“That's a lot to unpack, Henry. Quite a few crosses to bear. Why don't we focus on one at a time, shall we? Let's talk about the alcohol.” I said. It took every ounce of effort to keep my composure. Henry seemed deflated when I directed the conversation down this avenue. Reluctantly he adhered. “What do you want me to say? I drink. I need it. Can't live without. Don't want to. It helps me ease the pain.” “And you don't think that's contributing to your current problem of being lost?” “Contributing? It's the only thing that's helping. If it weren't for the liquor, I'd have absolutely nothing left!” I felt my teeth grinding at his omission. “But you don't think the liquor played a part in that?” I said. My tone was much more aggressive then I'd have liked it to be. I was sitting up, straight as an arrow, staring transfixed on Henry Price. “No! The drink has nothing to do with it, okay? My wife passed and now my daughter won't even speak a word to me. That's the root of my problems!” “Well what about before your wife passed? Did you or did you not already have issue with drinking?” Henry sat up so that he could turn and look my way. We were staring at each other, no longer hiding behind pretense. “So I like to have a drink every now and then,” he said ruefully. “So what? Everyone does. It's normal, ain't it?” “Normal,” I said my teeth clenched. “Is not consuming a bottle of whiskey a day. Normal is drinking one bottle of beer, not an entire case every single day.” He was shouting now. “You don't get to say what's what! You think you know so much! But you don't! You don't know what it's like to lose a wife and have your own daughter cut you out of their life!” I couldn't take it anymore. “No, but I know what it's like to lose a mom!” I gave him a seething gaze. “And you know what? I also know what it feels like to lose a dad.” “I'm. Right. Here!” He bellowed. “You're not!” I was yelling now, nearly at the top of my lungs. “Don't you dare try to pretend you're you. We both know what you've become and I won't have it! I told you- I told you! You either kick your drinking habit to the curb or never speak to me again.” “I lost your mother! Don't you know how hard this is for me?” “No! You were drinking long before she died. Don't give me that crap! You did this! You did this with your drinking! She's gone because of it!” The shouting match had reached such a crescendo that Ivy had to interrupt our session. She crashed through the door, a mortified look on her face. “W-what is going on here!? I can hear you from outside the building! The next client has excused herself!” We both turned to her and felt her ire cast upon us. Our heads hung low and we both offered a sheepish apology of sorts. “I knew this was a bad idea,” Ivy said. “Your open door policy should not have extended towards family. You should have known better! If you two can't continue this conversation peacefully, then I'm going to have to end this meeting immediately.” Henry-my father-apologized as best he could. “I won't be a bother anymore, I just need to get some stuff off my chest.” “Then keep your voices down.” She said. Before she left, she shot me a withering gaze that told me her message went doubly so for me.

“Thanks for coming in such a short notice hun, it was such a last minute meeting Carlos had. If it wasn't for me having to go to New York Fashion Week I would take them with me.” Nikki shook her head, “No it's fine, besides I was just going to go back home earlier. So you saved me.” Janice stood at the door with her straight light brown hair, falling over her shoulders, and her bangs covering her light brown eyes. Her tan skin was the only difference since they were younger. “Why were you going to go back home? Wasn't it you who said you rather gouge your eyes out than to spend vacation with them?” As Niki walked inside, she saw Carol and Carlo watching an animated movie, “Hey, your favorite aunt is here!” Niki walked further inside and straight into the living room where they were watching the TV. Without receiving a glance she sighed, making her way into the kitchen island that separated the living room from the kitchen and dining room. "Thank you so much for doing this." Janice handed her a bottled water to which Niki smiled "It's no problem at all. I didn't have anything else to do." "Well you do, you got your sister's wedding. You should be in Florida by now." a tinge of anxiety grew inside Niki, making her frown. "I see Em told you about her wedding." Janice nodded. "Yea. She had asked for the kids to be the flower girl and ring bearer. I couldn't exactly say no.” "Really? I thought she would ask you to be her godmother of something. I never expected for her to ask me to be one of her maids of honor. We never really got along, so never really crossed my mind. Apparently they have everything and all I need to do is to measure my dress." Janice shook her head. "You're her sister, no matter what your differences are you two will always be sisters. I expected them to tell you sooner, which makes sense since you would've disappeared if you had a heads up. I want to hurry this trip up so I can have enough time to go to the wedding." Niki just stared down at her hand. She knew what was coming next. "Niki--- you're the oldest out of you two, don't you think you should've gotten married before Em?" Niki sighed, forcing a smile. "I don't think that there is someone out there for me. Besides, I was never one to go out and talk to people, you know