" She died saving you that day. "

Nothing. Absolutely nothing about that sentence made sense.

Stella didn't die saving me. Heck, she would never risk her life like that especially not for me. She was alive. She had been living with me all these years. She had raised me, in theory at least.

" What are you saying, Mike? Stella is alive. She has been living in New York with me for all these years. " I said in a skeptical voice. I was more confused than ever. And so was everyone else.

" Evelyn, all I know and remember is that it was the 13th of February when it happened. Two men had open fired at the house and Greta, your grandma, who was playing with you in the driveway was shot twice in the back of her head when she was trying to get you inside the house. "

" You somehow got inside when the men were blowing up all the windows of the house. Everyone on the street saw this and some woman even called 911. But it all happened pretty quickly. The men set the house on fire and ran off before the police could even reach the site. Irena, Stella, and the staff came out somehow. That's when Irena called us. "

" But you were still stuck inside the fire. So Stella jumped inside the house in an attempt to save you. By the time we reached there, the police were already at work. However, when the fire was finally brought down, Stella and you both were dead. We all broke down on seeing you like that. Both the..... bodies were charred beyond recognition, Evie. "

" Your parents were extremely devastated. They wanted to move to New York to start over again. They wanted me and Evan to come with them because we all were basically family but I had only recently married Rory so I couldn't move with them. That's why your parents moved to New York without us. We met up with them almost every other weekend. But we never knew you were alive. They always mourned and talked as if you weren't. "

My head was spinning with all this. What in the name of hell was going on? This didn't make sense. Stella wasn't dead. I wasn't dead. I didn't remember anything about any fire. All I remembered was that my parents were shot to death and then Stella received my custody because she was my dad's twin sister and his only living family.

" How did my parents die, Mike? " I asked. I wanted to see if he knew anything about the shooting. " They died in a car accident, Eve. " He said in a sad voice. My breath hitched. He didn't know! What was going on really?

" That's not how they died, Mike. " I said in a slow careful way. " What do you mean? " Michael asked, his eyebrows furrowed up in confusion. Evan's expressions were clouded with confusion too. " They didn't die in a car accident, Mike. They were murdered. They were both shot in the head. I was in the room when it happened. "

Michael and Evan both gasped and quickly made their way over to me. " Jesus! Are you okay, Eve? I'm so sorry, I never knew. " Michael said in a low worried voice. I sighed, " It's okay Mike. Nobody knows that. Everybody thinks they died in a car accident. But don't you think there's something strange here? Two staged deaths, one that of a little baby. A fake car accident. My parents' murder. Who can be behind all this? "

Michael suddenly had a look of horror on his face now. " Michael, are you okay? " I asked. He had gone pale suddenly and that was freaking me out even more. " Evie, do you have a picture of the Stella you know? " He asked in a small terrified voice.

I nodded hesitantly and pulled out my phone from my pocket. Unlocking it with shaky fingers, I quickly pulled up a photo of Stella and turned the phone so they could see it.

" That's not aunt Stella, " Evan suddenly said. " She never had red hair. I think she was a brunette like you, Eve. " I was officially scared now. If this woman wasn't Stella then who the fuck had I been living with all these years?

" Katherine. " One word. Michael uttered just one word in a small voice before he collapsed back into the couch. Evan and I  both rushed forward to hold him. " Dad, are you okay? What's wrong? " Evan asked in a worried voice. I was rubbing Mike's cold hands in mine and I gestured Ryan to get his feet. He quickly knelt down and took Michael's cold feet in his to rub some life back in them. Poor Jenny was standing at the side, confused as to what help she could do.

" Dad, what happened? " Evan's voice was laced with worry and concern. I turned my attention to Michael. He was staring ahead, his eyes were glassed over with a horrified look. I gently shook his shoulders to snap him out of his horrible trance.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, he looked around at all of us. He had tears in his eyes now. I was getting more worried and scared of this situation by the minute. Nothing was making sense and Michael's reaction was giving me anxiety. What was I supposed to expect?

" Mike, who's Katherine? " I said in an anxious voice. Michael's eyes turned to me. The horror and fear they held made me recoil. I scooted away a little. I felt Ryan put his hand on my shoulder and took a deep breath preparing myself for whatever it is that Michael was about to tell me. Please make it hurt less, God.

" Katherine.....she... she was a crazy woman, " Michael said. His eyes lifted to mine and he held me a weird stare-down. " She.... she... she was Sam and Stella's mother. "

" What the fuck? " I couldn't help but raise my voice. I was trying all I could to keep my calm but that just made me explode. She was my what now?

" So you're telling me that the weird psychic bitch that I've been living with for my entire life and whom I believed to be my aunt is actually... what.. my grandmother? Does that even make sense? " I screamed out. This was making me crazy.

I gripped my hair. My head was hurting. I wanted to scream out. This didn't fucking made sense! Visions and memories were crossing my brain at the speed of lightning and I couldn't keep up.

Stella holding my hand as we stood at a large distance, watching as the people of the church lowered my parents' caskets in the ground. "I wanna go to mommy. " The little me had tugged onto her black skirt but one look from her and I cowered low. She was scary.

Why had she never let me put a last white rose on their caskets?

Why had we been wearing black veils and why did we stand so far behind on their funeral?

" You should have died with your parents, Evie. Better yet you should've died way before them. " Why did she always say that?

When she first found my guitar, why had she broken it?

When she realized I could play and sing, why had she hit me so bad that I had broken my arm?

Why did she tell me her name was Stella?

Recalling all those memories made me realize something really was wrong here. She never told me anything about my parents. Once when I was five years old and accidentally told her that I didn't think they were killed in a car accident, she had hit me so hard that I had a concussion for weeks.

