Prologue
17 years. It was hared to believe that in the entire time she had been alive her uncle had never once tried to get in contact with her. He hadn't even bothered to call her when her mom had died three months ago in a car accident.
A'marie shook her head as memories of the day she had heard about her moms death replayed themselves in her head.
The day had started out the same as always. She had woke up and gotten ready for school. Sitting at their kitchen table she and her mom had eaten breakfast as they talked about a their plans for the afternoon. From there her mom had dropped her off on her way to the coffee shop in town where she worked.
Little did she know that, that would be the last time she would ever see her mom alive. She had just been sitting down to lunch with her friends when the principal himself had come into the lunch room and retrieved her, telling her that there was someone who needed to talk to her in his office.
She could tell by the look on his face that he already knew what was to come but he never said anything as he let her into his office and shut the door behind her.
'What was going on?' was the only thing she could think as she spotted the two uniformed police officers standing in front of the principals desk. She didn't have long to ponder that thought as one of the officers stepped up to her and broke the news.
"Miss Black, I'm deputy Wilcox and this is my partner deputy Henderson and were sorry to have to tell you this but your mom was involved in a car accident about ten minutes ago and she died on the way to the hospital."
It couldn't be true, it just couldn't be. There was no way her mom was gone. Her mom wouldn't leave her that way. Heck they even had plans to go shopping at the mall after her mom got off work this afternoon.
But it was all true. Every last heart-wrenching detail. Her mother was in an accident, then she died on the way to the hospital, and finally it sank in that she A'marie Marisol Black was utterly alone.
As if sensing she was about to completely loose it officer Wilcox and his partner had escorted her out of the school and back to her house where they contacted a neighbor of theirs and had her come and stay with her until things with her mom could be sorted out. And with that the officers were gone and she was sitting on her sofa with Mrs. Nortan her moms closest friend and neighbor who also happened to be the family lawyer.
The next month and a half had passed in a numb filled blur that she could barely remember. Thankfully Mrs. Nortan had taken care of the funeral details and anything else that had needed to be taken care of, including the sell of their small two bedroom house and everything in it. She had kept nothing but her moms few pieces of jewelry and her own belongings.
Finally it was time for the will to be read. As she sat in her neighbors office and listened as she read the contents of the will to her, it was only then that she seemed to snap out of the fog she had been in since she had heard the news of her mothers death.
Her mom wanted her to go to La Push Washington and stay with her uncle Billy Black in the event of her death or her inability to take care of her daughter.
It was almost impossible for her to comprehend that her mom wanted her to go and stay with a man that had turned her mom and her away 17 years before but as the will was finished it turned out that, that was indeed what her mother wanted.
So thats what she did. She packed up what little belongings she had and packed them into the small second hand car she had bought with part of the money she had received on the house and off she went.