Hey guys! sorry this chapter took some time. i've been super busy with work over the weekend. i just want to thank everyone for all of your constructive feedback and i want you all to know that i will take that feedback and use it:) thanks so much guys and enjoy the chapter!

~Wallflower95

I woke up the next morning feeling completely awake and ready for the day. The phone rang beside me and I grabbed it.

"Hello?" My heart fluttered in my chest.

"Good morning." His voice replied. I smiled.

"Would you like to do something today?" I giggled but then frowned. Why did I feel... not like myself. I pushed the feeling away.

"Uh yeah sure." I said.

"Well, we could go out for dinner and maybe too a light festival their holding in the town square..." But my mind trailed off from the conversation. I was staring at my mom's letters. The letters I've wanted to open all my life. The reason why I was in Amsterdam. I shook my head and spoke.

"Actually, I can't." I said.

"Pardon?"

"I'm sorry Liam but I'm not in Amsterdam for you. I'm here for my mom." I said.

"Oh... right." I sighed.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"It's okay." He said, sounding a little disappointed. I heard Kaitlyn coming out of the bathroom.

"I have to go now. See you around.

"Yeah."

"Okay." He hung up. I closed my eyes and sighed.

"You okay?" Kaitlyn asked. I opened my eyes and smiled.

"Never better." But it was a lie. I felt terrible for turning down Liam. I do like him but I also just met him. I barely knew him. Not everyone can have an instant connection like my parents did. Besides, I wasn't here for romance. I was here to find out about my mom and dad.

I was a little out of it all day as we shopped for a bit in town. Kaitlyn asked me if I was okay but I kept telling her I was fine. But I wasn't. I felt like a total idiot for wanting to hang out with Liam and for thinking that I could have something like my parents did. And then I felt bad for not being here to learn about mom and dad like I was supposed to. I sat in the cafe with Kaitlyn eating my food silently.

"Okay, that's it. What is up with you?" Kaitlyn asked.

"I really screwed up okay?" I put my head in my hands.

"What do you mean?"

"I lost focus! I was supposed to be here for mom and dad but I completely lost focus but then I met Liam and I don't know." I said.

"Well there's one thing you didn't get from your mom." Kaitlyn said. I groaned into my arms.

"What?"

"Her way with words." I laughed.

"Kaitlyn what do I do?" Kaitlyn sighed.

"Well... you did just meet the guy."

"Yeah it's been established." I said.

"And yes you came here because of the letters which you so generously forgot about." I nodded.

"So, what do I do?" I asked.

"Well you've spent your life wondering about the parents you never knew and you've also waited sixteen years to open those letters." I nodded.

"But Liam also seems like the perfect guy." Kaitlyn said.

"The choice is up to you Anna." She said.

"Just remember that choices we make in life can also make us who we are but they can also hurt the ones we love." I thought about her words.

"Come on. Let's get back to the hotel."

I stayed up all night thinking about what Kaitlyn had said. How could I like Liam? I don't know him at all. I sighed and realized that the choice was simple. I need to learn everything about mom and dad. A relationship can wait. I looked at the stack of letter on the table next to my bed and I grabbed the next one.

Anna,

They say love can start anywhere. Is it weird that our first kiss was in a place that once held misery? Yeah it's a little weird. I first kissed Augustus Waters, the star crossed love of my life in the Anne Frank house. Kaitlyn and Isaac actually kissed there to! Funny how a place that once housed people from a genocide became a house for young people to make out. But then again I think Anne would have wanted that. For people to be happy and fall in love. "Don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains."

Such true and beautiful words from a young girl trapped in the wrong time. I hope you find the meaning of those words. Check out the Anne Frank house.

Love,

Mom

We have three days left in Amsterdam. I woke up early the next morning and shook Kaitlyn awake.

"Come on." I said. Kaitlyn groaned and tried to throw a pillow at me.

"Come on let's go too the Anne Frank house." I said. Kaitlyn groaned again.

"Come on we only have three days left!" Kaitlyn threw off the blankets.

"Why are you so on schedule?"

"Because I made my choice."

There was a bit of a line up at the Anne Frank house but I didn't mind. I felt... lighter. Like something was lifted off my shoulders. I was going to have to talk to Liam of course but then again, what was there to talk about? We're weren't dating or anything. I shook my head.

"Let's head on in." Kaitlyn said. I smiled an nodded.

It was nothing I had ever seen. A place that was once a sanctuary for people hiding from a dangerous world. Can you imagine? The feeling of being safe and at home and then the next moment that feeling is taken away and you are no longer safe. I couldn't imagine how Anne had felt. I was standing in a doorway and I looked at the door frame. There were lines on it with the names of the children living in the annex. It went all the way up until the children would not grow anymore. It made me want to cry. If only they had been born in another time. Anne could have been what ever she wanted.

A tape recording played Anne's voice.

"In spite of everything I still believe people are really good at heart." Her voice echoed in the room. I walked into the room she had slept in. Pictures were still on the wall. Yellow from age.

"The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands." I touched the picture gently. There was one of Anne with her family. They all looked happy. I looked at their faces and I made myself promise that I would be happy and that I would live my life like Anne would have if she had been born in this time.

I was about to leave the room when I saw another picture. It wasn't yellow from age. It was near the window where no one would looked. I stepped forwards and leaned down to see it. It was a smiling couple sitting in a cafe. The boy had his arm around the girl. He had mahogany hair and smiling blue eyes. He had a crooked smile that really suited him. The girl had a short pageboy haircut with green eyes and a cannula. My heart thumped as I plucked it off the wall. On the bottom of the picture written her handwriting was my name.

I laughed and clapped my hand on my mouth to prevent myself from laughing and crying at the same time. My parents. I didn't have many pictures of them. Here they were preserved and they looked so happy. Just the way I imagined them.

Sorry, not the longest chapter but there is more to come! What will happen between Liam and Anna? stay tuned for 12!

Please comment and review:) thanks guys!

~Wallflower95