this. It's understandable why she is ahead in a lot of things. In any case, I don't think age matters when you get married. I don't need anyone anyways. I don't think I'll ever get married, besides I'm glad my sister is getting married. She deserves to be happy." Niki tried to keep her smile but it was slowly fading. Janice smiled getting up in the process. "Alright I get it. Well I should get going if I want to make it back on time. I'll see you in a week, okay?" Niki nodded giving her a quick hug before she walked into the living room to say goodbye to the kids. When she left they all sat down quietly as they continued to watch the movie. Time passed slowly making it difficult to keep focused on the movie, before she knew it was an hour past dinner time. Standing up, she made her way into the kitchen grabbing the essentials to make her specialty, Mac & Cheese. They ate it happily, while they talked some more about the wedding, making them yawn from exhaustion. They walked upstairs to get ready, finding their beds their heads hit the pillow, automatically falling into a deep sleep. Once the kids were safe inside their beds, Niki made her way downstairs. She was about to lie down on the couch again when she heard a key turning the lock on the door.She got up and cautiously walked to open it, surprise taking over her face as she sees a young looking guy with light skin and light brown eyes that were mostly covered by his black medium length hair, his curly locks hiding bits of his eyes. He was tall, which distracted Niki from her current situation at hand. This guy was exactly like Janice, except he was obviously a guy. She felt a strange pull towards him that she decided to ignore. She couldn't stand the awkwardness of the situation. "How may I help you?"She asked trying to stay calm. She was never good with talking to guys and that irritated her. The guy smiled sweetly "My names Adrian, what's yours?”

“Why didn't you run away?” the interviewer sat with her hands placed together in front of her as she waited for the response. “I wanted to, so badly. I honestly never left because financially I was to scared to be on my own. For me, if I had ran away I would have cut all ties to them. So financially it was my only choice. Then I turned 18 and started to work. At that time I was told to help with paying bills and slowly they were placed on me entirely. I was pretty much coaxed into staying for as long as I did.” she nodded and continued her question “When did you decide to leave?” “Actually, all the way up to now they've stayed with me. 4 years ago I bought my house and they moved in behind me. Since our childhood we've made peace with how we were raised and the things we've been through. I don't hold any resentment and we live peacefully now. I'm mostly on the road so I rarely see them but when I do we have quality family time.” the blonde smiled “That's very sweet of you, I'm happy you were able to find your peace. Romantically, is that something that has happened in your life?” Melanie laughed “I was wondering when that question was going to come up. My love life has actually been getting better. There's some ups and downs but over all quite interesting.” a shocked look graced the interviewers face “Please do tell. We're all quite interested in hearing about your adventures.” Melanie gave a small smile and nodded. “It's not much, I've only had two past relationships they ended pretty quickly because we could never see emotionally eye to eye. There was one that wanted to much from me, and there was one that wanted very little. In the end, I ended with neither. Then when I had made peace with living alone and just focusing on my career, he showed up.” “I see, so are we allowed to meet the one who has melted the Ice Princess' heart?” “I've never understood how that nickname came to be. I would love to out my relationship, but that needs to be discussed by us. For right now there's no hurry.” “Aww, well I wish you two all the best and we're actually coming to a close but one last question tell us how was it that you two met? We understand not being able to tell us who he is but how about a how?” Melanie let out another laugh and conceded “Okay, okay, I'll give a short detail how we met.” She adjusted herself more comfortably. Smiling back at her interviewer she thought back to the moment that she met him. “A year ago today actually. I was out of the country doing a series of projects. At that time I was working on a series and a movie. I had a meeting with the producers, I believe it was during the day. that I had to visit before going back to the hotel. I walked in and there's people running around and just busy with their work. So as I was walking in he was walking out and we bumped into each other. Of course I recognized him but he obviously didn't know me. At least that's what I thought. We excuse ourselves and went our way. Well the Producer that wanted to work with me had introduced me to the ‘actors'.” She paused and looked behind the interviewer. He was standing there, with a smile on his face as he reminisced the day they met, the day that had ignited the love that he feels towards Melanie. She smiled and looked back at the person in front of her. “They walk in and there walks in the one person I would never have thought to work with ever, at least in this lifetime.” Melanie looks back towards him standing on the sidelines with a smile still adorning his face “That day I met the man who would show me how to love.”