Who was she?

What did she do?

Did she have something to do with my parents' death?

Why did she keep me alive then?

Millions of questions were running through my head. I was positive I was going crazy.

" Who is Katherine, Michael? " I asked in a stern voice. I was losing my shit. My head was spinning and I was barely holding on to the fringes of reality.

Michael sighed, " Evelyn I think-" I cut him off by lifting my head and locking my eyes onto his, " Who. Is. Katherine? " I asked in a low voice.

He knew I wasn't kidding around anymore. If this Katherine woman has been playing with my life all these years, then she was in for some serious shit now. If she had any hand in my parents' deaths then she was as good as dead cause I wasn't letting this go any time soon.

Michael must've seen the determination and threat in my stare because he cleared his throat and sat up quickly. " Katherine was Samuel and Stella's mother. But she wasn't your grandmother. "

" What's that supposed to mean? "

" Sam's Dad had an affair outside of his marriage once. The woman he was going out with behind his wife's back was Katherine Woods. When Greta found out that her husband was playing around with a woman less than half his age, she was devastated. When she confronted him about it he gave her the most convincing answer ever. " Michael paused.

" What did he tell Grandma? " I was already disgusted by this. I didn't expect my so-called Granddad to be like this.

" He told her that he was only playing around with this girl because she could give them the baby they had always dreamed of. You see Greta had survived Ovarian cancer, so she couldn't bear a child of her own. As desperate for a child as she was, she believed whatever her husband was saying. "

" When Katherine fell pregnant, both Jason and Greta were very happy. Being the influential lawyer that he was, he won the custody of both the children, and Katherine was tossed to the curb. The twins were named Samuel and Stella Johnson. Greta loved both of them and raised them like her own. "

" The problem was that being only 19 years old, Katherine couldn't handle all this. She was devastated. She had only ever built a relationship with Jason, a man older than her own father, was because she was only interested in his money. So when Jason kicked her out of his house, she became vengeful. She tried to hurt her own kids millions of times just to get back to Jason. She always threatened Jason and Greta and asked for her part in their wealth. "

My head was spinning. My fists were clenched. How could a mother do that to her own kids? How could a mother try to kill her own children?

" So you mean to say that the sick-headed woman I've been living with, is my Dad's biological mother and not my aunt? " I could hear my own voice break at the end. I was mere minutes away from having a serious panic attack. I could feel it coming and so I quickly latched onto Ryan's arm. If there was a person who was real and alive to me right now, it was him. Rest everyone and everything felt like a dream. Scratch that, this was all a big nightmare. I was stuck in a terrible nightmare and sadly there was no way out now. I was in too deep.

Closing my eyes, I attempted to steal a second of much-needed darkness. All these vivid visions of my scary memories were blinding me. All I wanted was to lay my head and sleep for hours, forgetting all this mess I liked to call my life.

" Yes, that's Katherine, not Stella, " Michael concluded and I growled in frustration. " So all my life, I've been hating on the wrong person. Great, " I chimed sarcastically.

Turning my head slightly I looked into the ocean eyes that always seemed to calm my nerves. And sure enough, they had the desired effect this time too. I took a deep breath in an attempt to space out my anger and frustration a little.

I opened my eyes only to find Ryan smiling reassuringly. He slipped his fingers between mine and I held on. " You can do this, " He mouthed and a slow tired smile stretched over my features.

I can do this, as long as he is here with me.

" Why? " I turned around to look at Michael's confused face. " Why what, Eve? " He said slowly. I could see all this was taking a toll on him.

He was my father's age which meant he was positively a couple of years over the half-century mark. Obviously, this would tire him more than the other young hearts present in the room.

I sighed and walked over to him. Putting a hand on his shoulders lightly, I knelt in front of his sitting body. " I'm sorry, Mike. I'm putting you under so much pressure. I should let you rest, for now, we can continue tomorrow if you want? " I asked, a sad smile appearing on my face.

Michael smiled slowly and lifted his hand to stroke my face lightly. I leaned into his fatherly touch. I hadn't felt anything like this.

" All this is surely a lot take in, Eve, but you should know that I'm equally perplexed about this situation as you are. I want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible too. " I sighed lightly, " Yes Mike, I know that. You loved my parents. You knew them better than I do, " my voice broke a little at that but I carried on, " But you shouldn't be compromising your health like this. "

" Oh Evie, your uncle Mike isn't that old yet. I'm okay, little angel. I just want to get to the bottom of all this as soon as possible. " I smiled at his wrinkled yet somehow very attractive face. " I know you aren't old, Uncle Mike. Cranky, maybe a little. " Michael let out a booming laugh at my joking words. Ryan and Evan also snickered in the background and Jenny giggled lightly.

" Can you call me that one more time? " Michael's face suddenly became serious. " Uncle? " I asked in a slow uncertain voice. Michael nodded his head with a bright smile which made my own lips tug upwards. " It feels good to hear you say that again. Uncle Mikey, that's what you used to call me. " He chuckled fondly at the memory.

I smiled, " Uncle Mikey it is then. " That made everyone laugh again. I smiled looking at the small form of happiness that we had managed to find even in this sticky situation.

I might've lost a lot of things but I was certain I had gained even more. I had a family now, people who loved me and who were now the center of my existence. That thought made me feel stronger. Invincible.

I'm coming for you, Katherine Woods.

*********

• Author's note •

Oop.....didn't see that coming now, did ya? ;) I hope you enjoyed this chapter and you're as excited as I am to get to the bottom of this puzzle!

Much Love

M :)