Since we had a few days off for Thanksgiving, I tried to keep myself as occupied as possible to keep from dwelling on the whole Lysander situation too much. It was harder when Auntie was at work, but luckily I had borrowed several books from the library before the break and so I was making my way through them during my time alone in the apartment. My mind was world's away deep in the middle of a fantastic plot when the door suddenly slammed open.

"What do you MEAN 'he's unavailable to take your call.' I'm just asking if he's changed phone numbers or not. I'm his sister, not some stalker," Auntie growled into her phone as she barged into the apartment and then slammed the door behind her.

I blinked in shock as I watched her kick off her high heels down the hallway and concern flooded me. I had never seen her act like this. Not to mention she was home almost two hours early, which was super rare. I watched in silent confusion as she tapped her foot impatiently against the floor while looking over towards the kitchen.

"Look, could you at least tell me if he's alive or not? Honestly, I'm starting to get really freaked out by all of this. Did he get into an accident or something?" Auntie asked, looking to be torn between worry and frustration. 

She finally turned to look in the living room and met my concerned expression. Auntie bit her bottom lip with an extremely worried look, but the person she was talking to on the phone must have answered her because she turned away and sighed.

"Thank you for that at least. Could you please leave a message for Aaron to get back to me as soon as he can?"

There was a slight pause and then Auntie gave the person her name and phone number before finally hanging up with a frustrated sigh. My entire body had gone numb though at the mention of my father's name and I hardly dared even move. Auntie turned and immediately came over, sitting next to me on the couch and taking my hands gently into hers.

"Opal, I don't want to worry you, but have you happened to hear anything from you dad lately?" Auntie asked, her voice now soothing and comforting as she looked at me with a guarded expression.

I swallowed with some difficulty and shook my head, not knowing how to tell Auntie that I hadn't heard from Father even once in all the months I had lived with her. She frowned heavily and sighed, rubbing the backs of my hands with her thumbs in what I thought was meant to be a calming gesture, but was only putting me on edge.

"The thing is, I sent him a copy of the recording of your dance for the talent show this morning," she said slowly. 

Instantly my heart plunged into my stomach as I tried to keep my face from showing the horrible dread that was spreading through me.Auntie sent him a video of me? He doesn't want anything to do with me, that probably made him so upset, I thought in a panic. Auntie's frowning face kept me focused though and I tried my best to just listen to her and not give in to my panicked feelings.

"But my email came back as undeliverable," Auntie explained with a heavy frown. "I've been emailing him almost weekly with updates on your test results and how you're doing so he wouldn't worry. He only responded a few times, but I know the divorce has been extremely messy so I figured he was probably just too distracted to respond much..."

My entire body went cold when I heard this. I had no idea that Auntie had been bothering Father with that kind of news. He hadn't shown any interest whatsoever in my schooling when I lived with him. I was shocked he responded even once and not just immediately deleted them.

"So I double and triple checked and tried to just send a normal email without an attachment but they still came back as undeliverable. Then I tried to call him and it said that his phone number no longer existed!"

I blinked in confusion at this and felt my brow furrow deeply. Auntie held my hands tightly in hers and I could see she was struggling to tell me all of this. But even more than that, I thought I could feel her hands trembling slightly. I was shocked when I realized that my strong Auntie may actually be genuinely frightened.

"I was just on the phone with his karate school and they said that he couldn't take my call. But they did say he was there, just that they couldn't give me any details," Auntie said, looking at me and stroking my cheek as if I was the one needing to be comforted. 

I couldn't think of anything to say though and I felt my heart aching dully as Auntie forced herself to smile at me.

"He was probably just caught in a scam or was getting a lot of junk mail. I'm going to try and call your mom and see if she knows anything."

"No!" I gasped out, gripping Auntie's hand tightly. Auntie's eyes widened in shock at my reaction, but I couldn't allow her to get too involved with my parents.

"Mother... was very upset when she left. And you said their divorce isn't going smoothly. I doubt she would know how to contact him," I said, desperately trying to come up with an excuse for Auntie to not contact my mother. Things could only get worse if Mother was reminded of how I had ruined her life now that she was finally free of me.

"But I have to do something," Auntie said, her voice strained. "Your father can't just disappear like this. He has you to think about."

My eyes slowly widened as I began to understand why Auntie was so upset. Father abandoned his family in his pursuit of karate when Auntie was very little. She'd told me the story of how she hired a private detective to track him down after her parents died because she felt so alone... To her, my father was her older brother that had already disappeared on her once. She was probably terrified that he might do the same thing again.

I bit my inner lip gently as I tried to think of what I should do. My biggest priority in life was to return as much of the love and kindness that Auntie had given to me over the years as I possibly could. Even though I was terrified to come in contact with my father again... I didn't want her to lose her brother because of me.

