I know I left you with a cliffhanger last time, so I won't waste time now. I've got a few points mainly that in answer to a review, this is eventually going to be Romitri story, but there is a quite a bit of both plot and character development to come before the romance redevelops. However it is coming and the big reveal will come soon. Secondly I'm not able to answer all your wonderful reviews but if you ask me a question I'll be sure to answer it. Also I want to thank a reviewer who reminded me in America you use Mom instead of Mom. I'm Australian so if you see any mistakes like that just tell me, and I'll try to fix it.

A key point about updating, I try to update once a week and I'm afraid I won't be able to do it more frequently than that, however I will try to write longer chapters for when you've been waiting a long time.

Anyway please enjoy!


My mother jumped and turned around, staring in surprise at the little boy standing in the doorway.

"Mummy?" He asked again, his forehead wrinkling.

"Sebastian, what're you doing here?" She cooed, walking towards him before scooping him up in her arms. I stood absolutely still, staring in absolute disbelief at the sight before me. He looked to be around two years old, and his face was so similar to mine, I thought I was looking at my reflection. I must have taken a step forward, because Abe stepped beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder, which I shrugged off.

"Rose." Abe warned.

"What… Who?" I gasped.

I was so confused, but the clues were beginning to add up. My mother taking a 'leave of absence', her reluctance to bring me back to her apartment, her mysterious we, andAbe's demure clothing. I had a brother. Oh my God. I had a brother. Who I didn't even know existed. I was a sister. His sister. What a terrible sister. The poor boy. I had disappointed yet another person.

My mother turned towards me, looking apprehensive. In the doorway, I saw Eddie appear, and next to him was Mia, who was glaring at me angrily. Behind them entered another man I didn't know, who was looking exceedingly confused.

"Rose." My mother started. "I didn't want you to find out like this but this is-"

"Rosie." The little boy interrupted, struggling down from her arms. "Rosie." He said again, coming towards me determinedly, only pausing briefly to look at my mom in confirmation to which she nodded hesitantly. He looked delighted and ran towards me, colliding with my legs. I bent down carefully, untangling his arms from my legs. He looked at me carefully, my eyes staring out of his face.

"I'm your… sister." I said, though I suspected he already knew.

"Me knows." He chirped, and threw his arms around my neck. I stiffened at first, but then slowly wrapped my arms around him, smelling the toddler scent I knew so well. He relaxed into me as I lifted my head, staring my mother in the eye.

"I meant to tell you." She said, looking scared. "Please don't be angry with me. Please don't leave again."

"Mom." I said softly, trying to stand up, but being anchored to the floor by Sebastian. I wrapped my arms around him, and lifted him up, holding him like I would Ivy. Abe stepped towards us and held his arms out to Sebastian, but he shook his head, stubbornly and clung to me. "Mom, I'm not going to leave. I promised remember." I told her.

"We don't put a lot of faith in your promises, Rose." I heard Mia say, as she came to stand beside my mother. Sebastian smiled at her, and waved a small hand. She smiled back at him, but went back to glaring at me.

"Hey Mia. Aren't you going to welcome me home?" I said, foolishly.

"I don't think so." She said sharply. "Not to you."

"Oh."

"Come Sebbie, let's go and let your mummy and daddy talk to Rose." She cooed at him.

He frowned but she looked at him sternly, and held out her arms, which he reluctantly moved into.

"I'll bring him back in an hour, Janine." She told her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know she would be here."

"It's okay, Mia. I should have told you." My mother told her.

"I'll go too." Eddie said. "This is probably a private discussion."

"Okay, Edison." My mother told him, "Thanks for coming."

"Bye, bye Mummy, bye, bye Daddy. Love you." Sebastian said, blowing kisses. With his genes and his affectionate tendencies I was sure he was going to be a real charmer when he grew up. If I ever saw him again, after I left.

"Bye Sebbie." Abe said.

"We love you." My mother added, and to my upmost surprise blew him a kiss back.

Mia, Eddie and Sebastian left, leaving only the strange man stranded in the doorway.

"Why are you here?" Abe barked.

"I was-" He started.

"Wait, who are you?" I interrupted. "You're not another brother are you?"

"No." He said, laughingly. "I'm your father's business partner."

