friends that your parents didn't approve of. But even after nights out with his wife he would still be up early. Cassie knew her parent's had been at some event last night, but she knew that wouldn't stop her dad from being up early. It never did.

Up until that morning, Cassandra Montgomery-Greene, though she often did, couldn't complain about her life. Her first seventeen years on earth had been better than most peoples. When you came from a multi-millionaire family life tended to be good. Her mom, Alice Montgomery had been born into money, a lot of money. Her family owned 6 luxury, 5* hotels in the US; The Rosewood, located in New York, California, Chicago, Texas, Boston and Las Vegas. The type of hotels that ranged from $500 to $10,000 a night, attracting a lot of rich people. While she had an older brother, Henry, she would be the one inheriting the family business. Henry was somewhat the black sheep of the family; always in trouble or blowing his trust fund on business ventures that never worked out. Henry liked the lavish lifestyle but never actually liked doing the work and there was only so much verbal abuse Charles and Victoria could take before cutting him off financially. Charles didn't want everything he and his father before him had built up to go to waste when he was gone. Alice had always been the sensible one and the one who really took an interest in the family business. When she was younger, she loved vising the hotels with her dad. To her, there was something magical about the buildings.

When she was 21, the business was internationally expanded, setting up a Rosewood hotel in London. While on a business trip with her father, Alice fell in love with London and extended her visa while her father went back to California. He had agreed to let her oversee the rest of the project. It was in London she first met 23 year old Samuel Greene, born in Preston, he was working in London. His father's building company working near the hotel. It was the classic Hollywood story; the daughter from a rich family falls in love with the working class man. And boy did they fall in love.

Alice moved to London permanently, the hotel's manager, Terry Willis, training her up to one day take over as the manager of the hotel. Four years after meeting, she and Sam married, two years after that Cassandra Grace Montgomery-Greene was born, followed three years later by Alexis Erin Montgomery-Greene. Together, Alice and Sam built up the family business further. The family expanded into publishing, taking over a small publishing company; Next Generation Publishing, Sam running the office in London, building it up.

While there was many trips to the US over the years to visit Charles and Victoria Montgomery, who enjoyed spending time with their granddaughters. Alice and Sam made the decision to move there permanently when Charles' health started failing, taking over the business from there. The girls, 13 and 10 at the time, despite missing their friends, loved it there, especially the Malibu weather. And no one could complain about the 9 bedroom mansion, equipped with two pools, a fully equipped home gym, a media room, a library and a tennis court. As well as a guesthouse which the four servants lived in. For Cassie, America had one more thing that she loved; a wider wrestling presence than in the UK. It was something she shared with her dad, a love of wrestling. Ever since she had first watched it with him when she was a little girl.

While Cassie lived a charmed and luxurious life, there was somewhat of a wild streak in her. Something Alice always said she got from her dad. She was always chasing the next adventure, she was independent and despite her family's money, their business', she had her own dreams. Her wild streak had seen her getting her nose pierced at fifteen, something Alice had been anything but thrilled about. It saw her planning all the tattoos she wanted when she turned eighteen, and it that had started to cause some arguments. Especially when she started seeing an older guy and was sneaking around at all hours, coming home smelling of alcohol. While she had always been closest to her dad, not even he could get through to Cassie that she needed to be careful. He had been young once and he had plenty of experience of underage drinking and looking for the next adventure. But he could also see that Cassie's boyfriend was no good for her, he was reckless and Sam had a feeling it was than alcohol he was consuming at parties. But Cassie ignored all the warnings her parents gave her, thinking she knew best.

Everything changed that morning, however, as the first orange hued rays of the sun bounced across the mountain tops and building of Malibu, carrying the light of a new day. The worse day of Cassie and Alex's life. Cassie wished it was her dad standing there by the staircase, the look he always had on his face when he caught her sneaking in, telling her that she had her SATs coming up and she needed to concentrate on them instead of being out all night. But no, it was Maria, the family's housekeeper, nanny, cook-"fairy godmother" as Sam called her, stood there with a sad look on her face.

"I know, I know, I'm in big trouble if dad catches me. I fell asleep," Cassie lied. "Anyway, you're up super early. Dad's always the first one up. Don't tell me for once in his life, he's actually having a lie in?"

"Cassie, sweetheart, come into the living room for a minute."

"Please don't tell me my parents put you up to giving me some awkward speech about staying out all night."

"Just come sit down with me, Cass."

Cassie didn't like where this was going. There was something about Maria's voice. It was off, it wasn't her usual cheery tone, nor was it the tone she took when she was disappointed.

"What, what is it? What's happened?"

"There was a crash-"

"No."

"Cassie, your parents were involved in a car crash on their way home from Tom and Miranda's party. Your dad-"

"No. Nope. Don't say it. Dad's like the safest driver ever. Whoever said they were in the crash made a mistake," Cassie said defiantly.

