Oooh, updating two days in a row, this is unheard of for me! ;) Billie. x

Chapter 10

The invitations had been sent out months ago but there was one more personal invite that I had been putting off for some time. With the wedding only a couple of months away though, I couldn't delay any longer. I was going to have to phone my family.

"You have to do this, Sage, you'll regret it if you don't." Adrian, wise as he was, was right. I would regret not inviting them, but that didn't make it any easier.

I picked up my phone and held it in my hand, judging the weight. It was a light phone but today it felt a ton.

"I-"

"Do it." Adrian interrupted my pathetic attempt at excusing myself from the task.

I typed in the number from memory and dialled. There was only a short wait before my mom picked up.

"It's me." I said quietly. "It's Sydney."

"Oh, honey, I've been so worried about you."

"I'm fine, Mom. How are you?"

"I'm fine, honey. I have missed you so much. I wanted to call you but you must have changed your number or something."

That was true, I had changed my number so that my father couldn't try to fool me and kidnap me into re-education.

"Yeah, I did. So how are Carly and Zoe?"

"Carly is fine, she's graduated college and she's living with her boyfriend." My mom paused. "Zoe is uh, well, I don't really know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Has something happened?" I asked hysterically. Whilst I might be pissed off about her easy acceptance of my father's disowning me, I still loved my youngest sister.

"Your father and I got a divorce, about eighteen months ago."

"What?"

"And your father got custody of Zoe. You and Carly were old enough but Zoe was still under age so she needed a legal guardian."

"Why didn't anyone tell me? I could have helped testify!"

"I know, but like I said I couldn't get in touch with you."

"Dad knew where I was, so did Zoe, they could have come and told me." But as I spoke the words I knew that was impossible, they would have expected me to testify for Mom.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It's not your fault. Listen, Mom, there was a reason I called."

"I thought you'd just called for a chat." Mom teased.

"Well that too, but I'm getting married."

"Oh, honey, congratulations. To the Moroi boy?"

"Yeah, Adrian," I said.

"That's wonderful!" I could tell from her tone that she was delighted.

"I wanted to invite you and Carly to the wedding but it's at the Royal Court so you can say no if you would rather not come."

"Sydney, we wouldn't miss it for the world."

I relaxed; my muscles unclenching. I had been terrified that my mother would say that she didn't want to go anywhere near any vampires. She wasn't an Alchemist like my father but she had also spent a long time living with his prejudices.

"Really?"

"Of course! Who's giving you away? I presume your father is not a possibility."

"Well, Dimitri said that he would if there was nobody else, but Mom, would you give me away?"

"I would be honoured."

"Thank you, Mom. I'll email you the details and some photos of the church. There's this little chapel, it's right on the edge of Court and it's beautiful. Then Lissa said we could have the reception at the Palace."

"Wow, reception at the palace, eh?"

"I know, it's crazy. I still don't believe it myself some days."

"Well, we'll be there."

"I love you,"

"I love you too, Sydney. Pass on my congratulations to Adrian."

"I will do."

When I hung up the phone, Adrian was leaning against the door. "Well, that wasn't so bad."

"It was great." I grinned, throwing myself into his arms. "She said she would give me away."

"That's good. What were you talking about at the beginning?" His face was pleased but there was a glint of worry in his eyes

"Oh, they got a divorce and Dad got custody of Zoe," I frowned. I was still a little miffed that no-one had got in touch to tell me, even if I had changed my number.

"At least you have your mom back." Adrian said quietly, holding me close.

"Yeah," I smiled. "How's going with your parents?"

"Dad still doesn't want to come but Mom says she's going to work on trying to make him. She'll be there though, whether he is or not."

"That's good." I smiled, Adrian and his father hadn't made up after the argument on our first visit and both claimed they never would.

I also needed to call Carly. The phone call with my mom had calmed me down a little, but I was still terrified that my sister might say no, so when I called her, it was with bated breath.

"Hello," It was a guy's voice, one that I didn't recognise.

"Is Carly there?"

"Who's calling?"

"Tell her it's Sydney."

I waited whilst the guy, presumably her boyfriend, relayed the information to her.

"Sydney?" Carly asked frantically. "It is so good to hear from you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Carly. Since when is there a guy answering your cell phone?"

"Since I got a boyfriend," she replied bluntly.

"Right and he's your personal assistant too?" I laughed. "I hear you finished college too, that's great."

"Yeah, I did – Wait, how do you know that?"

"I talked to Mom."

"You did? Sydney that's great, she's been wanting to talk to you for ages; I take it she told you about the divorce?"

"Yeah, she did. I can't believe no-one told me!"

"We had no way of talking to you seeing as you changed your number."

"People need to stop using that excuse; it's too logical for me to argue with." I exclaimed but Carly simply responded with a laugh.

"I've missed you, lil' sis." I groaned, she knew that I hated when she called me that.

"So, I have an invitation and a favour to ask."

"Okay," Carly said slowly, drawing out the word as if to show her uncertainty of the subject.

"Adrian and I are getting married," I paused to let that sink in. "And I would like you to be my bridesmaid."

"You know, Dad would kill you if he found out about this."

"Yeah, well, I stopped caring about what Dad would think a long time ago."

"Finally," Carly laughed. "I take it Mom's coming?"

"Yeah, she's giving me away. It's at the Moroi Court, are you okay with that?"

"I would love to see the place. Dad was always talking about how it was filled with sin and all his usual crap but the photos in the file make it look gorgeous!"

"How have you seen Alchemist files?"

"Because I used to be Dad's favourite, remember?"

I did remember; it had been Carly until she chose college over the Alchemists, then it had been me until I chose his sworn enemy over them and now it was Zoe, a fact that worried me greatly.

"So you'll do it?" I said after a short pause.

"I'd love to, lil' sis!"

"For God's sake, stop calling me that!"

"Okay, lil' sis."

So we've never really seen or heard much about Carly but I always imagined that she and Sydney got on really well (seeing as she was the only one who knew about the whole Keith situation). I also wanted them to get on well seeing as Zoe was kind of a disappointment of a sister! :/