My Shadow

Life Is Short

Gideon
The charges against Ashley were changed from attempted murders and assaults to murder one and attempted murder of me. The assault charges from her hitting Theresa Prescott. So she will never get out of jail we hope. She has a public defender who is trying to get her to take a plea bargain. The family of the girl doesn't want her to take the plea because they feel she doesn't deserve to be free ever after killing their only child. We got some good news from New York, they broke ground on the building for Mia's new restaurant. Christian and I got together and helped the family bury their daughter.

Christian
Things were sad for the parents who lost their only child because of Ashley. We paid the hospital costs and the funeral costs for her parents so they could bury her. She left a son that they didn't know about until they were called by her friend that was sitting for her. We got together and created a fund to help rise the boy and a trust fund for college. The funds were donated by us along with others who knew the young lady. We attended the funeral and the wake and made sure the parents had everything they needed. We flew them in to be with her and their grandson. Dad helped them with legal issues they might run into.

Mia
Things are getting better after we heard the verdict and the life sentence with no parole. She was lucky that she was shot and killed by Anastasia. I was so glad Anastasia had her gun that night. I saw the parents suffering from the death of their only daughter. They were left with w three month old baby boy to raise. The girl was barely 19 years old. I bought some things for the baby and gave them to the grandparents. It's sad that this happened and Ashley is still alive when an innocent young mother is dead. It was hard seeing the parents holding her son crying as the casket was being lowered into the ground. Gideon looked into seeing if the parents needed anything at all and provided them with it. He gave them his number to call if they have any issues at all.

Anastasia
The funeral was so very sad. She had so many friends that were there for her. We didn't know her but we felt that she was a huge loss to this world. The baby was crying and his grandparents were crying as well. Most of the Cross family went back to New York but came back for the funeral and then the verdict and sentencing. Mia has been to New York to check out her new restaurant and to get applications from potential employees. She got to see their home in New York and met other family members.

Carrick
I hate seeing a young person being buried, but I felt that all of us should attend the funeral. We all did and she had a lot of friends. It was one for the saddest funerals I had attended. Grace was crying and I think by the time they lowered her casket into the ground everyone was crying.

Grace
I couldn't help crying because she was so very young. She left a three month old son. She was trying to get a degree and raise her son as well. It was mentioned in the trial. A very devastating loss to so many people. We stayed around to see if the parents needed anything else. They apparently have been getting a lot of help from Christian and Gideon. Both made sure the hospital bills were paid completely and anything else was paid for as well.

Elliott
I am holding Gia as she cries for this young lady she never knew. But so are most of the people at the funeral are crying. Of course the paparazzi had to become part of the crowd and get photos. We have donated to fund for the family.

Gia
Things are just so sad. She was an innocent victim of Ashley's. No one realized that Anastasia had hidden Mia with her parents help after finding out Ashley was at the party and had a gun. Anastasia luckily decided to carry her gun with her for just this reason. She saved Gideon and Mia from being killed. Gideon did as told and kept still while Anastasia disarmed Ashley but she got two shots off. I am glad she is behind bars for life now.

Ray
Anastasia took a big risk to save Mia and Gideon, but she did well except she shouldn't have allowed Ashley to get so close to her targets. The bullets were dug out of the floor and put into evidence. They questioned Anastasia at great length and finally her attorney showed up and she was able to go home.

Carla
I think Anastasia did everything right, the girl just moved faster than we had estimated. We got Mia hid safely and went to track down Ashley. It was hard to see Anastasia in a standoff with Ashley and pointing her gun at her head. Ashley had gotten close enough to put a gun to Gideons head. But Mia was safely away from the area and it amazes me how many people let people see there vulnerability. There's no doubt there is a lot of speculation whether we would be that vulnerable. I think it's time to check out our skills and maybe start looking into how we didn't think to protect the staff at the hotel from her as well. An innocent person is dead because things weren't as secure as they should have been here at the hotel. The staff thought they were just working and they were safe. No one ever can be one hundred percent sure of their safety at any time. We just need to be aware that anything can happen at any time of day. We need to be prepared for any contingency as human beings out in a world that can become hostile at all any moment.