"Cassie, there's not been a mistake," Maria replied sadly. "Your mom's in hospital. Your dad…" Maria didn't know how to say it. She could hardly believe it herself. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart, he didn't make it."

Cassie was shaking her head. "No. No. You're lying. Why are you lying?"

Maria wrapped her arms around Cassie, gently stroking her hair. Her own heart breaking at Cassie's gut wrenching sobs. "I'm so sorry."

Maria had worked for Sam and Alice for fifteen years, the whole family was practically family to her. After their first housekeeper had left to have her own child when Cassie was two, they had hired Maria as the new live in housekeeper. Unable to have children herself, Maria had doted on Cassie and Alex over the years. When they had moved to Malibu, they hadn't planned on taking Maria with them; they didn't know how she would feel about leaving the UK. Instead they had offered her a generous severance pay. But with no family herself and having become somewhat attached to the whole family, she had told them she was happy to go with them if they still wanted her as a housekeeper and could help with sorting out her visa. She was somewhat like their own Alfred Pennyworth, more than the help, but a friend to the family. And she was about to become so much more to Cassie and Alex.

Stepping out of Maria's embrace, Cassie let the tears fall. "You said mom was in the hospital…"

"She's in ICU. We were waiting for you to come back before we told Alex. Jack and I can take you to the hospital." Maria knew Jack, the gardener and Jack of all trades around the house was ready to take the girls whenever they were ready. He had worked for the family since they moved to the US and he had become good friends with Sam.

"I-I'll tell Alex."

"Cassie."

"It should come from me." Cassie wiped the tears from her face. "It has to be me."

Seeing the confused look on her sister's face, wondering why she had been woken up so early on a Saturday, Cassie didn't know how she was going to do this as she sat on her sister's bed.

"Are you drunk again?" Alex asked confused. "This isn't your room."

"Alex, I need to tell you something and you're not going to like it. We've got to go to the hospital. Mom and dad….mom and dad had an accident, mom's in hospital and dad…d-d-dad didn't make it."

Cassie hated herself. She hated being the one breaking her sister's heart in that moment. The look on her sister's face would haunt her forever. Alex said nothing, she just let out this distressing, awful howl, fighting her sister as Cassie tried to hold her.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Cassie wasn't sure why she was apologising. She didn't know what to say. This was what people said when someone died, right? That was what everyone had said when her grandad had died. I'm sorry. Like it was their fault, like they had done something. But it was rarely anyone's fault. It was the circle of life. Life and death. Some people's time just came too quickly. Like her dad's, he was too young. He should have had years ahead of him. He was supposed to grow old with Alice, watch Cassie and Alex grow up, play with his grandkids. He wasn't supposed to die in a car crash at forty four. And Cassie wasn't supposed to be telling her fourteen year old sister that their dad was dead and their mom in hospital.

Cassie didn't even feel like she was in her own body as they walked down the hospital corridor to the room Alice was in. Seeing her mom hooked up to all the machines, it was like she was dreaming. Her mom was so pale and there was something not right about the machine that was breathing for her, the way it made her chest rise and fall. It was like uncanny valley, something was off, it wasn't quite right. All this because of a drunk driver.

"Brain damage…machine breathing for her…if she regains consciousness." That was what the doctor had said.

Cassie needed some air, she couldn't stand to be in the room; she felt like she couldn't breathe properly. She had to get out of there.

Walking down the corridor from the room, she saw a middle aged man with a cut on his head, he looked frazzled as he talked to the nurse.

"Crash…It was a couple… It all happened so quickly…I never normally go that fast…need to know how they are…"

Cassie stopped where she was, looking up at the man as she caught part of what he was telling the nurse, the nurse with a hand on his arm. She knew, she just knew it was him.

"It was you," Cassie blinked back tears. "You were in the other car, weren't you? You're the reason my dad is dead and a machine is currently breathing for my mum."

"I-I'm so sorry. I never meant-"

"You never meant what? To kill my dad, to put my mom in hospital? YOU KILLED MY DAD AND ALL YOU GET IS A SCRATCH," Cassie screamed. She didn't even know whose arms were around her, holding her back. Restraining her as the nurse led the man away.

It was 3.17 that afternoon that Cassie had to make the heart breaking decision to turn her mom's life support off. Part of her had known the moment she had set foot in the hospital room that her mom was gone. It was a machine breathing for her, her brain wasn't showing signs of activity. The doctor's had told Cassie that the chances of her mom waking up were very slim and if she did, she'd be in a vegetative state. As much as it hurt her, Cassie knew it was time. Her mom was gone. Both her parents were gone. Dead. April 2nd was the worst day of her life, the day she watched her world fall apart and there was nothing she could do about it.

She wasn't even aware of walking out of the room, standing just outside the room she slid down the wall until she was on the floor, her cheeks wet from tears. All she could hear was Alex's hysterical crying, Maria hugging her tightly. Everything changed that day.

There it is, the first chapter. Hope you liked it, let me know what you thought :)