Vanessa felt her eyes sting and she had to force herself not to cry. She was haunted by the fact that she had been safely with her grandmother while Scotty had needed her, while he was trying to figure out where to live. She bitterly cursed the death of her mother once again, but this time not for her own loss but for the loss of what could have been.

Scotty looked out into the distance as if he was reliving the events of the past. "She didn't believe that I could do it." He ...