It was 3 am when Imogen slipped silently out of the bed she shared with Matt and made her way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Making sure she hadn't woken Matt or Kiara, Imogen moved to the couch and sat, not bothering to put on a light; she didn't need it.

Imogen had been thinking non-stop about some of the things Rhiannon had said to her over the past few days, about how selfish she had been...it was the only thing on her mind. She admitted to herself that the reason Rhiannon's words stung so much is because what she had said was all true.

Imogen knew Rhiannon was no angel herself. But, still, she had always felt inferior to her younger sister while they were growing up. Although Imogen always had their parent's constant approval, Rhiannon had struggled at home. She had always been rebellious, living her life her own way, not conforming to anyone else's expectations. It was something Imogen envied, and she did understand why Rhiannon had been like that. Although Rhian had usually outclassed Imogen, and most of their schoolmates, in anything she set her mind to, her parents never seemed to care.

Their mother always treated their younger daughter with an air of indifference, as though she was beneath her notice, and on a good day, her father did too. But on a bad day...

Imogen shuddered as the memories overwhelmed her once more and she forced them out of her mind.

They were all reasons she couldn't look her sister in the eye. Couldn't stand to be in the same room with her for longer than she had to be. She felt inferior. Inferior and guilty.

Sighing, Imogen rose from the couch and walked over to the window that overlooked the hotel pool. She gazed down at the view in an attempt to distract herself from the disturbing thoughts and memories flooding her mind. A shadow moving towards the pool caught Imogen's attention and she smiled as the faint light surrounding the pool revealed a couple meeting for an early morning rendezvous. Looking closer, she realised they looked quite familiar...at least the woman did, but the dim light made it difficult to tell who it was.

She looked back towards Matt, still sleeping soundly in their bed, and felt a pang of remorse. Matt was the only man she'd ever been with who accepted her fully. He didn't know everything, of course, but she'd let him get closer to her than any man she'd ever been with.

But she didn't love him. She never had and as time wore on it became painfully obvious to her that she never would.

Imogen found Matt attractive, of course; who wouldn't? He was a good lover and caring and sweet...but she'd never felt any sort of passion towards him. It was more like a warm familiarity that she found comforting. Imogen had meant to break up with him long ago, and now she wished she had, but most of the WWE roster was so close knit that if Imogen had broken up with him for no good reason, everyone would know about it. Everyone would have turned against her. It would have made working there impossible.

So, over the months Imogen had tried to find excuses to end the affair, but Matt never gave her any good reason. Firstly, she'd paid a gorgeous woman to seduce him, but Matt had turned her down flat. When she started constantly speaking about marriage and kids after they had only been together for a few months Matt just kissed her on the forehead and told her "One day". She'd introduced Matt to her sullen teenage daughter, also within the first few months of the relationship, knowing full well that Kiara wouldn't accept him as a father figure when she'd seen so many men come in and out of her mother's life. For some God unknown reason, Matt only doubled his efforts to make friends with Kiara and always took care of her while they were on the road. Eventually Kiara had accepted him as a friend, but Imogen knew she wouldn't get too close to him just in case he left too. The only other things she could think of was to flirt with his friends, but Matt had only laughed at her behaviour, trusting Imogen and his mates implicitly.

But when she had started flirting with his brother, knowing that Jeff had feelings for her, instead of breaking up with Imogen, Matt had cut himself off from his brother in a jealous rage.

Again, the guilt that she'd managed to keep hidden until Rhiannon had returned to her life came flooding back in full force. Even though things had worked out okay between Matt and Jeff, the amount of hurt she'd caused them and other people in the past, especially her own daughter, kept coming back to haunt her.

Imogen turned away from Matt and looked down onto the couple by the pool once again, softly laughing as she saw the man hoist the woman up by the waist and throw her, fully clothed, into the pool. As the woman pulled herself out of the water and faced the man, the light suddenly illuminated her face and Imogen gasped, taking a step back in surprise.

The sopping wet woman standing by the pool with the wry smile on her face was Rhiannon! How could she not have realised it was her own sister down by the pool? She was sure that Matt would recognise Jeff no matter how dark it was, and yet Imogen couldn't even identify her own sister when there was a faint light! Pain seared through her heart as she realised that she and Rhiannon had no connection anymore. The only family Imogen had left was a daughter who hated her guts. Not that she could blame her.

Imogen stepped towards the window once more to see if she recognised the man with her sister. Squinting closely, she was shocked to see Rhiannon in a passionate clinch with none other than Kevin Fertig.

My God...he was definitely not Rhiannon's type. What was going on there?

She shook her head, deciding that she'd never figure out why Rhiannon did the things she did and moved quietly away from the window. What she needed to do now was figure out how she could fix things. At least she knew where to start. Her gaze rested on Matt once more, and Imogen sadly acknowledged that the time had come to end things. She needed to set him free to live his life without deception. Without her. It would hurt him, Imogen knew that, but it was better to do it now before things got any more tangled.

And then, she would be free to try to re-build the relationship with Kiara. It wouldn't be easy, but she now realised that she wanted it more than anything. She would even give up her career if she had to.

Faint, familiar laughter from downstairs reached Imogen's ears and she felt a pang as she realised that it was probably too late to make it up to Rhiannon, but she knew that she had to try. She just had to be able to prove that she'd changed first...

For the first time in days, she felt a sincere smile touch her lips as she remembered a time when things were simple. When Rhiannon had looked up to Imogen as her big sister. Playing dress-up together. Teaching Rhiannon how to play Softball. Running around the back garden, secretly picking flowers from their mother's prize winning garden and then showing Rhiannon how to make daisy chains, earning them both a walloping when they were discovered.

Life had been perfect...up until the time that Imogen had entered her teenage years and found out the truth...

Imogen sternly pushed the memory out of her mind and thought back again to their childhood. Things were so good then, so simple. And as Imogen stood up and looked down at her sister's retreating form, Imogen vowed that one day, they would be that way again.

Thanks Coors1977 and Phoenix Satori for reviewing. Reviews are nice. And I agree that Imogen did need a bit of a "bitchslap", but who knows? Maybe a leopard really can change its spots? What do you think?

Now for an experiment...maybe if I don't ask for any reviews, I'll get more? Let's just wait and see...hehehe

Take care!