“Mom must be insane,” Charise remarked to her father. “Wanting us to meet up with her.” She peered at the notice again. “She must be doing really bad if she wants to read her will today.”

“Your mother is very unusual,” Preston agreed. “But I’m sure there’s a method to her madness this time.”

“I’ve really begun to question that,” Charise remarked. “I don’t think Mom is playing with a full deck.”

“I guess you’re glad to have taken after me, then,” Preston remarked.

Charise shrugged. “I guess it was the lesser of two evils,” she teased.


“Right this way,” Marianne said, directing Preston and Charise to a good-sized meeting room. “You’re the last ones to arrive.”

“Last?” Charise asked, perplexed. As they entered the room, Charise noticed that the Verona family, the Foley family, and the Harris family were all seated around the room. “Hey, what are you doing here?” she asked, sitting beside S. S shrugged, and Cassandra, seated on his other side, glared at her.

“Ms. Delorice will be in here shortly,” Marianne announced. She glanced behind her. “Oh, here she is.”

“Thank you, Marianne,” Julianna said kindly. She entered the room slowly, clutching Mr. Gaines’s arm for support.


“You have been called here today under highly unusual circumstances,” Mr. Gaines said as he and Julianna seated themselves. “We will read Ms. Delorice’s will first, and then she will have a few words to say.”

“We don’t even know her,” Grant spoke up. “My family, I mean. We’ve never even met her.”

“All in good time,” Mr. Gaines said. He began reading the will aloud. As he listed what each person would get, their mouths dropped open in shock.

Even a fraction of her estate will leave me with a few hundred thousand, I think, Ophelia mused in astonishment.

Christ, does she even realize how much she’s giving us? Charise thought. And what about the Veronas? Why aren’t they being named to inherit anything?

“Codicil. In the event--” Mr. Gaines began.

“Actually,” Julianna interrupted, “I think I should make my announcement first. Otherwise, this part of the will is not going to make sense.”

Mr. Gaines nodded. “Go ahead,” he said encouragingly.


Julianna rose slowly and smiled kindly at the group. “As you know, I will not live much longer,” she began. “It is because I was irresponsible in my adult years, and I did many foolish and irresponsible things in my youth as well.” Julianna directed her next words to the Verona family. “You may not know me personally, but your connections to me are undeniable. Many years ago, I had an affair with a former band mate, Joel Harris. I began pregnant, and Preston, my husband at the time, divorced me. I made practically everyone-- the media, my friends, and even my own family-- believe I’d aborted the baby. Only a few people knew the truth, and they kept quiet out of obligation. I gave birth and put the child up for adoption. I left photos of myself and Joel so the child would at least know what her parents looked like. That child was adopted by the Verona family. Cassandra Verona, you are my daughter, as well as half-sister to Charise Marlow and Jeff Harris.” She nodded to Mr. Gaines. “You may read it now.”

Mr. Gaines cleared his throat and read, “Codicil. In the event that the child I put up for adoption is still alive and can be located, she is to inherit $500,000. In addition, in the event that she was adopted, the family is to be given one million dollars, as a way of thanking them for providing for my child.”

S stared ahead, stunned into speechlessness. He became slowly aware of the growing pressure on either side of him. When he glanced left and right to see what the heaviness was, he discovered that Charise and Cassandra had both fainted.

Fainting sounds like a good idea right now, S thought.


Charise blinked her eyes several times, incapable of vocalizing her shock and astonishment. Her thoughts and response were nothing compared to those of Cassandra, though.

Cassandra. She was still apparently in a state of shock, her eyes unfocused and her face pale. For all of her outward inactivity, though, her brain was running at an alarming rapidity.

Charise is my sister, she thought. The girl I’ve always hated and resented for stealing S away from me. That woman… that vile temptress… I share blood with her. My real father is dead-- DEAD-- no chance of meeting him anytime soon, and my real mother is dying. What a sick joke. I… they… Charise, why the hell did you have to end up as my sister? S…

“Is she okay?” Vicky asked, concerned. “Maybe I should get her some water.”

Slowly, Cassandra’s eyes went back into focus, although there was a blankness behind them. She looked about the room slowly and then-- horror of horrors-- she began to laugh, the horrid insane laugh of a woman whose mind had just snapped.


Charise curled up in her bed, trying to think through the day’s events.

All along, Cassandra has been my sister, she thought. We’ve known each other this long. She was right under my nose the whole time. Charise sighed. I guess the truth was too much for her to take. Mrs. Verona had her committed to the Oakdale Asylum for the Mentally Unstable. Poor family, having to deal with that. She sighed sympathetically. S is taking things pretty hard too.

Just then, there was a frantic beating at her bedroom door.

“Charise!” S yelled. “Open up! You need to see this! It’s serious!”
Startled, Charise bolted out of bed and opened the door. “What happened?” Charise asked. “Did Mom die?”


Silently, S tugged Charise down the hall to his bedroom and pointed at the computer screen. Charise peered closely. She recognized the photograph immediately.

“What the hell?” she gasped.

“Tacita sent me the link,” S said flatly. “Apparently, it was put up a few hours ago.”

Charise sat and read the article:

Celebrity Offspring Marries Secret Lover, Discover Shared Sibling

Charise Marlow, daughter of rock band All That Glitters members Julianna Delorice and Preston Marlow, has been discovered to have married Samuel Verona, a long-time friend. Recently, at the reading of Julianna Delorice’s will, the couple learned that Verona’s adopted younger sister was in fact the half-sister of Miss Marlow.

While it is unknown when the wedding took place, the photos depicting the event were discovered only last week, It is estimated that the wedding took place sometime between October of last year and January of this year…


On and on it went, listing lie after lie. Charise, enraged, called Julianna on the phone.

“Mother!” she roared. “Why the hell are those pictures on the internet?”

“They’re also in several magazines,” Julianna added dryly. “I didn’t put them there.”

“Then who?”

‘Honey, I threw them away when I learned Cassandra was taken in by the Verona family. I was hoping to prevent this kind of media circus.”

“Well, you f*cked up royally,” Charise snapped. “Why the hell didn’t you shred them?”

No response.

“You f*cked up your own life, and now you’re f*cking up mine! I hate you, you… b*tch!” Charise shrieked, sobbing hysterically. She hung up and ran to her room, ashamed that S had witnessed this.

Julianna hung up her phone and buried her head in her hands, crying in frustration.