After Uncle Consort died, Mom started acting strangely. She was quieter than usual, and spent more time with Aurora, Darien, and me instead of working at Sugarqube so often.




Grandma was also playing with us a lot more, too, because she'd finally retired. It was great having both Mom and Grandma around so much!




Otherwise, everything was normal. Darien and I did everything together from reading to swimming to playing cops and robbers...




And Aurora was busy flirting with every boy she knew to pay much attention to us.




And Grandpa was still starting fires in the kitchen on a regular basis. It's a wonder our house never burned down.




One sad afternoon, everything changed. I heard strange, eerie music coming from Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom. When I got there, I could've sworn I saw a hooded figure and two hula dancers, but in a second they were gone. And Grandma was gone, too.




Grandpa took her death very hard, and often went into the mausoleum to cry. They'd been married for two hundred years, it seemed like, so I could imagine how empty he felt without her. I know I felt empty.




Grandpa made an extra effort to be loving and caring now that he was the only grandparent we had. I think he doted on me the most because I reminded him so much of Grandma.




Not too long after we lost Grandma, Grandpa left us, too, to join her in heaven. It seemed to me that he died of a broken heart. I hoped they were together again, but I still missed them and wished they were still with us.




As time went on, I kept having the feeling that they were still with us, looking over us and keeping us safe.




Once I was a teenager, I started to remind even myself of Grandma. I was serious-minded like she'd been, and resembled her more than Aurora and Darien did.




Speaking of my siblings, Aurora left for college just as I'd turned 13. Though I would need sisterly advice at that age, Aurora and I had never been close, so I wouldn't have learned much from her whether she was at home or away at school.




Darien was almost on his way to college, too, though he was only planning to go for the parties. All he cared about was having fun. Loving knowledge and the eternal quest for it, I couldn't understand his pleasure-seeking attitude. But we were still great friends despite our differences.




I loved working at Sugarqube with Mom—it helped me build skills I'd need one day soon. If I'd learned anything from the charisma and charm Dad used with his business clients, I knew that you had to have strong people skills to become a criminal mastermind—and someday, I would.




At home, I was just another neat-freak in a family full of neat-freaks—there was never a speck of dust or grime in our house!




After I finished my homework and chores, and did my daily studying on mechanics and logic, I let Darien drag me to clubs and cafes downtown. I have to admit, we always had a ton of fun.




Though I wasn't as focused on romance as Aurora, I still would've liked having a boyfriend. But the only handsome guy I met downtown was a bartender who was a bit too old for me. Nonetheless, we struck up a friendship, and he gave Darien and I free Cokes all the time.




Before I knew it I was graduating high school and applying to college. Just before I left, Mom and Dad told me how proud they were of me, and that they hoped I would continue the family line. I told them I would—but first, I'd have to get a degree and start my career.




Sim State University was set in a lovely college town with a grand library, a music hall, and a student center. I spent a lot of time at those places studying and working on research papers.




I tried making new friends whenever I could, but the other students weren't always eager to get to know me.




They were never afraid to take advantage of my 4.0 GPA, though. My tutoring kept several students from being put on academic probation.




There was one person, however, who wanted to spend time with me without an agenda: Adam Graham, the bartender who was no longer too old for me. He often came to my dorm after a shift at the Lulu Lounge to let loose and have fun.




It wasn't long before our friendship became something more.




By the end of my freshman year, Adam and I were spending nearly every weekend together, dancing the night away downtown or simply cuddling in front of the fountatin at the student center.




Eventually, we added my bedroom to our list of favorite places to be. I knew I wasn't Adam's first, but I didn't mind—in fact, I was glad to have someone to learn the art of love from.




When my relationship with Adam started to affect my grades, I had to slow things between us down and make my studies my first priority. Now my weekends were dedicated to assignments instead of to Adam.




We didn't stop seeing each other entirely. I still dropped by Lulu Lounge once a week to spend an hour with him during his shift, though I knew he had other girlfriends as well. Adam had never been the type of guy to settle down with just one woman.




I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in mathematics, and moved back to Veronaville—but not back to the same house. Now that we were quite wealthy thanks to Mom's booming business, she and Dad decided to buy a bigger house to better fit the next generation of our family.




Adam started coming over to the house more and more often, and we always had a great time together, though I still couldn't make a commitment to him. I'd finished my college education, but now I was working on my career.




With my high level of skills and Dad's connections, I was able to enter Veronaville's crime ring at one of the highest ranks, as a smuggler. It wasn't long before I learned what I needed to about the city's underbelly to become a criminal mastermind.




Now that I had my life in order, it was time to make Adam a larger part of it. Aside from regularly dining downtown and catching the latest movie at the cinema, he was spending many nights in my bed.




Although things between Adam and I were going wonderfully, I was terrified of what our future held when I began having morning sickness, and I realized I was pregnant.




Mom and Dad were both thrilled to be expecting a grandchild, but I wasn't nearly as happy. Adam and I were barely even a serious couple, and he wasn't the sort to be tied down by a baby.




I kept my pregnancy a secret from Adam for as long as I could, but eventually, I had to tell him that he was going to be a father... and hope that the chains of this responsibility wouldn't drive him out of my life forever.