With Cassandra the next morning
"so Adriana you, your fiancé and Jenna will be under guard while you're in public while you're here, there will be no sneaking around that we don't know about" says Daren
"what kind of people do you think we are Daren, my little sister is only here for a girl, my fiancé Rebecca Ricci is from Messina so that is most likely where we will go, we don't plan to sneak around, I'm not even that popular anymore, not after France basically voted me out of magazines, my fans think I died Daren, you don't know what that's like, to have the Midas disorder, become a model to raise awareness and money for the people who suffer like me then to be banned from doing any international shoots because they think I'm some sort of perv or creep who enjoys touching girls privates and came up with the disorder to try and legitimize my perversions, as if touching people is fun for me, it's not a choice I can make, if I could stop I'd do that in a heartbeat" says Adriana
"my little sister Ellen has what you have" says Cassandra
"I know, people believe she's fifteen, when Jenna told me Ellen was turning twelve this year my jaw dropped, people call her Ellen 'weather queen' Valentine, the pictures she posts are insanely amazing, the angles, the types of storms, the sunsets, nobody I know can take pictures like that, she's referenced in major magazines as the next generation of weather geeks, the warning she put out saved my life, I was doing a shoot on Mallorca island when that storm hit Sicily, my photographer thought nothing of it then my dad ordered me home, sending me a picture from Ellen's weather page, instead I hunkered down in the best hiding place I could find, when it was over half the people in the city I was in had died, houses collapsing in on them, every house around the one I was in had turned to rubble, leaving the house I was in the only one standing in that part of the city, when I saw the grammar Daren's account had used I knew it was Ellen's writing, part of the Midas disorder is vision problems, sort of similar to dyslexia but not really, it only mixes up certain letters like S, D, W and T, makes it hard to write 'dang scary weather tonight' as it would become 'Vang Pcary Veamher Conighb', especially if rushed like say warning an entire nation about a deadly storm, it would make the vision problems worse" says Adriana
"is that why she would have had to link a projected path along with pictures with the message" asks Daren
"yes, it doesn't affect speech, most likely she could have posted a video of her saying the warning to your account and gotten the message across too but if I know her like I might given how much I know myself dealing with the same condition, she didn't want to bring attention to herself, she wanted to give you credit for saving lives, the anxiety would basically assure that she messed up words because if she took the time needed to get the message out without spelling errors would mean you'd notice the phone missing and then see your account posted a warning message about a storm that nobody seemed to realize would be that bad and take the message down and that she'd be in big trouble, and if her fears were realized by you grounding her and millions died as a result she would feel immensely guilty about trying to warn people and she could completely stop caring about others" says Adriana
"what makes my little sister so special, I'm not judging her but I don't see how she can be so widely accepted and have the Midas condition thing" asks Cassandra
"because while it is rarely diagnosed in men it has been twice since the condition was first reported, both men killed themselves after being called rapists, Ellen in this instance could be overloaded with estrogen, her body could overproduce it, it would explain why she is exclusively known for targeting girls and women's privates, my condition is less picky, she's innately special in that she seems to have a deep connection to the earth and the population as a whole, she could have picked any government phone she could get access to, yet she chose the President's social media account because it gave her the best chance to get other government's to re-evaluate that storm and send out warnings as well, she at least as far as I can tell has an extreme motherly instinct in that she cares about everyone, she has weather geek contacts all over the world, from every religion, at least one person from every political party that exists today, nobody has the reach she has, that's why everyone assumed she was a teenager, some people believed she was over twenty years old, what kind of people are around her right now" says Adriana
"people who accept her for who she is, they rarely restrict her, she was recently given an official government account 'the Mediterranean weather radar' is the name, it is watched by all members of Europe and northern Africa and Ellen now has access to radar and seismic data collected by equipment all over Europe and northern African countries, her first post from that account warned of an earthquake in Germany last night, it turned out to be a pretty bad one" says Cassandra
"was anybody hurt" asks Adriana
"luckily no, Germany doesn't get that many earthquakes so when the new weather employee that checks for bad weather to warn the leader saw Ellen's warning the government shut down all transportation in the areas Ellen warned about which was mostly southern Germany and a few parts of northern Germany, airports in the south were destroyed, planes crippled, trains destroyed, though thankfully houses were generally ok" says Daren
"do they know what caused it" asks Jenna
