Anna walked into her hotel room pulling off her heels as fast as she could, not bothering to close the door after her since Shink was right behind her. It had been a long day and all that walking had made her feet hurt a lot.

Darn those heels!
She threw herself quickly on her bed so she could sit on it, giving her the balance she needed to take off her earrings.

Shink walked in too. His eyes focused on her and his frown worse than it usually was.
"Anna we need to talk."

She looked at him taking off her other earring from her other ear.

"Talk about what?" She turned to her purse and threw them inside. She knew what Shink was about to say but there she was, pretending like she didn't.

"You're not really considering doing what they want are you? You're not going to get married to one of them, again."

He made it sound like it's a bad thing. Where Anna was from, getting married to one of them, a human was worse than bad but she knew it was something she had to do. Getting married to not just any human but one from a really powerful family was just one item on her checklist. She was one step towards achieving the great plan. Since things didn't real work out with André, getting married to Rafael was just God's way of showing her that he was on his side. She was killing two birds with one stone.

"I have to Shink." Did she really have to remind him how important it was that they stuck to the plan? It was the first thing she told him when she found him all those years ago. How could he even ask that?
"It's the only way I can build the connections I need to find the rest. G-unit." She reminded him just in case he had forgotten.

"We just managed to fulfill one part of the plan. The most important plan. You do know that making Angelo your assistant is going to slap us back in the face one day. They are going to try to take the company away from you. That might not be in our favor or the favor of our plan."

"Yeah they can try, after I'm done with it." She got up and moved to the dressing table. "Besides, I'd rather prefer it's Angelo to Michael."

"That entire family annoys me. I can't believe how greedy they are that they are willing to do all they can to keep the company even if it means getting married to the opposite side of the coin. To us, their greatest enemy. André was the most tolerable among them."

"Angelo seems nice." Anna turned and paused when she noticed how Shink looked at her. He couldn't believe she had just said that out of the blues. She didn't even know him plus, he was human too. Anna blinked. Now she had to explain what she meant. "I mean he's not as terrible as the rest of them. I got to talk to him once and André told me a lot about him. It doesn't look like getting married to him would kill me."

"His mother was killed by one of our kind. Getting married to him would kill you. He could kill you. He still has a lot of resentment towards our people. This could end up badly for you and for all of us. You just lost a fiancé and over half of the whole world thinks you murdered him, considering who you are, getting married right now could make everything worse. It could to put everything we've worked so hard for in jeopardy. Sooner or later, Angelo is going to find out your bracelet has a glitch and isn't strong enough to hold back your powers all the time. You're one of the only few people over a thousand Atians to have a bracelet disfunction, if the NSS ever found out-"

"Chillax Shink." His paranoia was getting to her now. "No one is going to find out."

"There is a reason your Atian is fighting your bracelet Anna. There are still so many things we need to understand, like why it's happening or why you can transform with your bracelet on. This is not the time to plan a wedding. It's the time to plan a siege. This marriage is a bad idea. I can feel it. So many things could go wrong. And if anything should ever happen to Angelo like what happened to Andre-"

" Nothing like that is going to happen again. " Anna cut him off immediately. "This time, it's going to be different."

"I warned you not to get attached to humans. They're weak. Andre could not control how he felt about you and that took him to his grave. "

"What happened with Andre was a mistake. One that I can't afford to make again. With me and Angelo, it's just business. A means to an end. Just like you said, one of our people killed his mother, he hates this just as much as I do. There's no way we can be more than just business partners."

Shink exhaled. He still wasn't convinced. Anna walked to him as fast as she could.

"Shink." She reached for his hands. "My brother sent me to you for a reason, so you could help me figure all this out. No matter how much you hate this, we need this, we need Angelo if we are ever going to take our city back. He need to find the rest of our people and our base and this is the only way we can. I need you to tell me I'm doing the right thing. That I've not come all this way for nothing."

Silence.
Shink wasn't sure he had the right words for her. He wasn't sure he could say what she wanted him to say and mean it. He exhaled, clicked his tongue as he looked into her eyes and then pouted.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes. "I'm going to support you." Anna exhaled in relief. Just what she needed to hear.

"But-" now there was another condition. "When this boomerangs in our faces, I'm going to tell your brother I told you so. And I'll put it in a song." Now he was just messing around.

She chuckled.

"Come on Shink." She told him. "Thank you."
She hugged him.

*************************************************

"So, you're getting married huh?"
Patricia had spent the first ten minutes since Angelo told her about what happened at the meeting to decide on how she was supposed to take the news and she came to a conclusion that talking about it was the only way. She wasn't going to let anything come between the way she reasoned and felt for him. She walked into the room with a cup of water in her hands and then She gave it to Angelo. He slowly reached for it.

"Who would have thought Angelo Trusk would get married so fast?" This was her way of initiating a conversation she was scared of. She turned it to a joke.

Angelo looked at Patricia. He could see how she pretended to be all smiles when her heart was breaking on the inside. Her smile was almost believable. It was almost as if he could see how broken her heart was.

"Are you mad at me?" He asked her. "For agreeing to any of this?"

"Mad?" She grunted. "Of course not. I understand being at that meeting was something you had to do." She was breathing fast and avoiding his gaze. "It's something you had to do for your family, and we always sacrifice for our family. It's not like you're going to get married to her anyway." She finally turned to him, letting hope brighten her face. Angelo kept a straight face like he wasn't sure of the decision he was going to make. Like he wasn't sure he was sure of Patricia's last sentence. She could see it. She frowned.

"You're going to marry her aren't you?"

Angelo exhaled. He didn't know how to even face her or what to say. He slowly reached for her arm.

"Look at me." He told her gently. Patricia scoffed trying not to let the tears in her eyes out. "Please." He begged. She sniffed and then slowly turned to face him. Now Angelo could feel it. He was hurt too.

"I'm sorry." He told her. "I really am."

"It's fine." She nodded trying so hard to look happy. "It's not going to be forever right? It's just till you get the company back. I can wait. I would wait. I'd wait for you no matter how long it takes." She loved this man too much to let him go. To imagine a life without him. "How long would it take anyway? A few months? A year? Two years? Five years?"

Angelo didn't have the right answer to that. He didn't even know what he was doing. Patricia let out a nervous chuckle.

"It's no big deal. It going to be over before we know it. Time travels really fast and once you get the company back, you could file for a divorce and we could be together again. I'd wait for you."
Angelo shook his head.

"Don't." He told her.

Silence.

"W-what?" She wasn't sure she heard him clearly.

"You don't have to do that to yourself, you don't have to deprive yourself of the chance to be happy . I don't know when this is all going to be over. It might take more than we never thought it could. I can't let you wait for me and let go of all your chances of being happy, of meeting someone that deserves you because I don't." She held her breath as she stared into his eyes. "I'm a total mess who is too weak to go against his family and fight for you. I don't think I'm worth waiting for. I can barely get my life together right now, I can't ruin yours. I can't do that to you. You mean the world to me Trisha. "

Patricia could feel his warm hands on her face as he wiped her tears away gently. She could not take it. He was giving up on her, giving up on them just like that. She stopped his hand and slowly pulled it away.

"So you're just going to throw me away? To throw all we had away?" She asked him. "Is it that easy? Easy to move on? How can you ask that of me?"

Angelo sighed.

"Patricia,"

She was done. She was done listening to all of that. She didn't want to.

"And here I was thinking you were different from your family. You're just like them. You're selfish, just like them."

She got up on reflex and turned to leave.

"Trisha. "He tried to stop her but she walked away. "Patricia wait."

Bang!

The front door slammed shut

There went the woman of his dreams and the rest of his life with her. There went everything.