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If I’d had any doubts previously about the truth?

That video fixed them for good. It left no doubts even as it made me feel sick and nauseated.

In fact after seeing it, I had to run from the room and throw up.

I had been floored when I finally had to face the whole truth.

To say that she had never been sane would be putting it mildly.

Nothing she ever told me had been true, even her true name had been a lie.

I realized that almost every story, every detail she had told to me had been fantasy or a straight up lie.

After that, I cried myself to sleep every night.

That lasted for more than a week. Then the following week, I wanted to crawl up the walls in my room.

I felt suffocated. Trapped. Not knowing what to do with my life, I couldn’t sleep and I barely ate.

I wanted to run from here. Make a new life.

Find myself. Unlike others who have used the phrase…

I really needed to find myself . Find out what new life I could make for myself.

Tito helped me a lot. He took me to the dining room for meals.

He showed me that no one resented me or blamed me.

He took me out to the luscious green property that the estate encompassed.

Our quiet walks helped to stabilize me. His sense of humor helped to heal me a bit as well.

But when he told me that Deacon was searching for me?

I felt like D might have the answer as to why his mother had taken me as a child.

He might be the only one who did know. After all, he knew the nefarious and abhorrent truth about his mother while Della and I never had a clue.

What people knew about O went against what she had shown me.

She had been nothing but loving and kind to me.

Took me to Disney World. Threw birthday parties for me.

Took me shopping all the time. Sent me to school then to college and loved me for real.

So who would know I wasn’t hers at all? I certainly never guessed.

The question I could not get out of my head was…

why? This was the one thing I could never figure out in all my meanderings and wonderings about this whole thing.

Why me? Why take a little girl from her family then pretend she was your own?

Especially when O had supposedly been cruel, hateful and vicious.

And she had abandoned one child already by then.

I needed the answer. No one could tell me though.

Not Jared, not my twin, Julianna, not Glory, nor could anyone in this household tell me why she had done it.

I truly felt like I couldn’t go on with my life until I had the answer.

I decided that I had to track Deacon down. Maybe that was why he’d been looking for me. Even if it wasn’t why, maybe he could tell me the truth.

I felt wound up now, trying to think of how I could get away from here.

I knew of a few hideouts where I could possibly find Deacon.

Would they just let me leave? Would Tito help me?

I know he cared about me, but it might get him into trouble.

He was part of the family but he also had a job to do.

Bodyguard…I paused. Dang, the man was a sexy bodyguard at that.

Yes, despite my turmoil and the way my life seemed to be on hold…

I was really attracted to him. I recognized the look in his eyes too.

He definitely felt attracted to me as well.

But I couldn’t be so low to use that in order to get him to help me.

I heard a buzz. Looking over to the nightstand, I spotted my cell phone. Only Julianna had the number and no one else ever called me. I walked over and picked it up to read the text message.

‘V… I couldn’t answer your questions in front of them all. I am sorry it came out the way it did. I still love my little sister, no matter where you came from. Please reply…. D’

I sucked a breath in and sat down on the bed to type in my reply:

‘I have been so messed up since I was brought here, D. My whole life has been a lie. No one understands that I need to know why she took me from my family to raise me as her own. Are you saying that you know why?’ I hit send and waited as I almost held my breath.

He texted back: ‘I know why or rather I found out why after they let me loose. I never knew the truth all along though, sis. I only knew when I met Julianna in that deposition. I swear I didn’t.’

I raised my gaze to the ceiling. Dare I believe him? He had always been good to me and treated me just like he said, as his little sister.

Another text came in from him… ‘ Can you meet me somewhere?’

I paused and wondered…Could I? I replied, ‘I’m not sure and you do know that they are still after you, right?’

He sent me a responding text, ‘Yeah, like always. I have to leave the country because of that but before I do, I want to see you and give you what I found.’

‘What did you find?’ I texted back as my heart pounded furiously in my chest. I waited a minute then another and nervously bit at my fingernail.

Finally, he answered, ‘The truth. I found out why Mom did it.’

I rolled my eyes. Mom. I wanted to scream that she was not my mother. Didn’t he get that part yet? Instead, I typed back, ‘Ok. I will try to find a way out.’

‘You need to hurry, I only have 2 days until my flight.’