Disclaimer: I am not V.C. Andrews or Andrew Neiderman. I don't own any of her/his/their characters but I do own these characters and this story. Please do not steal my ideas. Also please leave a review so that I can see how you are enjoying the story! Thanks!

Prologue

I still remember that night, five years ago when I was just turning ten. It was very hot outside and although it was very late all of the children were still outside playing with their friends, it was summer after all.

I had been sitting on the front steps of my best friend Rosalyn Walkers house when mother called me inside. Before mother called me Rosalyn and I had been discussing what we would name our children someday. I had always been jealous of Rosalyn's parents because they had named her something original and interesting while my parents had named me Megan…just like 7 other girls in my classes parents had named them. Rosalyn on the other hand was the only person with her name in all of Oak Mill, Georgia, and she was always coming up with beautiful and exotic names for her children. I believe at that time her favorite name was Savannah…we had taken a day long trip there a couple weeks before and Rosalyn had fallen in love with the beautiful scenery. My favorite name on the other hand had been Marissa, which was unusual but not nearly as amazing as Savannah.

My mother had called me in to help her put my baby sister, Sarah, to bed and I of course had jumped at the chance, after all Sarah was the sweetest little 9 month year old in the world.

After Sarah was fast asleep my mother sat me down and broke the news to me, the news that would change everything. Mother told me that hot humid night that she was dying from cancer. Dying, my mother who always seemed so strong! I didn't believe her, not then anyway. I remember running to my room yelling that she should never tell me such lies again and collapsing on my bed.

Two months later I held a squirming baby Sarah as my family said out goodbyes to my mother before they lowered the casket. I didn't cry then, my papa had told me to try to be strong because if I cried then all of the other children would begin to cry too. He told me to save my tears for when I was alone in my room at home, or with Rosalyn. So as I stood there watching the men lower my mother's body in the grave I was able to pull off only a hollow feeling. My mother had been my best friend…closer than even Rosalyn, and now she had left me. I remember my little three year old brother, Christopher, asking me that night when momma was going to come home, because he was tired of all those casseroles, he wanted momma's macaroni and cheese. I answered him, saying that mother was in her home already her home way up in heaven with Jesus and that I would fix him some of her macaroni and cheese tomorrow, but that night I began thinking, who was going to take care of me and my five little brothers and sisters? I would do as much as possible but I had school and papa had to work. I didn't know then what I know now or I would have quit school immediately to care for my siblings.

A/N: so what did you think? That was just my prologue, I'll try to write more soon. Please leave reviews…telling me what I can do and am doing to make my stories great, or just telling me what you though thanks!