It had been six years since Destini had officially became a Mercer. She was now 16 and all of her brothers had moved on with their lives to pursue their dreams. Whether or not they were successful with that was a different story. Jack had been the last one to move out. He went to New York City to pursue his music. Jerry stayed in Detroit with his wife and two little girls. Angel had gone off to the Marines, a decision that shocked the whole family but made them proud. Bobby, well Bobby was a different story. Nobody really knew what Bobby ended up doing with his life after being kicked off the hockey team he was playing for. One thing was for sure though, it wasn't legal. They were never quite sure where he ended up either. They heard from him from time to time, but never got many details from him.

As for Destini, she missed her brothers like none other but knew she didn't need to rely on them to protect or support herself. She loved her family, there was no doubt about that, but Evelyn had raised her to be an independent girl. Destini knew that it saddened her mom a bit to think that she would only be in the house for another two years before going off to college. She also knew that her mom was very proud of her. Destini already had her future planned; she was going to go to college for social working. She knew that she would be able to make a true difference in the world with that career.

It was the Tuesday a week before Thanksgiving. All of her brothers were going to be coming home, even Bobby. She was so excited. Currently Destini was lying on her bed listening to music and doing homework for the next day. She had a bunch of math and anatomy to do. Math wasn't her strongest subject, but she had Jerry help her out from time to time when he could. Destini attention was pulled away from her work by her mother's shout from the bottom of the stairs.

"You want to go to the store with me to get the turkey? You can drive."

Destini smiled excitedly and nodded before realizing that her mom couldn't see it. She chuckled before shouting back, "Yeah give me a minute and I'll be down."

Destini applied a thin coat of lip gloss, reapplied her eyeliner, and put her shoes on, before jogging down the stairs and taking the keys from her mom's outstretched hand. She kissed her cheek as she walked by. "Thanks mom."

She drove them down to a corner store about ten minutes away from the house. It was one that they frequently went to when they needed to get a few things. The store clerks knew the Mercer family well and loved Evelyn. Well, everyone loved Evelyn. While they were in the store Evelyn caught a boy she knew trying to steal some candy. Destini was off picking out snacks when she heard her mother talking to the boy and started to laugh.

"Okay Darnell, so the candy just jumped in your pocket huh? I don't think so. Samir is going to call the police now."

"But I…" Darnell tried to speak

"Samir, the police." The clerk picked up the phone and acted like the police put him on hold.

"That's what happens when you steal. There are going to be consequences." Evelyn told Darnell.

"But it's just some damn candy. I don't wanna go to jail." The boy whined to her afraid.

"You can probably get away with stealing sometimes, but sooner or later you are going to get caught. Is that the way you want to live your life?"

"No."

"I believe you are worth more Darnell. But you gotta believe it too."

"I hear you Miss Evelyn."

"Are you bullshitting me?"

"No ma'am."

"Well you better not be. Now tell Samir."

"I'm sorry. I won't steal anymore."

"It's alright." Samir told him as he hung up the phone.

"Boy did you get lucky. Now I want you to go straight home. You shouldn't be out at this time of night anyway."

"Thank you Miss Evelyn." He said before running out of the store.

Evelyn chuckled and said a few words to Samir as she went back to look for a turkey. Both her and Destini heard men burst into the store and yell at Samir to give them the money from the register. They heard Samir ask them not to kill him then shots. Evelyn gasped and Destini bit her lip to keep from making any sound. She heard her mother's gasp from a few aisles over and hoped that the shooters hadn't.

Luck wasn't with the Mercer women that evening. Destini heard the shooters go over to her mom and taunt her by playing a little Russian roulette before shooting her. She tried to hold her scream in but couldn't. This was the second mom that she had lost to a gun. She didn't know why it was happening to them but didn't really care to think about it at the moment. The men came over and she tried to get up and run away.

One of the guys grabbed her arm and stroked her cheek with the gun making her flinch back. "Where you think you're going sexy? We're not done with you yet." He pushed her onto the ground and started to kiss her and touch her. She tried to fight him off, but he just pushed the gun harder into her cheek. Soon sirens were heard.

"C'mon man, we gotta get out of here." Said the other man.

The guy that was on top of her hit her on the head with the butt of the gun. The last thing she thought before going unconscious was, Why am I always the one to get knocked out with a gun?

After she woke up in the hospital everything was a blur. She knew that Jerry came to see her and stayed with her over night. He had fought with the nurses who had tried to tell him to leave. Police came and asked her questions after being given the okay by her doctor. She told them as much as she could, but she hadn't seen much of anything. She remembered that Jerry was given temporary custody of her until Evelyn's will was read. That was the last thing she heard before passing out once again, this time from exhaustion.