“I’m sorry, okay?” He questioned in a manner so forceful it could have easily been mistaken as yelling.

“Is that all you are going to say, even after all these years? You left me. You took our child and started a new life in California! And that’s all you have to say for yourself?” The women yelled. Victoria awoke to a piercing sound coming from her t.v. She put on her glasses, and gazed at the big screen filled with chaos. Sirens, ambulances, people in all different medical fields splashed through the almost flooded highway. The cameras displayed a devastating picture of two smashed cars. One was smoking and the other was flipped over in a ditch.

“Be careful out there folks,” the Beverly Hills newscast warned, “there has been a horrific accident. Head on collision between a red Lamborghini Veneno Roadster and a black and white Nissan gtr convertible. Three people have yet to be identified so far…” The news reporter rambled on and on about another subject, while Victoria got up to find her Pomsky, Rori, who she had gotten for her 15th birthday last year. She plops Rori on the pillow beside her since neither of them have the ability to fall back asleep. The announcer’s voice seemed to blur in the backround of her thoughts. That was until she heard, “Annnd we’re back! We were able to identify one of the two people in the second car. Ashley Bailey…” The glass Victoria had reached over to put on the nightstand crashed into what would be perceived as a million pieces. Everything around her dimmed at the thought of her mom being in that awful crash. They were supposed to have a fun night, away from stress. They deserved it. Her parents went out for dinner after finishing the sequel to one of their most popular movies, Attack of the Clone, based on the popular book of the same title. “Local witnesses state that an older male escaped the second car after it had flipped. We can’t help but ask, did he stage this?”

“I can’t believe this!” Victoria shouted at the t.v., “How could he say that? He doesn’t even know my Dad and now he is accusing him of injuring people. I’m sure he’s innocent even if no one else does.” She argued at the thought of him committing such a despicable crime. She laid there thinking about went down, wondering if her dad would ever come back, and why he even left in the first place. She then drifted off into her own world and fell asleep.

“I know it was wrong. I never should have left, but I didn’t want our only child in danger.” The man said once again as if he was yelling in a whispered tone.

“It’s funny, now that you’re confronted you call her our daughter. From what I remember, she wasn’t my daughter when you made the decision to pack up and leave.”

“Come on, let’s not do this right now.” The man said as he leaned further into the shadowed corner. Victoria woke up to a warm tongue gliding across her face. Rori perked her ears up signaling she wanted to be fed, while Victoria, once again, put on her oversized glasses to look at the clock strike nine thirty AM. The bright sun blazed in the window. Today felt like a good day already. She was on her way to her grandmother’s house, who she hadn’t seen since she was one.  Even though Rori and Victoria were being sent off to New York like cargo on a ship, it was a good chance to get dirt on why her Dad may have ran away. They filled in the close family members, who were eighteen and older, with the most information, and that was just what Victoria needed to solve the real truth before the story blows up. When she got off the plane, she found her grandmother holding up a sign with Victoria’s name on it and her own.

“Elizabeth Brooks” Victoria said out loud trying to see if the name meant anything to her.

“You must be Victoria Bailey.” The skinny, wrinkled old woman said for clarification.

“Yes. You must be Elizabeth Brooks” Victoria added at her first attempt to be nice. It was hard for her, since she was mad about moving back to New York with someone who never came to visit her or even call her for that matter.

“You look just like your mother” Elizabeth stated, trying to break the awkward silence that filled the air on the ride home from the airport.

“No, actually I don’t look anything like her” Victoria snapped. She couldn’t handle being with Elizabeth for the time being.

“Oh that’s right. I forgot” She answered, almost giving the impression that she was holding it over to Victoria’s head that she knew something Victoria didn’t.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Victoria, once again, said in a tone ever so angry. She pet Rori,  trying to sooth herself from the madness running through her head.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it love,” Elizabeth concluded as they reached the door to the house. The house wasn’t as big as her house back in Beverly Hills, California, but it would do. Tomorrow would mark a week since she’d seen her father, and she was ready to escape the house and Elizabeth already. She unpacked her bags and turned on her music to go to bed.

The next day, Victoria woke up in a better mood than she expected. She didn’t like switching schools, but back home, school got her away from her abusive mother and would hopeful get her away from Elizabeth. She made sure to get there early, so she would have time to tour the school before she had any classes.

“Excuse me” Victoria said confidently.

“Ah yes, are you Victoria?” The secretary asked before she added, “I am Mrs. Ludwig”

“You persuaded Elizabeth that I should come here before my classes?” Victoria questioned in order to verify.
“Yes, Naomi darling, would you be kind enough to show Miss Bailey around?” Mrs. Ludwig asked as her thin framed glasses fell down her face.

“Yes! I love showing around new students instead of going to class” Naomi said as she skipped out the door before anyone had the chance to question her.

“Well, you sure are energetic on a Monday morning” Victoria stated as her last remark, because she remembered that she actually wanted friends at this school. Victoria’s day went swell after that. At lunch, she sat with Naomi and her two friends, Tyler and Gabe.

The first few weeks passed by fairly fast. Victoria and Elizabeth became more and more close every day that passed by. Almost as close as Tyler, Gabe, Naomi, and Victoria had gotten over the last few weeks during and after school. Her dreams got more and more real every night. She now knows the mystery lady, Athena, was in the hospital because of a car crash and the man had a voice like her dad’s, strong but hiding despair. She feels like she has a connection with them, but she can’t figure out why. Victoria thought about her dreams for a while, trying to gather all the information that was forced upon her, before she drifted asleep again.