"So what the Hell are you doing here during a private family affair?" Abe bellowed.

"I bumped into Mia and Sebastian in the hallway, and I had some papers I wanted you to sign, and when Sebbie heard me mention your name, he wanted to come. Then we met Eddie at the door, and we came in. I wouldn't have come if you had told me what you were doing." He said, defensively.

Abe snarled at him. "You can leave, Charlie."

"Don't you want to see the papers?"

"No I'm fine without seeing it right now." Abe said sternly.

"Are you sure?" Charlie asked, the poor man didn't realize that Abe was at the end of his tether.

"I'm fine." Abe said.

Charlie hesitated for a second and Abe lost it. "Will you just leave!" Abe shouted.

Charlie left quickly, looking sheepish.

"You're not very nice to him." I said.

"I don't have to be nice him, I need to work with him. There's a difference."

"Let's not start an argument. " My mother interrupted.

"Why not?" I said, fixing her with a glare. "I know an argument I want to start. Like when exactly you were planning on telling me I had a brother."

"We were always going to tell you, it wasn't like we were going to a hide his existence from you." I cringed internally, knowing that was exactly what I was doing with Ivy. But I had a good reason. "We just didn't know how to tell you, after you'd returned so suddenly. That's why I left so quickly this afternoon. I didn't know how to tell you."

"I have another question. When did the two of you become such… parents?" I asked.

Never in the eighteen years I had lived in the Moroi world, did I remember my mother being so affectionate and loving.

"What do you mean?" My mother asked, her brow furrowing.

"Blowing kisses, Dad wearing jeans, that display you put on in the restaurant, what changed? When did you become all loving and motherly?"

I could swear I saw tears in her eyes, but she turned away for a minute, and when she looked back at me her eyes were clear. I felt bad, but at the same time, I felt she deserved it. It wasn't untrue what I was saying. She'd never been this affectionate with me.

"We always loved you Rose, maybe we just didn't show it enough. After you left your father and I were working together so much, to try and find you, that we just slipped back into old habits. I asked for a transfer from Lord Szelzky about a year later, and became your father's guardian, and about a year after that we had Sebastian."

"So that makes him…?"

"He's 20 months old now." Abe told me, smiling fondly.

"And when we had him, we realized just how much we had missed with you. How much more we should have done. We decided to do parenting better the second time round, and he looks so much like you did. It was like you were with us again."

"You make it sound like I was dead," I said coldly, trying not to show how affected I was by her words.

"For all we knew you were." Abe said.

"So he was the replacement child."

"No. Never." My mother gasped. "He's completely different, he's our son and you're our daughter."

"Sorry stupid comment." I muttered, knowing how obnoxious I sounded. "How did Sebastian know who I was?"

"We've always told him about his sister Rose" Abe told me.

"But he couldn't pronounce it." My mother broke in. "So he calls you Rosie. We always wanted him to know he had a sister. We didn't want to forget you Rose."

I could feel tears threatening to fall, but I forced them back, instead barking out another question.

"Why was Mia here? I thought you only invited Eddie."

"We did, but Mia looks after Sebastian occasionally, to earn her some extra cash. I didn't know if she knew you were back so I didn't mention it. I just suggested that she take Sebastian to the park." My mother told me.

"Oh," I breathed, not having the strength to ask any more questions. My mom took a step forward. "Rose, can we just stop with all this accusatory questioning and just talk?" Her eyes pleaded with me, and I eventually caved, taking a seat on a nearby couch. I was worried about the types of things they would want to know, but much to my surprise they held back. I only said as much as I wanted too, and wasn't pressured to say anything else. In fact I barely said anything, instead my mom and Abe explained everything that had been going on with them these past four years, and just for a moment, it felt like I had never left. But that moment soon ended as I glanced at my watch and realized that I had been here for over an hour. Ivy and her Frozen DVD would be waiting for me.

"I have to go now. I've got a… meeting. So see you later then?" I asked cautiously.

"Of course." Abe reassured me.

"Bye Rosemarie."

"Bye Mom." I said placing a hand on her shoulder. "I will see you soon."

"Okay." She said as I turned to walk away, but she grabbed my hand.