"Ellen said there was activity in the Swiss alps, some sort of excessive seismic activity on the Swiss/Austrian/Germany border, around the same time there were volcanic eruptions in Italy and Etna had some lava flow though they didn't endanger life like the seismic activity did" says Cassandra
"what does she believe the cause is" asks Rebecca
"she's of the belief that we severely poisoned the earth and the worsening weather is a result of that" says Cassandra
"I mean she might have a point there, mining activity in the America's has caused areas of toxic water that had to be cleaned up a few years back, as well as the toxic chemicals used to mine in areas of Africa further proves Ellen right, she is wise beyond her years, she may even be receiving insight from beyond this earthly world as in beyond the grave" says Daren
"you can't possibly believe little Ellen has any sort of mystical spirit seeing powers Dad" says Cassandra
"there are many things I believe that you do not Cassandra, however try as I may I can't find any other reason for Ellen to be as wise as she is, she has also said things that my grandmother used to say and there is no other explanation for how she could possibly know those sentences" says Daren
"look I love my little sister and all but I refuse to take orders from her especially based on some impossible opinions" says Cass
"if you refuse to understand that not everything is within your grasp Cassandra you will become the very thing you sought to destroy" says Daren
"is that why you lied to me, made me believe that I was twenty-six, you neglected to tell me that Catarina was the missing twin I have been looking for my entire life, did you accept that you committed crimes, is that what happened" asks Cassandra as she bursts into tears as Hailey comforts her
"Cassandra I didn't tell you not because I didn't want you to know but to protect you, Francine went nuts when she got news she was infertile because of a virus she had when she was little, she outright demanded I hand newborn Cat over to her or she'd take you and Cat and kill you both, Maria never understood the sacrifice I had to make, I don't blame you if you hate me Cass but I made a choice to save both yours and Catrina's life, the Valentine family tree only exists because of a belief that family helps family no matter what, my mother believed in it and so did I" says Daren
"so you gave Cat away to a criminal, why" asks Cassandra feeling her world crumble around her
"because that injury was my fault, Francine and I played baseball, Francine on one team and I on another, I'd told my friend who had been the pitcher at the time to give her a fastball, I hadn't realized he wasn't good at aiming and the ball hurled towards her hips, she bled a lot, fearing we'd get in trouble at the age of eleven we'd attempted to stop the bleeding ourselves, that accident cost her the ability to have kids Cass, I owed it to her all those years later, like mom says family above anyone else, as much as I'd hated feeling like I had to give Cat away, I felt like I had to, I told people to not take her to the hospital or we'd be in trouble, her injury was my fault, what should I have done Cassandra" says Daren
"why change my age, it doesn't make sense" asks Cassandra nearing a mental breakdown
"Francine made me do that, like I said she'd gone nuts, she didn't want Cat searching like you ended up doing, Cat found out anyway" says Daren
"how'd she find out" asks Cassandra suddenly feeling a little more secure
"remember when she was five at the family reunion and she licked behind your ears" says Daren
"yeah, that didn't seem too odd for her though" says Cassandra
"see the thing is you guys share a medical condition that affects how that part of the head tastes, the moment she licked behind your ears and tasted the blueberries you'd eaten that morning she knew you were her sister" says Daren
"how even could that be possible" asks Cassandra
"it is possible, though it is an extremely rare condition, Cat is smarter than she looks Cass, she straight up told me that you had to be her sister, even as I stacked the evidence up, even if it was forcibly changed, she would not give up, in the end she made me promise to keep it a secret from you to protect you, she was afraid you'd crumble and never be able to experience happiness or as she called them at the time happiness hugs, literally once she knew that it was true, that you were her twin she made everyone who knew keep it a secret from you, it was clear to me that she wanted to call you her sister but cared about you too much to do so" says Daren
"so she's the reason you lied to me and said my twin was missing, because of a promise you made to Cat" asks Cassandra
"yes, Cat takes promises very seriously, she wanted to move here before she started at Hollywood arts in LA but she came to the conclusion that you'd want to send her back to her 'family' so she stayed there, try as she might to convince herself to return to her true family your feelings came first, she'd call me up randomly and create a scenario where she came home to us and she always came to the conclusion that it would hurt you, the only reason she was forced to come back here is that Francine didn't want a wacko child anymore, Cat cares about you more than anything Cassandra, her big sixteenth birthday bash was going to be huge, the LA mayor was going to attend, Cat cancelled it when she found out you were sick, instead having a small party" says Daren
"should I take time off to spend time with her, my team is very well trained to follow the facts and not let themselves get wrapped up in ego plus I do have some time off stacked up" says Cassandra
"fine but your last job is to take Jenna, Adriana and Rebecca to Catania with you and Hailey" says Daren as Cassandra nods