Okay, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy.

CHAPTER TWO

Looking at the man before her in disgust, Sierra Crane couldn't help feeling guilty. She could tell that he didn't want to be with her anymore than she wanted to be with him. Their parents had set it up for her to married to him, although she wanted another. He, too, had fallen in love with another, and was stuck in the loveless marriage with her. Every time she looked at him, she felt a surge of hatred, and had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't his fault. He was just as forced into this as she was, and she shouldn't be blaming her husband, when their parents had been solely responsible for the marriage to begin with.

She wondered how she had survived these past two years in the sham of a marriage that was hers. Then, she knew how it had been possible.

Theresa.

Theresa, her best friend, had made it possible. She had been there, she had been the best friend anybody could have asked for. Sierra remembered many of the heart to hearts her and Theresa had. She had been there to talk to, she had listened, she had made it alright, she had stuck by the side of her friend through everything, but no longer would she be there.

Sierra hadn't a clue what would have happened, what she would have become had she not found a friend in Theresa, had Theresa not been there.

Sierra recalled the many times that her and her so called husband had argued, and there was only one place she could have gone. Theresa's. The Crane heiress never could have survived her marriage had it not been for the love in Theresa's heart, had it not been for Theresa's reassuring words, had Theresa not been there to remind her that there was always a light at the other side of the tunnel. Without Theresa, she would have ended up a bitter, heartless woman, a replica of her mother, the one person in the world that Sierra had promised not to become.

Sierra felt a tear slide down her cheek as she recalled the last thing that Theresa had ever, and would ever, tell her.

"You're a survivor Sierra, that's why I'm so sure that you'll survive this. And always remember, no matter what, that I'll always be here…always!"

"Are you okay?" Sierra looked at her husband, just now noticing that he was watching her every move.

"I'm fine." She muttered, turning away from him.

Dylan Banning looked at his wife, wondering where the sweet girl he once knew had gone, the girl that she had been before they had both been forced into marriage.

"You're really miserable, aren't you?" He hated knowing what their parents had done to them, to their friendship. They had been so close before they united their lives before God.

"What's it to you?" She asked coldly, instantly regretting how bitter she sounded. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she sounded more and more like her mother, Ivy Winthrop, every day.

Dylan noticed her emotions, they were the same emotions that he felt every day of his life. Hatred, regret, fear, sadness, guilt, bitterness. He would give anything to go back in time, to change what their parents had done, to stop their parents from destroying their futures, their friendship. "I'm sorry!" He whispered before walking away, now leaving with the worse feeling of them all, loneliness. She felt so alone, something she never would have felt had Theresa still been just around the corner. But the facts were that Theresa wasn't there, and never would be again.

"Theresa, where are you?" She cried looking at a picture sitting on the desk. "I need you now, more than ever. We were so close."

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Nicholas Crane stared at the child that he and the woman that would forever hold his heart had created. Their daughter. The daughter that he would always cherish. He only wished that Theresa was here now, and yet, in some strange sense, he knew that she was. He only wished that things hadn't ended the way they had.

"Daddy, is aunt Sierra going to come visit us today?" Nicholette asked, glancing at her father.

Noticing his daughter looking at him expectantly, Nicholas shrugged. "I don't know, Nikki. She might."

Realizing that her father wasn't going to say anything else on the matter, Nicholette changed the subject. "Daddy, they hurt mommy, I saw them." Knowing that she had her father's full attention, the small child continued. "I saw them hurt her, daddy. She was crying, she was so sad."

Kneeling so that he was eye level to the small child, Nicholas felt his heart drop at what his daughter was trying to tell him. "Who hurt her, Nikki, who hurt her?"

"They did, daddy! That big, mean man that you always talk to on the phone. He has a mean voice, and he looked mad." Nicholette explained.

"What, no! That can't be." Nicholas replied, unable to believe what his only child was trying to tell him.

"Daddy they hurt her! They were going to kill her daddy, they made me watch them hurt her."

Nicholas closed his eyes, trying to rid himself of the images his daughter was planting. "Damn Alistair Crane, damn him to hell!"

I hope you all enjoy, and please reply. Thanks.

Denise