Twenty-four hours later and so much with preparations, I stood in front of the long mirror in the bedroom I had been staying in, checking out the sleek black dress I was wearing to tonight’s event. My brother had tried multiple times to say that I couldn’t come, but after much discussion with my mother, she had changed his mind.

It didn’t matter what I was, I was still family.

There was no doubt in my mind that Ashley had convinced my brother that I was here to take ...