Inara took a deep breath and began. “When I was five, my mother was diagnosed with a fatal condition. The doctors were quite optimist, they said she should come out of it since they caught it from the start, though that didn’t happen.” Inara paused and looked at the wall for a few moments before she spoke again.

“I was too young to understand what was going on. I thought things would always be the same; but then I saw my mother loosing her strength, and I knew something was wrong.”

“When she died, my father started drinking,” Inara muttered as if she was ashamed to bring this nasty family skeleton out of the closet. “The family business was going downhill quickly, luckily for all of us, my uncle was able to salvage it.

“My father hated me and blamed me for everything, he said I look too much like my mother and that I’m too much like her,” she paused again obviously gathering strength. “He hit me once or twice.” She waited for him to react, but he did not. Even this event, life shattering for a young girl, did change the way he felt about her, he had seen much worse.

“When my uncle noticed what was happening, I was six. He placed me in foster care for two years with one of his friends until he talked my aunt into taking me.” She snarled giving him a rare glimpse of her true feelings.

“Did I ever tell you my mother was a companion at one time, long before I was born?” Inara looked into his eyes. “I so wanted to be like her, so did Yvette “It took some of the best counseling in the core to help me realize my father was wrong and to help me accept my mother’s death. . What I learned through years of self examination is that I am alone in this universe. If I want things I have to get them alone. I have to do it my way and be independent even if it was not always easy. ” Inara took another deep breath. “I always deal with things alone.” There was defiance in her eyes.

“’Nara, you shouldn’t of blamed yourself if you looked like your mother, much less for your father’s drinking.”

“I know but