"Family", that word was heavy for the girl. Despite her love for her twin, she had no idea what that word actually meant. She had never really experienced a family in the way that most little girls of her age had. From a very young age, she had known that her parents didn't love her. She could hear it in her father's voice, see it in her mother's eyes, their contempt for her because of her difference. In front of strangers, neighbors, associates, they always acted like they cared for her by showing her false affection. A touch on the shoulder here, a squeeze of the hand there, a pat on the head...she'd found herself craving those moments even though she knew that it was all a lie, a show to put on for her parent's peers. Behind closed doors, her "family' acted as if she didn't exist. They never used her name, never looked directly at her, and spoke harshly to her. That was not to say that she had not seen love; this she had experienced in the eyes of her twin sister, Isabella. The two of them had been inseparable since the day they were conceived, and so far it had been her parent's love for her sister that had kept them from abandoning their deformed and unwanted child. That was because they did not know Isabella's secret...that she was special too, just not in a way that anyone could see.

The girl knew that when Lucien told her this about Aurel, he was speaking the truth. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. The love that had been missing from her parent's gaze, from their words, Lucien's were full of it. "Family" meant something more to him than blood.

[color=598527]"Illyana..."[/color] she said, [color=598527]"Illyana Brewer."[/color] She had decided. This man, Aurel, and his "friend" would help her. They'd help her find Isabella, and maybe they'd even help her escape. She just had to be smart about how she asked them to do it.