I didn't want to keep evrybody waiting too much, so here it is, chapter 10! As you can see, it lengthier than the previous ones, as I had to make up for the lost time Enjoy!




Shadee walked morosely down the path of her front lawn. She felt like the worst person in the world, even though she knew she had done nothing wrong. She felt bad because of all the things Sebastien was going through and also because of the false image he had about her.

Tiptoeing up the stairs, she headed towards her bedroom, past Caleb’s nursery, and locked the door. She really needed some time alone. A look in the mirror showed her a sad face smeared with tears and make-up. With a start Shadee realised that today was the big day, the day Brandon was coming over to her house so they could do a project together. The face in the mirror was most definitely not the one Brandon had to see.



There were only two hours until his arrival, so she didn’t have too much time to waste: both she and her room needed to look perfect.

For the next half an hour, Shadee tidied up the bedroom, then used the rest of the time left to wash, make up again using a few tips from a magazine, style her hair differently and put on a sexier outfit. In the end she was pretty satisfied with the result, her mood lifting significantly higher.



‘Gran, is everything ready?’ she peered inside the kitchen, checking whether everything was perfect with the food.

‘Sure thing hun!’ the old lady smiled back, just taking a steaming cherry pie out of the oven ‘That boy will never leave our place once he tastes my pie!’ she winked.

Shadee returned to the living room with a really satisfied smile playing upon her lips. Maybe in the end the day was going to be good. Leaving aside the fact that she had almost been raped and that Sebastien had yelled at her like that, Brandon was coming over to her house! Who knew what could happen when the two of them started the project, locked in her bedroom…a deep blush spread across her cheeks as she watched dreamily outside the window.

‘He should be here any minute!’ she whispered to herself, smiling again.



But minutes passed, it became a quarter past five, then half past five, ten minutes before six and no one rang at the door. Shadee had stared out of the window the whole time, starting at every shadow cast on the sidewalk by passers-by, but each time she had to sigh disappointed as all the people were strangers to her. She was starting to get quite anxious. What if he had had an accident on his way to her place? She immediately pictured a dramatic little movie in her head as she approached a hospital bed where a wounded Brandon was slowly passing away, his last words swearing eternal love for her…

‘Still not here?’ a soft voice spoke behind Shadee.



‘No…’ the girl answered back, disappointment ringing from the tone of her voice ‘I’m just going upstairs, Grandma. If anything happens, just tell me, okay?’

Trying to avoid her grandmother’s pitiful gaze, Shadee walked back up the stairs and once again locked herself in her room. Life really wasn’t ready to give her a break. Her biggest wish had been to be able to spend some time with Brandon. She knew she wasn’t ugly, and she knew even better that she wasn’t stupid. So why was Brandon doing that to her?

She just lay on her bed, watching the sun go down and thinking about how much her life had changed since the terrible twist caused by the fire. Suddenly, her cell phone began to buzz loudly on the night table, threatening to fall off. Shadee started, then grabbed it quickly. It was Brandon!