For those of you who haven't read my first story Freedom, I highly suggest you do that or else this one won't really make sense. Anyway here is the first chapter and I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter One:

Tobias

I look everywhere for Vivian, but she is nowhere to be found. Dawson is sent to help me, which I need because I don't know this place as well as he does. I try to figure out where she could be based off of what I know of her, which isn't a lot. All I know is that Vivian wouldn't stay in place; she would run until there was nowhere left to run to. I don't understand why she ran. I was hit with the same news she was and I stayed still.

"Vivian!" I yell. No answer. "Where do you think she can be?" I ask Dawson.

Dawson shrugs. "Honestly, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. She could be anywhere. She won't get very far, though. All the guards are on alert to find her."

"That helps," I say,

"You shouldn't get too mad with her for running. She was just told that her whole life was a lie." Dawson tells me.

"I was just told the same thing."

"Yeah, but it's sort of different. You just learned that you and your family aren't who you thought you were. Vivian was just told that she isn't even related to the man she called her father. You just thought you were a different person, but you still had your family, no matter how messed up they are. Vivian is completely on her own and is scared."

"She has me." I tell him.

"That may be true, but she might not see it right away." Dawson rubs his forehead. "Just give her some time to adjust to all of this. She hasn't lived the same kind of life as you. She is still learning what it is like to live."

We continue looking, but now we keep a silence between us. I know it's unfair to be mad at Vivian, but I just feel like running from all of this was an act of cowardice and I was trained to be brave. It is my nature to frown upon those who show how scared they are. Vivian was one of the bravest women I knew, so watching her show fear angered me instead of making me feel sorry for her.


About an hour into my search, once Dawson and I split up to look, I find Vivian sitting on a windowsill high up near a staircase. I can already tell that it was one hell of a climb. I take the stairs two at a time until I'm next to her. Vivian has taken out the braid that she wore earlier today and lets her dark brown hair shield her like a curtain. I can just barely see her face, which I hadn't really noticed how similar to mine it was until now. She wears a vacant expression on her face which I have learned meant that she was so far lost into her head that nothing could bring her back.

But I wasn't going to wait for her. "Vivian," I call out sternly.

At first I don't think she had heard me, but then she turns her head and looks at me for a long moment. "If I saw this coming, then why was I so damn unprepared?" she asks me.

"What does it matter? It's in the past, move on from it." I snap at her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asks me, her blue eyes shattered and lost.

"What do you mean? What the hell is wrong with you Vivian? You're scared of finding out who you really are. I mean, who does that?" my voice is getting louder.

Vivian swings her feet around so they're dangling off the edge of the windowsill. "I am not scared." She tells me, her voice strong and sure. "I just found out that the man who I called 'father' is indeed not my father. Instead it is a man who beats and abuses his own family and not to mention is a tyrant and a manipulator. I just found out I have a mom, which is something I have never known. And I also just found out that I have a brother, for crying out loud. I'm sorry that I couldn't take the news like you did. All you learned was that you've been living under a false identity and you now have a twin sister. I'm sorry that it wasn't as big and drastic as yours."

"That doesn't mean you run from it, Vivian. You have to learn to face these things." I tell her sternly.

"Some brother you are. You don't even care that I couldn't breathe and that the world was closing in around me. I was having a panic attack, but don't let that bore you. I ran so I could calm myself and catch my breath. I was going to come back once I knew I was fine again, but why should that matter. You just think I'm weak and a coward. You don't care." Vivian tells me.

Her words take me apart piece by piece. I remember hearing her gasp for breath and how it sounded like she could die. She's right, I didn't care. But I will not admit that. We glare at each other for a long moment before Vivian climbs down off of her ledge and lands on the floor just as Dawson finds us.

"Vivian, there you are! We were looking all over for you." Dawson tells her.

"Well, you found me." She says forcing her voice to sound decent. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go face my past and accept who I am because if I don't, then I'm a coward." Vivian picks up the hem of her sapphire colored gown, revealing her bare feet, and walks off down a random hallway. Dawson doesn't even try to correct her on where she's going. She probably wouldn't even care anyway.

Dawson looks up at me. I can see the look of disapproval on his face. "What part of 'she's confused and scared' do you not understand?"

"I'm sorry," I say.

"Don't tell me that, tell her that. She's the one who needs to hear your sincere apology."

"I guess I'm just angry about all of this," I say sitting down on one of the marble steps. Dawson comes and sits beside me.

"You have every right to be mad; just don't take it out on your sister. She needs you to be there for her more than anything right now."

"I know." I say sadly. "I just need some time to take this in myself."

"I guess the best thing to do is to stay away from each other for tonight so the both of you can cool off. Try talking to her in the morning." Dawson advises me.

"Thanks Dawson," I tell him.

"I'm hungry; do you want anything to eat?"

So I get up and follow Dawson into the kitchens where I decide to make amends with Vivian. I ask a cook to help me with something and they gladly accept my request. It is the first time in my life where I've cooked something even more complicated than scrambled eggs.