"What?!" I said, looking at the woman who I had been brought up to believe was my mother. "What do you mean? Are you telling me you're not my mum?"

"What Janine means, Rose, is that no she's not your mother but she did raise you so she deserves your respect." He seemed nervous, "I am your father and we both love you very much."

"Raised me?! She left me at St. Vlad's when I was 2 and hardly saw me at all!" I yelled, "Now tell me the truth!"

"Rose, please, listen to your father." Janine said.

"Fine, but after this don't expect anything from me. You both lied to me for all of my life, and for that I'll never forgive either of you." I drew a deep breath, "And for that matter I always wondered why I never looked anything like you, Janine, now I know why."

"Rose, don't start a fight please."

I stood up, the chair flipping backwards as I forcefully ejected myself from it, "I should be aloud to start a fight if I want to, you've lied to me my whole life, I've cried myself to sleep wishing my mum cared enough to call once a week, hell once a month would've been better than what I got, but no, not only did I not get a single phone call, but I also didn't get to go anywhere for the school holidays unless it was with Lissa's family. I had no-one but Lis for most of my life, and you expect me to sit there calmly and let you tell me that I was wasting my time, crying over a woman that wasn't even my mother? And you, " I stopped long enough to draw breath and pointed my finger at my dad, "You were never there at all, at least I knew where she was, she was with her charge, and because he is so prominent, I'd have known within a week of her death, you I didn't even know your name until I went to Russia, I didn't know you were my father until I came BACK from Russia. And SHE had to tell me."

"ROSE!" Dad yelled at me, "Sit down and listen, for once in your life listen to someone else!"

"NO!" I yelled right back, "I'm sick of listening to everyone else, they always tell me what to do or what to say or how to act. And I'm done, you hear me DONE!"

I turned and walked out the door leaving behind my stunned father, the woman who had pretended to be my mother and all the respect I ever had for either of them, from now on, I was on my own again, just like I liked it.

As I walked away from the house that held two of the five most important people to me I realised that I only had one person left, and I was about to break his heart and lose him too.

I couldn't take it any more all the anger and frustration were beginning to take their toll on me, so changed my course and started running, taking small strides at first and working my body into a fast paced frenzy as I bolted from the housing area to the gym on the north side of Court, catching the eyes of almost everyone I passed, praying that he wouldn't be there so I could let off some steam.

My shoulder collided with the door as I stormed into the gym, causing everyone to look in my direction, but that didn't worry me in the least, I had the punching bags in my sight and I wasn't stopping for anyone. As I strode across the room I pulled my shirt off revealing a black sports bra and kicked off my shoes, knowing full well that I couldn't fight in heals, even the little ones I had on and removed the small silver ring from my pinky on my right hand, causing the darkness to multiply drastically as it was the ring Oksana had charmed for me while I was in Baia. I tucked it into my pocket and rolled my wrists in preparation for the abuse I was about to deal to this unsuspecting bag hanging in front of me.

My fists began to collide with the bag as I imagined the faces of all the people who had wronged me in this life, watching as my fists became a blur and the darkness took over. I lost count after 20
minutes, and feeling in my hands after half an hour. I was enjoying myself pretending to beat up all the people who had hurt me, or made me angry.

I didn't hear when he came in but I knew the moment he came near me, I had been keeping track of who had come over and I knew it was only a matter of time until he got wind of my attack on the punching bag, but I never thought he'd come to stop me.

"ROSE! For Christ sake, stop it,you're bleeding!"

I spun faster than he thought I could and caught his shoulders, "DON'T tell me what to do Chris, it's all anyone ever does and I can't handle it any more." when I first started talking I was almost yelling by the end my voice was barely a whisper.

I don't know how it happened but I went from being so angry at everyone to trying hard not to burst into tears in-front of all the guardians that had gathered around me. I lifted my hands from his shoulders and picked up my shirt and shoes and turned towards the door.

Only to see him standing there in all his glory, I took a deep breath trying not to look like I was about to cry.

His voice whipped through me like lightning, "I guess you don't need me after all."

Christian stepped in before I could form a response, "What's that supposed to mean, Belikov? That she's better off without you because your nothing more than a cradle-snatching, self-centred, chauvinistic, arse-hole and she is an amazing woman that you, the so-called God, used and threw away because you don't know a great thing when it smacks you in the face?"

"No, it means that she's still acting like a child,she's just found someone else to pick up the mess she leaves everywhere she goes."

"Really, is that all you've go to say, because I'm pretty sure she picked up her own shirt and shoes not me, so I guess that's wrong, and like hell I'm going to clean up after someone else, I barely even clean up after myself." He was that angry that I could feel his skin heating up, "Honestly, I don't know what she ever saw in you, you deserve to be with Tasha, she's just as big a fuck-head as you are-."

"Chris, please stop. He can go die in a hole for all I care but please don't get him angry, he might try to hurt you, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you got hurt because of me." My voice was barely more than a whisper but I knew he heard me because he looked back at me. "Please, Chris, enough. I'm over all the anger. So please."

his skin temperature dropped drastically as I spoke and soon he was back to normal. "Are you sure?" He asked softly, "I wouldn't mind a reason to light him up."

I shook my head, "No, Chris. Please."

"Wait, what's this? I thought you said you didn't clean up after her yet what are you doing right now, she says jump, you say ok. Wow what would the Princess think of this scene right here, let alone your Aunt, Christian you should be ashamed of yourself, falling for her delusions." He grinned , "Maybe she should just die, and stay dead this time, I mean it's not like anyone even wants to be around her, or wants to be with her, not even Adrian, he just wants sex."

He laughed obnoxiously as he walked away.

I stood frozen in place as he left, unable to keep my growing horror off my face, Adrian didn't love me either? Is that all I am to anyone, a quick fuck?

Slowly I realised I was still standing in the centre of the gym, with hundreds of eyes on me, waiting for what I'd do next. I felt Christian's hand touch my arm and looked up at him, but that was a big mistake, the pity in his eyes made me want to run screaming of the edge of the tallest building I could find, but I couldn't, there was still people who loved me.

I moved slowly but surely towards the door, Christian following my every step. We made it out the side door before the first of the traitorous tears began to fall, I turned my back on Christian and started to walk away.

"Wait, Rose." His hand snaked out and caught my wrist, "I just wanted to make sure you were ok and what... well I... Rose, what was that in there?"

My voice was choked with tears as I replied, "That's what the darkness does to me, you've never seen it full force, only Jesse, Lissa and Dim- him have seen it. It's not pretty, huh?"

"Rose." He said softly as he pulled me round to look at him, "Don't let him get you down, you are more than worth anyone's time. He's an idiot to say those thing about you, especially in public, he's stuffed up everything for himself. Everyone now knows how much of an ass he is."

I ducked my head, unable to look him in the eye, "Chris, I don't want to be here any more. I just want to forget about everything. The monsters in my head and in the streets are starting to get too much for me, for so long I've wanted to be a guardian but now, I just need time to get my head around things."

"I get were you're coming from, here I'll help you to your room, you have a shower and a nap and I'll come wake you in a couple of hours, is that ok?"

"Yeah, ok." I said softly.

We walked to my room together but he left alone, muttering something about making plans. While I went and climbed into my shower and washed my body and my hair. When I was done I climbed out barely dried myself and threw on a singlet and a pair of boot shorts before falling into bed and crashing out.

I was awakened by a hand on my shoulder shaking me awake.

"Rose, wake up and get ready."

"Whaa.. Chris, Whatchu mean by dat?" I said.

"You know how you said you wanted to get away for a while, well lets go."

"What?"

"Get up and get ready. We're leaving in 20 minutes."