Chapter 7

Shane drove through the big gates that led to his parent's house. He'd always thought that this house was too big for the five of them, then the four of them when his dad passed away. Back when his dad was alive he was a very rich man, owned a big computer firm, and inherited Shane's grandfather's money, who was a very rich man too.

When Shane was old enough to realize how rich they were and also to realize that some of his friends and mostly all his girlfriends were pretending to be enjoying his company just because of his money, he decided that he would leave his parent's house and move out to live alone by himself and afforded himself without any help from his father.

Of course his father protested at the beginning saying that he was too young to handle his life and that he shouldn't change his life just because some of his friends were greedy and selfish. At that time Shane was already nineteen and was in college, studying computer as to work one day with his father. He wanted to do that not because of his father, but because he loved computers and all that stuff. Not that he was so into computer back in school, but when high school was over, he had to start planning for his life when he grew old.

Well eventually, his father agreed after Ally, Shane's mom had convinced him, but still he thought Shane was a fool, he just let him do what he wanted to do. And by that Shane started to work for a small computer company while studying. That for sure was met by his father's disapproval. But again Shane was able to convince him that he wanted to be on his own and that when he was good enough to take his position in his father's company, he'd leave the one he'd been working at.

Years passed by and he became really good at what he was doing. When he finished studying and was completely sure he was going to work with his father just because he was good and not because he was the owner's son, he left the small company and went to take his place with his father.

But then the discovery of his father's cancer made him stay at home and made Shane the only one taking care of his dad's business. Months later his dad passed away, leaving his company to his 23 year old son. But in two years Shane was able to accomplish a lot and the company became even more successful than ever.

"Shane,"

"Shane, you okay?" Thia asked as she noticed how he was staring at his parent's house. They had been there inside the car for ten minutes now and he did nothing but look at the house.

"Huh? Ah... yeah I'm fine," It was like he forgot she was even there.

"Sure? I mean we've been here for like ten minutes. Are we going to get in?" She pointed at the big house and right then the front door opened and two black haired young girls came out running towards them.

"Shane, Shane," they cried out happily "what took you so long?" one of them asked. Apparently the older one. The young one just came running after her sister.

Thia heard a slam and didn't get the chance to see what it was as she saw Shane run out of the car and watched as the two girls ran into his open arms.

"Hey girls how are you?" He asked as he placed a kiss on each girl's cheek.

"Fine Shane, we missed you so much." The younger said.

Thia slowly opened the door and stepped out of the car. She stood there watching as he held each girl's hand and walked to where she was standing. The two girls looked at Thia for a moment, and then the younger one ran and threw herself on Thia "SAM," she said clinging hard to her "I've missed you so much."

Thia didn't know what to do. She could only smile and hug the young girl back 'shit, what am I going to do?' she thought as the girl pulled her down and whispered "you gonna play with me like you used to?"

Thia turned her head and looked at the little girl's smiling grey eyes, they looked so much like Shane's "Yeah, sure!" she looked at Shane and asked him silently for help.

"Dina, I think you should let go of Sam and let your sister say hi too." Shane looked down at the other girl, and ushered her forward to go say hi, but she quickly ran back to the house after throwing Thia a look that wasn't welcoming at all.

"Suzan!" Shane called after her but she was already gone inside the house "Dina, what is wrong with your sister?" Shane asked quite angrily, he didn't know what made Suzan do that. She loved Sam so much in the past. Well both of them loved Sam, but why did Suzan act like that?

"Well, Suzan said she no longer loved Sam because she left you, left us all," she turned to the elder woman "why did you leave Sam? Did we do something wrong?" Dina asked in a sad voice and Shane knew how much she loved Sam and how much both girls were hurt when she left.

'Well, not as much as I was!' He thought.

The look Shane saw on Thia's face made his heart ache; she looked like she was going to cry, pain was washing down her face and her eyes were filled with sorrow and guilt.

"Dina, where is mom?" Shane asked with his eyes still on Thia.

"Inside Shane," she turned to Thia "come on Sam, Mommy is inside. She missed you too!" Dina grabbed Thia's hand and started running.

"Dina, you go in. we'll be in, in a second," He kissed the young girl's forehead and tickled her a little. Dina giggled and ran inside the house.

"Dina is eight, Suzan is twelve. You used to play with them a lot and they loved you so much," he walked to her and held her hand and started walking towards the house "let's get inside, and don't worry about Suzan's reaction, she is a little bit moody sometimes."

Thia looked at her hand in his; she felt how his hands tighten around hers' and felt somehow safe.

"It's okay, just relax," Shane stepped inside the house and called out for his mother "Mom! Where are you?"

Thia looked around her and admired the house and its classic furniture so much. The hall was big, the floor made of marble, a huge chandelier hanging in the middle; there wasn't a lot of furniture in the hall, but it looked beautiful. On the right there were three closed doors, on the left a big window, it looked on a pool that seemed to be surrounding the whole place.

"I'm here Shane, come on in." A feminine voice came from somewhere behind the stairs in the end of the hall. Moments later the woman appeared and Thia knew her immediately 'this must be his mom' she thought.

If Dina looked so much like Shane, she was a copy from her mom; Mrs. Wilson was a short woman, black long hair, grey eyes. She looked young to be Shane's mother, late forties maybe.

"Shane," She smiled as she hugged her son, turning to look at Thia, Mrs. Wilson had a strange look on her face "Hi Sam!" she stood there beside her son not taking any step forward to give her a hug or anything.

"Ah... Hello Mrs. Wilson," Thia felt so awkward, saying hello for the first time to people she'd known well years ago.

Mrs. Wilson stared at her for a moment, "You really don't know who I am huh?" she said and her face broke into a kind smile.

Thia swallowed hard, she felt tears gather in her eyes. It seemed that this woman really loved her, the two girls did, even though Suzan acted strangely, but it seemed they loved her, Shane loved her, and her grandmother loved her. How was she able to leave them like that, breaking all of their hearts? Especially Shane's!

"Mom, we can talk about that later," Shane said as he saw how Thia was trying to hide the tears he knew were there.

"Sure, you're right," She turned to her son and continued "Shane, I think you can show Sam around. I'll be waiting for you outside in the garden." She turned to leave then turned around "its Ally, Sam." And she was gone.

"Come on Thia, let me show around..."

"Can I see your room first?" She asked suddenly and it made Shane raise an eyebrow "I just want to see it." She continued

"Okay, but I don't think you'll find anything interesting there, I moved out when I was nineteen so you'll probably find school stuff."

"I just want to see it, please."

Shane didn't know why she insisted on seeing his room, but he wasn't going to say no "Then let's go."

"After you," He said as he held the door open for her "as I told you before; I've lived here till I was nineteen" he saw her walk around watching everything "then I moved out..." She cut him off immediately.

"Who is this?" She asked in horror.

Shane heard her tone and turned to see what scared her that much "huh?"

"Who is this?" This time her voice was low, almost a whisper. She was standing in front of his desk holding a picture in her hand.

Shane walked and stood beside her. He reached to take the picture from her hand and he found her hand shaking. Looking at the picture Shane remembered it quickly; it belonged to back in high school, he was standing with four other guys; his best friend Mat and Dave, Steve and Josh.

"Which one?" He asked, turning to look at her. Thia's face was so white; pale enough to think that all the blood in her face had escaped.