What!?

12

Iliana could do with out the memories of the next few months and hopes to skip them, but whatever was controlling her memories didn't agree.

Iliana stares outside of the conservatory windows unseeing of the rain as it comes down. How can one person feel so alone when there are ten people that live in the house with you? Iliana remembers that feeling very well and really doesn't want to relive it.

"Ili?" Preston calls to her and only now does she realize that he had actually called her several times that day.

Preston comes up behind her and pulls her to him when he notices her tears. "What's wrong, Ili?"

Ili tries to give him a smile but knows that he didn't buy it when he only frowns harder. "I think that I've worn out my welcome here. Blake has so much responsibility that he leaves early in the morning and comes home very late at night, if he comes home at all. I believe that he's slept over in his office more than once in the last few months. Either that or he's staying with his flavor of the day." Ilia says all that without any jealousy or rancor. She doesn't begrudge him his daily time with a willing partner. She never has and never will.

"I think, if I were to leave that it would be one less problem for him to carry."

"You aren't a problem, Ili, you never have been. You are family." Preston says hugging her to him.

Iliana still feels the disbelief at those words, even after all these years. "Preston, I know and understand, it's okay. People outgrow things, places and even other people. You all have outgrown me." Iliana's eyes tear up just like in her memory.

"Iliana," Preston's voice turns stern. "What makes you think that we've out grown you?"

"The fact that other than you and Blake none of the other boys have spoken to me in the last two months. It's like I'm invisible to them."

Iliana sees the shock on Preston's face at her words. "You, Blake, Isaac, Phoenix and Kai, you all are working your asses off. You are hardly home, so that's understandable. Casper and Flynn, they are going to college and have made new friends and they've never really had much time for me that they weren't guilted into having. I don't think they like me all that much and haven't since I came to live here at eight years of age.

"But the ones that really hurt and have convinced me that I no longer belong here are Gregor, Piedro and Dimitri. Not only do they ignore me at school, but when their friends come over they allow them to be rude and say nothing. Hell, it was another friend of theirs, Jaxon, that stood up to the so called friends and told them to stop it. The triplets just ignored me and what was said."

Iliana can feel Preston as he tenses behind her. "What did they say to you, Ili?" Preston demands.

"It doesn't matter. Like I said, I've overstayed my welcome. If I can ever talk to Blake I'll see about leaving here so none of you will ever have to see me again." Iliana still feels the pain of those words. She loved those boys so much. The betrayal she felt when the triplets allowed their friends to speak so nasty to her and not say a word had hurt worse than anything she ever felt before, including her parents deaths.

"Iliana, I'm not going to ask you again. What did those boys say to you?" Preston demanded of her and Iliana knew better than to not tell him the truth. She never could lie to Preston.

"I was told that I was no more than a parasitic orphan leech sucking at the triplets and you all. That I was no more than a bitch that needed to be shown my place. Then he accompanied his words with some crude actions that made no doubt of what the meaning was. He then said that he would love to be the one to show me my place and would force me if he needed to."