I really do ruin everything, I thought in despair as I slowly looked up again to meet Auntie's eyes that were swimming with repressed emotion. This is all my fault.

"Grandpa might know..." I forced myself to say, thinking of the stately business tycoon that my mother had brought me to meet only a handful of times throughout my life.

My mind drifted into a memory as I pictured my grandfather in my mind's eyes.

"Would you hurry up? The sooner we get there the sooner you can leave," Mother said harshly as she tapped her foot outside of my open bedroom door.

I quickly put on the lusciously soft burgundy long-sleeved shirt that Mother had brought home with her today. She had told me out of the blue that I was coming with her to a party my grandfather was throwing since he wanted to see me. I had never been to a formal event like this before, but thankfully Auntie bought me a beautiful floor-length white skirt when she last visited and the two clothing items together made the most elegant outfit I had ever worn.

"Do something with your hair at least," Mother snapped when I turned to go up to her. 

I blinked in confusion, looking down at my hair that I had pulled into a side braid earlier today. Mother let out an annoyed "tsk" sound before grabbing my hair, which was the exact same shade as hers, and made quick work of releasing it from its braid. She roughly turned me around and with quick, efficient movements, she made two small braids around the sides of my head and then joined them together and braided them all the way down to rest on my loose hair underneath. \

She then forced me to turn around, making me wince as she held onto a bruise on my upper arm that I had just gotten last night from one of Father's drunken fights. Mother ignored me though and brusquely combed her fingers through my bangs to part them a little differently before nodding with a disgusted look.

"You just had to inherit my face, didn't you?" she muttered darkly before turning away from me.

"Thank you," I said quietly to her back as I followed after her.

Mother barely spared me a glance as we climbed into the limo that grandpa had sent to pick her up. I tried not to gawk at my surroundings and remained silent with my hands folded on my lap as we made the quick ten minute drive to grandpa's estate.

I had a hard time keeping up with Mother as she blew into the grand hall like she owned the place. People called out to her from all sides as she made her way confidently towards a tall man with a full head of silver hair. His eyes were the same green as my mother's and mine and when he noticed Mother approaching they lit up like glimmering emeralds with open affection and warmth.

"There she is! There's my beautiful daughter!" Grandpa said boisterously, completely ignoring the people he had been conversing with and walking over to envelop Mother in a large hug. 

I glanced up to see her smiling with more genuine happiness than I had ever seen before and she went up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

"Hello, Daddy. It's so sweet of you to invite me," she said with a light tone that I never heard when she was at home.

I stood in her shadow, doing my best to just observe silently and be as unobtrusive as I could be. It was obvious though that Mother belonged in this world. Even with the luxurious decorations of Grandpa's grand hall, Mother seemed to stand out like the crowning jewel in an opulent crown. She was tall for a woman, nearly 5'10", and she was wearing a stunning backless black evening gown with her white-blonde hair pulled into an intricate updo. Her makeup was perfect, which was only expected of a professional model, and a matching set of crystal earrings and necklace shimmered against her pale skin.

"I always wish to see my darling daughter. It's so fun to brag about my Crystal to all of my colleagues," Grandpa said dotingly. "Have you met them yet, my dear?"

"I believe we've met on other occasions," Mother said with a professional smile as Grandpa guided her over to the three men he had been speaking with before. 

I followed a step behind mother, keeping hidden as best I could as I observed the men who were greeting Mother with barely contained lust in their expressions. They all wore expensive looking suits and most of them were close to Grandpa's age, so I assumed they were also CEO's or some other bigwigs like my wildly successful Grandpa.

"Crystal dear, did you not bring my granddaughter?" Grandpa asked, startling me into jumping slightly at the unexpected question. 

Mother looked over her shoulder at me and even though she was smiling I could see the warning glint in her green eyes.

"You know I would never disappoint you, Daddy. Here she is," Mother said demurely, reaching back and pressing her palm against my back to push me slowly, but firmly, to come to stand by her.

Not sure of what I was supposed to do, I nodded to my grandpa and his friends without comment. I flinched slightly when a soft finger lifted my chin and I found myself looking up into my grandpa's eyes. His friends all muttered in varying degrees of shock and Grandpa grinned, looking over at them.

"Isn't the resemblance extraordinary? If you put a picture of Crystal when she was a teenager next to Opal then you would think they were twins," Grandpa claimed before stepping back and letting his colleagues stare openly at Mother and I. Mother tittered cutely as she reached out and tapped my cheek a little more firmly than I was expecting.

"I guess my genetics beat out Aaron's," she said with a mild chuckle and Grandpa guffawed like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.

"Ah, that Aaron. It's a pity he couldn't come. Do you know, my daughter's husband is the only reason I am standing before you today?" Grandpa asked with a wide grin. 

