Always

Prologue

One day, at the young age of 16, Catherine Stevens found out she was pregnant with her oldest daughter, Katie. A couple years later, at the young age of 18, Catherine had a son, Mickey. Her boyfriend at the time was willing to help her out and be there for her. Unfortunately the two soon grew apart and split up shortly after Mickey was born. A couple years later, Catherine met Robert, who was very understanding of her situation. Since they were so young, neither Mickey nor Katie were impacted by the absence of their birth father, nor did they mind Robert entering their lives. Mickey even referred to Robert as his dad. Katie, however wasn't particularly fond of refering to Robert as her dad, even if she didn't mind his presence in her life.

Eventually Robert and Catherine got married, and had a daughter 11 years younger than Mickey, named Izzy. The two were very close, despite the large age gap between them. Katie on the other hand, was more distant with her little sister, spending most of her days locked in her room. Mickey had a special place in his heart for both his sisters, even if he was more close with his younger one. He always felt that he had to protect them. While he loved both his sisters dearly, Mickey was more protective over Izzy, and she was equally protective over him, even though she was only a small child. She never understood why her sister never played with her, but always figured she just didn't like her. Unlike most older siblings, Mickey didn't mind hanging out with his sister, even though all she ever wanted to play was dressup and pretend. Izzy thought the world of her brother. She looked up to him, both literally and figuratively. He was the person she would go to for everything, whether it'd be a bad dream or just hanginging out. Eventually though, Mickey finished school and went off to college, while Katie had gone to study art in Europe a few years prior. Izzy, only being six at the time, didn't understand the situation completely, but did understand that he had to leave. The last thing he ever told her was that he would be back soon, before leaving. She waited year after year, break after break until one day she gave up and realized he hadn't kept his word about coming back. She began to wonder if he ever really cared about her, or if he was just nicer than their sister and just chose not to show his lack of care for her.

Meanwhile, as the years went on, things began to get tense between Robert and Catherine. The two would constantly argue about pointless things. As time went by the arguing became less, as Robert began coming home late almost every night, drunk, and would become abusive, whether it was beating the woman he loved, or inappropriately touching his own daughter when his wife was at work. As her father began abusing her more and her mother less, Catherine began to take notice. One day, she had came home from work early and witnessed the terrible things Robert was doing to her daughter, and threw him out of the house after threatening to call the cops if he didn't leave. But, what Catherine didn't know was that her daughter wasn't just being physically and verbally abused by her father only, she was also being bullied at school, having terrible rumors spread about her. All the abuse she had coming her way lead her to fall into deep depression, resulting in her self harming. She also began to starve herself in hopes that people would stop making fun of her for her weight, as she had noticed her sister doing it when she was her age. Catherine failed to notice that although she had gotten rid of the abuse at home, her little girl was long gone, and falling into the same trap her sister had once fallen through.

When Mickey finally returned home, about 10 years later, after finishing school, and getting job near home, he noticed everything had changed. Although he had tried to stay in touch, and try to drop by whenever he could, he couldn't help but feel something was off. When he learned of the terrible things his father had done to his mother and sister, he was furious, but he wasn't angry with just his father, he was also mad at himself for failing to protect his little sister from their father, for not being there when he was needed the most. But he knew that right now, he had to be there for his familiy, especially his little sister, who was slowly falling apart more and more everyday.

Completely oblivious to her family falling apart at home, Katie was happily married to the love of her life, Leo, in the process of starting her own art studio in Italy, where she now resided.