Hidden behind the shed, curled up into a fetal like ball, Simone watched as the only father that she had ever known grabbed her mother's arm.

"Why did you do it? Why did you let my baby go? Why did you destroy her tennis career?"

Eve tried to meet T.C.'s eyes and couldn't. She lowered her head, a tear dropped to the lapel of her suede coat. T.C. grabbed her face and lifted it.

"Why, Eve?"

He dropped her face quickly. "Why, damn it! Why?"

The cold wind bit into Simone's face and she shivered, curling into herself even more. She gazed into the house for a second, seeing Liz pacing the rooms, then she looked back at T.C., seeing his face contort violently again. She wrapped her arms more tightly around herself. The air was an icebox that froze and suffocated her. She closed her eyes when she heard her mother sob. She tried to keep her chest from pounding, tried to breathe, tried to keep down the deep sobs that were fighting to escape from her chest. She shut her eyes again.

She felt a pulsating warmness overtake her. She smelt a deep hot Red Spice aftershave and a two-days old beard prickle against her chin as she was pulled into a warm bear hug. "I love you, Simone. I have always loved you, and you are first in my heart," her eyes burst open, and she kissed Chad Harris in thankfulness.

"Whitney was a fling that made me see the truth," he said, "But she has decided to come back, because it is you that I want to make into my number one star. It's you that I want to take to L.A. so that we can live in paradise on earth." He described the movie stars that they would meet, the high rise apartment that they would live in, the private picnics on the beach for the two of them, and the love that they would have, a love that would never dim, that would last forever.

T.C. looked at Chad with a mix of surprise and anger, then seeing Whitney walk back, tennis racket in hand, his expression changed to delight. Eve came to embrace Chad, talking excitedly about her joy at seeing everyone back, giving T.C. a quick kiss.

"I hate what you are doing to our family, Eve!"

Simone awoke to reality from her reverie. She tried to imagine Chad's arms around her once again, but T.C.'s voice was too loud, too strident for her to go back into her dream. She inched backwards, hoping to escape without being heard, but Eve glanced in her direction, and she froze into a standstill. The wind gnawed at her again.

She watched Eve, standing still in her Ralph Lauren suede coat, completely unmoving, not able to raise her glance to look at T.C.'s sad brown face. T.C. grabbed her arms and shook her lightly.

"Answer me!"

Simone had never seen her mother so silent before. Eve shook like a limp rag doll, and her eyes seemed to search the backyard for someone to hold her, to save her, a familiar face that would only look at her with love. Simone closed her eyes again, trying to shut out the image of her mother so weak and so quiet. Eve was the rock of the family. The brilliant, caring doctor who could save the dying baby, the little boy with the fractured neck, the teenager who had locked herself out of the world so that she would not be hurt again.

Doctor, heal yourself, Simone wanted to say. Heal our family. People are never what they seem, she had realized. Her mother could not be her rock. She had thought that Whitney loved her, not that Whitney was a girl who would take delight in destroying the family and seducing Chad away. At least T.C. would love her forever and Chad.... She shut her eyes tightly, scratching her eyelashes against her cheeks, and for a second she felt those little dark whiskers brushing against her cheek.