His colleagues all looked between themselves in confusion. Grandpa guffawed again and patted me on the head exuberantly.

"After I made my first million, me and my friends at the time went out to celebrate. I was quite drunk after we were done with our revelries and got completely turned around while I was trying to find my hotel," Grandpa explained with a glimmer in his eyes. 

I stood silently, never having heard this story before and feeling incredibly curious.

"You always were terrible with directions, Daddy," Mother said, but her words sounded almost rehearsed and I wondered if he had told this story many times at a party such as this.

"Well, one hardly needs it when they have a GPS built into their phone nowadays," Grandpa said with a chuckle, "but I was too disoriented to even think to call for a taxi. I found myself in some back alley that smelled completely foul. When I tried to leave though, a group of five young men was blocking the way. They all came at me at once and I could barely stand on my own two feet, let alone defend myself. Before they had even gotten two punches in, suddenly someone shoved me to the side. I remember watching as one man took on all five of my attackers and he didn't even seem to break a sweat."

I listened with wide eyes as Grandpa described the scene in great detail and with obvious admiration. It stunned me to hear that Father had once been a protector of the weak, but I couldn't help but picture Father acting heroic and thinking that he could be a real-world superhero if he wanted to be.

"After he knocked my attackers unconscious he helped me up and I promised to pay him handsomely if he worked as my bodyguard for the remainder of the trip. One thing led to another and he became my personal bodyguard for several years. Right up until he married my precious Crystal," Grandpa explained, reaching over and patting Mother's cheek lovingly.

Mother smiled at him indulgently, but I could see the tightness in her mouth and I felt my shoulders slump. It made me sad to know that Mother and Father were on such bad terms because of me. And yet she had to put on a brave face for Grandpa.

I shouldn't have come, I thought to myself sadly.

"Opal needs to get home and prepare for school tomorrow, Daddy," Mother announced with finality in her tone. 

I immediately nodded, grateful that I could leave and not be a burden to my mother's happiness with her father.

"How are you doing in your studies, Opal?" Grandpa asked, causing me to blink in surprise. 

I glanced at Mother out of the corner of my eyes and she stared at me pointedly, silently urging me to answer.

"I have A's in all of my classes, Grandpa," I answered quietly.

Only Auntie had ever asked me about how I was doing in school, so I really wasn't sure what Grandpa would want to hear. His eyes widened slightly at this news and he laughed, patting my shoulder and nearly making me wince from pain from the bruises my long-sleeved shirt was covering.

"How surprising! Crystal always hated school, but having your mother's beauty plus intelligence means you could go far in this world. What wonderful news," Grandpa said with a boisterous laugh and I nervously smiled at him.

"Perhaps you could come join one of my research and development teams after you graduate," one of his colleagues said with an appraising look. 

Mother laughed and I pursed my lips together tightly when her hand gripped my wrist so fiercely it almost felt like she was trying to pop it out.

"She is still just in high school, try not to pressure her too much. I will return as soon as I send her back," she said with a small wave to Grandpa. 

I followed after her quickly, nodding my head in a silent goodbye to Grandpa and his friends before focusing on Mother's back.

"I knew you would embarrass me if I brought you along," I heard Mother hiss as soon as we left the grand hall behind. She jerked me forward and I stumbled slightly before righting myself and looking up at her sadly. "Wait outside for a taxi. And don't expect to get anywhere with your brains. No one will take you seriously when you are beautiful."

I blinked in shock at this sentence, but Mother had already turned her back on me and gone to rejoin the party. Silently I walked out onto the sidewalk in front of the large estate that my grandpa called home and felt a small tear track down my cheek. No matter what I did, I always seemed to cause Mother pain. I wished the sun fairies from the storybook Auntie had given me would come to take me away...

"Opal?" Auntie's voice pulled me out of the sad memory and I blinked, shoving it aside as I realized that Auntie's expression had softened and she was looking at me tenderly. "Are you alright, sweetheart?" she asked and I slowly nodded.

"I'm fine, Auntie. Grandpa was indebted to Father. He may be more willing to help," I said, forcing the words past my tight throat. 

Auntie nodded slowly, and I was surprised and relieved when she didn't ask me for his number. I wouldn't have been able to tell her even if she asked me, after all.

"Don't worry too much, Opal. I'm sure Aaron is just fine and that this is all a big misunderstanding," Auntie said with a bright smile. 

I forced my lips to quirk up in the semblance of a smile and Auntie gathered me into a hug.

"You know, I came home early so I could take you to a movie. You think you're up for it?" she asked, her usual spark of life finally glinting in her brown eyes.

"Always," I replied, hoping that I sounded appropriately cheerful. 

Thankfully Auntie seemed satisfied. After changing into something more comfortable, we left for a night on the town together and I tried to leave behind my memories of my parents far behind me.