Chapter 1

Charlotte Watsford and Sophie Benjamin

Ever since the incident at Mako Island she had been thinking about what happened and realised she was getting a little out if control. All of that power in the hands of one person was too much. She also knew she had to try to find some way to make up for what she did but knowing Rikki's impulsive nature she wasn't likely to get near them. A few years later she heard of eight deaths, six of which were Cleo, Rikki and Emma and their husbands leaving thei daughters orphans. Charlotte thought in order to make up for what she did she could take care of their daughters. She found and adopted Coral McCartney and Eloise Dove with great ease. She moved back to the Gold Coast and became a beautician and between this and caring for two toddlers she hardly had enough time to search for a suitable father or the last daughter. Finally she got some time off work and she started to look into what had happened to Roxie Bennett. She found out that Roxie was in the custody of Sophie Benjamin along with Sophie's niece, Bevin Benjamin.

She knew that Sophie lived on the Gold Coast too and was in charge of Rikki's café until Roxie was old enough. She'd heard from a few people who worked for or at least had worked for Sophie, she was stubborn and a control freak plus she didn't just ask for perfection, she demanded it. Charlotte thought maybe once she explained the situation to Sophie she'd listen to reason and comply with her taking care of Roxie. She found Sophie's phone number and called her to set up a meeting so they could sit down and talk. Over the phone Sophie seemed just like a perfectly normal reasonable person Charlotte was about to learn that reasonable wouldn't be a preferred word to describe Sophie but maniac might be.

On a beautiful Saturday morning Charlotte took Coral and Eloise to a day care centre where she took them when she had to go to work. She arrived at Sophie's house and she thought that with such a sensible looking house Sophie must be quite a sensible person. She knocked the door and a woman with red hair which was much redder than her own opened the door and said "hello, you must be Charlotte. I'm Sophie, please come in."

Once sitted inside Sophie poured her a cup a tea and asked "so on the phone you said that you wished to talk to me about something, so what is it you wanted to talk about".

Charlotte smiled perfect manners, perfect house and said "I'll be brief; I hear you're taking care of Roxie Bennett. I knew her mother and I'm inclined to take care of her". She decided to leave out that Roxie's mother hated her deeply.

"I see," Sophie said taking a sip of her tea and continued "well I can tell you now that's never going to happen. You say you knew her mother well so did I but it was her father who put me in charge of her upbringing if anything should happen to him or Rikki. He also put me in charge of Rikkis cafe on the condition that when Roxie came of age either fifteen or sixteen it would get handed over to her. So I think Roxie will be staying with me".

Charlotte smile faded and replied "you don't understand I have to take care of her. I'm already taking care of Coral and Eloise".

"and they are ..."?

"Coral McCartney and Eloise Dove". Sophie still looked confused "Cleo and Emma's daughters ... The Cleo and Emma who were Rikki's best friends".

"Cleo I know, but Emma, her I've never heard of."

"That's not possible, to me they always seemed like three peas in a pod. They did everything together".

"I think you mean Bella, my sister-in-law. She was Rikki and Cleo's best friend. They only time those three weren't together was when Bella was wooing my brother".

"I know who I'm talking about I never met anyone named Bella. Even if I had mixed her up with this Bella girl, Emma wasn't the type to woo, trust me." She started fishing in her pocket and pulled out a picture of her, Cleo, Rikki and Emma that was taken right after the volley ball game. "Look that's me, Cleo, Rikki and Emma".

Sophie looked at it and then showed her a picture of Cleo, Rikki and Bella. Charlotte couldn't believe it Cleo and Rikki were the truest friends you could find but here on was photographic proof that Cleo and Rikki had replaced their best friend Emma with a new friend Bella along with their lockets. Sophie began to tell Charlotte about Bella "She was a singer in Rikki's Cafe. She was good at singing and quite pretty but that was the extent of her abilities. I wouldn't have called her the brightest star in the sky. I'm still trying to figure out how little miss hydrophobic convinced my brother not to become world champion at free diving when he just set a new free diving record. " The more Charlotte heard the more she was confused. Bella sounded like the exact opposite of Emma. Emma had been an, intelligent, athletic, healthy, over-achiever.

Charlotte said "alright, when I met Cleo and Rikki their best friend was Emma. When you met them it was Bella but I didn't come here to talk about that. I need to take care of little Roxie the last time I was with her mother and her friends I did something very wrong to them. I regret it now so I plan to make up for my misdeed by caring for the children of the ones I did wrong to".

"Your problem is none of my concern, Roxie however is. Now you already confessed you did something wrong last time you were with her mother. How can I possibly give Roxie away to someone who did wrong to her mother?"

"I told you what I did because I thought you'd recognize remorse in yourself. I know Sophie what happened, I like you tried stealing someone else's boyfriend and I tried keeping Lewis away from Cleo like you tried keeping your brother away from Bella but I never once tried to vandalise the moon cave of Mako Island. To certain people that place is a sanctuary, a sanctuary you destroyed".

"I admit I was ambitious but ambition is a good thing it helps you make the most of an opportunity. At the time I was thinking if I had enough I could...help Will".

Charlotte laughed lightly "oh please you did it for yourself. If you were thinking of Will you would've wanted his happiness from the start and not objected to his relationship with Bella but the fear of losing him forever outweighed your greed".

Sophie got quite nevous from Charlottes extensive knowledge and said "how exactly did you know"?

"The world is full of magic, sometimes using certain magic in a place full of magic you can find exactly what you're looking for" with that Charlottes mouth turned into a smile.

Sophie was scared she was so used to holding all the cards but now someone else was, it made her feel like a scared little girl. Charlotte continued "I understand Zane made you Roxie's guardian and I need to look after her if only to make up for my past damage. That's why I propose a compromise; the six of us live together as a family. That way you can still be her guardian and I can keep an eye on her as well as little Coral and Eloise." Sophie thought about it and decided that it was probably the best idea so she agreed given how much Charlotte knew about her.

In a few weeks Charlotte, Coral and Eloise went to live with Sophie. Usually Bevin and Roxie didn't get along at all with strangers so it surprised Sophie to see how well they got along with Coral and Eloise. It didn't surprise Charlotte at all, she'd already seen each of them had a lot of their mothers in them so it was only natural they would be fast friends just as their mothers had been.