“I don’t know how many times I have to say sorry, but now we have more important things. People think I’ve abandoned Victoria. They think I've ran away from yet another problem in my life, so let’s focus on our priorities here.” The man demanded in a low voice.

“I know and I’m sorry you had to find out from Elizabeth instead of me, but I’m ready to fix that I’ve been ready for about 15 years now” Athena said following the man into the apartment. “Dustin, when are we going to tell Victoria the truth?” She asked.

“When we get done dealing with our other problem first,” he replied, stepping into the light for the first time. He looked badly injured as if he were in some kind of plane wreck.

“Dad?” Victoria questioned half asleep as if her dream was real and he could hear her. “Dad! That was him!” Victoria shouted as she flung back the covers to her silky rose bed set. She usually woke up happy in the mornings as long as she had coffee waiting downstairs, but today, today was different. She began to question her dreams. She started to think aloud, “What was the other problem, and why were they talking about Elizabeth or ME for that matter? Wait... they said they had a daughter together that my dad took to move to California. I moved to Cali when I was only 1 year old. I didn’t look anything like my mother either.”

“Good Morning, your coffee is already made up downstairs if you want it. Just let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you,” Elizabeth informed her.

“How about you start by telling me the truth,” Victoria suggested clearly fired up.

“Excuse me?” Elizabeth asked slowly trying to brace herself for the storm that was building in Victoria’s blue eyes.

“I know about Athena and who she really is. I know my dad took me and left my mom, I know that was because of you, and I know for sure that I want answers”

“The dreams, I knew it would happen soon. You do deserve the truth and here it is. About ninety eight years ago, a young lady, who went by the name Betty, and her husband lived next to this old woman who locked herself in her cellar all day except to go to bed or to water her roses. She watered them with what looked like steamy water. People all around the area were convinced that It was a formula to have a long healthy life, so everyone would try to steal a flower. However, no one succeeded. Unfortunately Betty fell ill before she was supposed to give birth. Her husband secretly climbed over the garden fence and stole three roses from the patch. He drained the liquids into a bowl as Betty drank from it. She soon gave birth to a baby who she had named, Elizabeth.”

“Was that you?” Victoria interrupted.

“Yes, but what my parents didn’t know is that the only lady had cursed the rose before my mother drank from it. The old woman believed that if you took the easy way out by taking her roses then you would never be able to take the easy way out again. The flowers were carefully injected with a generation curse, and you would be the last one since he only took three flowers. Our family was blessed with the curse of honesty. We receive dreams spilling out the untold truth.”

“So why did my dad leave?” She wanted to know.

“I told your dad the truth about our family. At first he was mad that your mom didn’t tell him before they had a baby, but he soon understood. He left to go marry Ashley. The woman I was telling you about, the one with the roses, is immortal. She took place of Ashley to go undercover. Your dad married her to keep an eye on what she does. If she tried to hurt you or anyone else in the family your dad would have direct access. Hold on, turn the t.v. up.”

“Why?” Victoria started to question before she had a chance to realize what was going on.

“I am very sorry to announce, Ashley Bailey presumed dead. She was found about five feet away from her bed with a cracked skull. I send my condolences to the Bailey family as they deal with this hard death. As for you Attack of The Clone fans, I am not sure if there will ever be a sequel now.” The news reporter, once again, updated the viewers. There was a small pause of silence, but was soon interrupted by a loud, obnoxious knock on the door. Victoria headed downstairs and opened the door. Nothing was there except a note in a small envelope inviting Victoria back home to attend her step mother’s funeral. It wasn’t long before Victoria packed her bags and headed back to her old house in California. Victoria arrived at the door of her house. Her old childhood flashed between her eyes. She could remember the time she first learned how to ride her bike to the last time she walked out of that hallowed door frame. She turned the doorknob and stepped inside. “Dad! Where have you been?” Victoria asked as if she had never found out what happened.

“I’m sorry I missed your birthday, I really am, but I’m sure you went through enough figuring out everything that went down after you were born. It wouldn’t have helped if I was with you, so I had to slip away for a month or two.” Her dad added.

“You came back for the funeral?” Victoria assumed in a questioned manor waiting for clarification.

“Yes, and of course for you, and do you happen to know who made the funeral invitations?” Her dad replied.
“No, actually I thought you did. Well I am going to go get dressed. I’ll meet you there.” Victoria told her dad as she ran upstairs with Rori. At the funeral, everyone besides Victoria and her dad were in tears. They all felt emotionally connected to her, but they didn’t even know her that well, Victoria didn’t even know her that well. Her and Rori stayed after the ceremony just to say a real goodbye since she would never come to the real reason what happened the way it did. The breeze started to pick up on this cloudy day. A lady, in an all black long dress, passed Victoria. She walked over to the casket, put down three roses and laughed. The lady turned so quickly she created her own breeze. She walked closer to Victoria, looking around for other people to be present. She lifted her veil.

“Did you like the invitations? I made sure to put roses on there for myself. Didn’t they warn you, I am immortal” Ashley teased as she dove into a private limo and sped off. Victoria kept replaying what happened in her head as she drove home. She decided not to tell anyone. She didn’t want to make things more complicated than they already are. Besides, It’s not a lie, it’s the untold truth.