"I just want you to know Rose. Yes we love Sebastian, but we also love you, so much. I missed you every day you were gone. Sebastian never replaced you."

Her words were so loving, and so kind and I kissed her cheek as I left the room. So why did I feel so betrayed, and… jealous?

I walked down the hallways slowly, trying to decipher my feelings towards both my mother and Sebastian, which must have been why I didn't notice that Lissa, and her party, which included Christian and Dimitri were walking down the hallway towards me. Lissa was clutching Christian's hand and was discussing something with Dimitri.

They didn't notice me either until I was only a few feet away.

Lissa stopped, her party halting with her, her face changing into an emotionless mask.

"Why are you here? This isn't where the complex's being housed." She barked, both Christian and Dimitri avoiding eye contact with me.

"I was visiting my parents, and… "I forced the word through my teeth. " My brother."

"You met Sebastian." She said, looking surprised.

"Yes." I answered shortly.

"He's always wanted to meet his sister, pity he won't really get a chance to before you disappear again, and disappoint him just as you do everyone else." I gaped at her, my heart breaking all over again at her harsh words, but she just stormed down the hallway, Christian following. I was in no mood, nor position to argue with her. She was right.

I felt rather than saw Dimitri hesitate, and then he moved towards me.

"Rose." He called, grabbing my hand. I tried not to show how much it felt just to feel his touch again. He looked down and seemed to realize what he'd done, and dropped my hand. He looked at me, and though I tried to keep a calm face, he saw through it. He saw the pain and the hurt and the confusion, just like he always did.

His eyes softened and he gave me a small smile.

"I just wanted to tell you Sebastian's a sweet child, and that I'm sure he'll love you."

He always knew what to say, unlike me.

"Thank you." I told him finally, not knowing how to tell him how much his words meant. He nodded and followed after Lissa, leaving me stranded in the hallway staring after him.

"What happened?" Jade asked immediately as she opened the door, seeing my face.

"I'll tell you tomorrow." I said wearily. "I just want to take Ivy back to our apartment and watch a movie and forget about it."

"That's fine." Jade said softly. Ivy appeared behind her, clutching, to my horror, a new Frozen karaoke DVD.

"Mummy, look what Aunty Jade bought me. We can sing!" She squealed, throwing herself at me, in a way very similar to what Sebastian had done earlier. Thought this time I picked her up, and kissed her forehead softly.

"Hey, my little angel. Say a big thank you to Aunty Jade." I told her, brushing the hair from her face.

"Thanks Aunty Jade, see you tomorrow." She chirped, blowing her a kiss. Just like her Uncle. Shit, she had an uncle who was younger than her, that would go well.

"Bye, bye Princess." Jade cooed. "See you tomorrow?" She directed at me with a knowing look that promised questions.

"Sure. Thanks Jade." I said, closing the door.

We quickly arrived at the apartment, and I put Ivy down as she ran to get her blue dress, which she said reminded her of Elsa's. Again it was another one of Jade's purchases.

"Have you had dinner?" I called.

"Yes, we had chips and fish fingers, with Uncle Ian. " She called back, finding her dress and starting to pull it over her head. She'd forgotten to take off her jeans though, and I tugged them down, and helped her put on the dress, smoothing her rumpled hair back.

"Have you had dinner Mummy?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.

"No sweetheart." I told her.

"Are you going to?" She questioned. I shook my head. She looked at me strangely, unsure why I wasn't eating but ultimately decided Frozen was more important than my appetite, and ran to sit on the couch.

I popped Frozen into the DVD player, and settled Ivy on the couch, with a blanket and a glass of water.

"I'm just going to have a shower, sweetheart, and then I'll come and watch the rest of the movie with you."

"But you'll miss the beginning." She said, her eyes widening in horror.

"That's okay." I told her, ruffling her hair. "I'll live.

I turned the shower on the highest temperature, and stripped off before stepping in, catching sight of the scars and stretch marks that littered my body in the mirror. I stepped under the stream of hot water, and I finally let myself cry.


A bit of a sad ending there, but I'll assure you that Rose is coming to a point where she will confront her problems, instead of running from them. Also please review and tell me you what you think and get me to a 100 reviews that would be wonderful! Have a great day( or night) depending where you are.