First of all: SORRY! I know it took me really long again and I don't even start to talk about all the reasons for the delay. And second: SORRY! Because although I took a long break this chapter is really, really short! The reason for this though you will see in a few wee.. no, wait, in a few days! And I hope then you'll forgive me.

Well, since it is no longer 'allowed' to post responses to reviews here, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed the last chapter (I hope this is still allowed…)

Chapter 15

A woman's heart

"What are you doing?" Adrian asked Angelina while he watched her fingering a red glass heart that usually stood on the chest of drawers.

"Remembering something Alicia once said." Angelina replied and looked over her shoulder at Adrian, who was just getting dressed for the day.

"About what?"

"About hearts. She said that a woman's heart is made of glass. If she gets hurt, it doesn't simply break," Angelina turned around to face him, the glass heart in her hands. She let the sculpture slip through her fingers. It shattered on the floor, the sound of breaking glass loud in the silent room.

"It shatters into a million pieces." Angelina ended.

"Is there a chance to get such a heart back together?" Adrian asked her and walked slowly to her and the broken glass.

"Maybe if someone has enough patience, sensitiveness and love. But there are some pieces which are so small that they won't be put back into the heart because they are lost forever." Angelina looked at the fragments on the floor and pulled out her wand to put the heart back together. Adrian held her hand and shook his head.

"Let me mend the heart." He whispered and Angelina swallowed at the look in his eyes.

"I… I should look for Julia." She pulled her hand away from his and hurried out of the room to start with Julia's daily lessons.

"Aw, it's so cute to watch you with your sister."

Angelina turned around when she heard Camille's voice behind her. Julia moved closer to her sister, obviously not liking Camille's presence at all.

"What do you want?" Angelina asked her calmly and put a reassuring hand on Julia's shoulder.

"Talking." Was Camille's only reply. She smiled slightly as she sat down in one of the armchairs in the library.

"About Argentina." Camille's smile brightened as she noticed how Angelina tensed up at the mention of the country she had spent the past years in.

"Julia, would you please wait in your room for me." It was more of an order than a question and Julia did as she was told although she glanced back at her sister worriedly before she left the room.

"What do you want?" Angelina asked again as soon as she was sure that Julia was out of earshot.

"I'll make it short: I know all about your past. Where you lived, what you did, everything. If you don't want anybody to find out of this you better leave Adrian. If you don't by tomorrow morning everybody in Great Britain will know that you are nothing more than a little whore." Camille looked at her icily.

"Look at it this way: you can leave on your own, or Adrian will throw you out as soon as he finds out the truth about you. So, will you leave him?"

"No." Was Angelina's only reply and it surprised herself how calm her voice sounded although she was trembling inside. Camille's eyes narrowed while she watched her. A false smile found its way to her face as she arose from her seat.

"Fine. I hope you have a good night because it will be your last one in this house." And with this words she left Angelina alone in the library.

As soon as the sound of her shoes on the floor couldn't be heard anymore Angelina felt herself sliding from the couch onto the floor, her knees hitting the ground as her hands reached for her stomach. She leant her head against the couch just in time for the first tears to start running down her cheeks.

This night the nightmares came back to haunt her and once she woke up from them, Angelina was unable to go back to sleep. And so she went down to breakfast the next morning, with less than four hours of sleep.

Marjory was already sitting at the table when Angelina, Adrian and Julia came into the dining room and she seemed rather cheerful this morning. Still, Angelina couldn't shake off the feeling, that the woman's eyes rested on her, as if waiting for something.

And she didn't have to wait for long.

As soon as an owl brought the newspaper Marjory asked her son whether there was something interesting in it. The smile she sent Angelina while she asked this let shivers run over the young woman's back. And when she looked at Adrian's expression while he read the front page of the Daily Prophet her worst fears were confirmed.

Suddenly they heard a sound coming from the hall and the sound was followed by footsteps coming towards them. The door to the dining hall opened and revealed Sophia Pucey standing there, the newspaper in her hand looking furiously from one person in the room to another.

"Would someone care to explain this!" she demanded but before she could ask Adrian he had already thrown the newspaper onto the table and was now hurrying out of the room, not listening to his grandmother as she called him back.

Sophia's eyes found their way to Angelina.

"I want to talk to you. Now!" With this she turned around and walked back into the hall, waiting for Angelina to follow. Angelina arose slowly from her chair and walked outside of the room, but not, without noticing the smile on Marjory's face.

Sophia led Angelina into the library and told her to sit down on the couch.

"I think I deserve to know the truth, don't you? So, is this article true?"