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Kade
dropped Vie at home and told her she would see her later at the dance. Vie went inside and began her preparation for the big night. She had butterflies in her stomach, but it wasn’t from hunger. Her nerves were getting the best of her. All she kept envisioning was tripping over her dress and falling on her face while attempting to dance. She wondered how she got herself into this mess and then suddenly, he appeared. It was Gabriel.  Vie ran over to him and gave him a great big hug.

“Where have you been? I needed you!” she hollered at him while squeezing him tightly.

“Vie, what’s the matter?” Gabe asked thinking something horrible had happened.

“I don’t think I can do this?” she said letting go of Gabe and looking at him.

“Vie, what’s this all about?” he asked.

“The dance Gabe, I don’t think I can go. What was I thinking anyways? I mean me at a dance, really? I don’t dance, I don’t even like dancing and I don’t even know anyone who dances.” She continued to ramble as usual when she was nervous so Gabriel let her get it out.

“Are you finished?” he said a bit bored with her rumblings.

“What?” she said.

“Vie you are going to go to this dance and have the time of your life.  Do you hear me? Now just close your
eyes,
think of it as a mission and breathe for God’s sake.” He ordered her to calm down and it worked.

“Now go and finish getting ready. Take the night off and enjoy the moment, you deserve it,” Gabriel said sweetly, wanting to give Vie back something special, something lost, even if only for a night.

“Oh Gabriel, you are the only one who gets me. Thank you,” she said hugging him again.

“I’ll see you later kiddo,” he said and he disappeared into the night.

Vie continued with the preparation of getting ready and applied a soft palette of makeup to her face that complimented her flawless, light skin beautifully. She pulled her hair up in an elegant
up do
and placed a delicate rhinestone tiara in her hair that
Kade
had given to her to go with the dress. Then she took her gown out of the closet and stepped into it gently. She zipped up and looked in the mirror, amazed at how truly stunning the dress was. There was a knock at her door and Henry entered. He looked at her while big crocodile tears welled up in his
tender
blue eyes as he flashed back to memories of Vivian through the years. Now, a beautiful woman stood before him instead of his little girl.

“I have something for you,” Henry said taking her hand and placing something in it.

Vie opened her hand and there sat a pair of magnificent amethyst studded earrings, almost identical to the ones that she had admired on Vivian’s dressing table.

“They were your mother’s,” he said somberly. “And I want you to have them.”

“Daddy no, I can’t…it wouldn’t be right,” she said thinking these should be given to Vivian and not her.

“Honey, you need to let go of the pain of losing your mother and try to celebrate her life. I found these hidden away in an old jewelry box of hers and I held on to them, waiting for the right moment to give them to you. Now is that moment,” he said certain of it.

“But I can’t,” she protested again.

“You can, she would want you to have them. Take her with you honey. Take part of her with you tonight so she can be there in spirit,” he said pleading with Vie.

Vie took the earrings and walked over to the mirror to put them on. The matched her dress perfectly and sparkled in the light. “They are absolutely beautiful,” Vie thought to herself.

“I believe they are a nice compliment to your dress,” Henry said. Vie laughed thinking Henry had no sense of fashion at all but he was right about them being perfect.

“Honey you really do look beautiful, just like a princess, like Cinderella,” he said.

“And tell your prince I expect you home before the clock s
trikes twelve,” he said squinting
his eyes and wrinkling his forehead to show he meant business. Vie chuckled inside at his Cinderella reference.

The doorbell rang and Henry told Vie to finish up and he would get the door. Carter entered greeting Henry carrying a wrist corsage. Vie came down the stairs and was a vision of beauty. Carter stood in awe of her with his mouth wide open.  He could not have imagined the dress looking anything close to what he was seeing with Vie in it right now. She was breathtaking and he was speechless for a moment, absolutely stunned by her beauty.

“Vie, you look…exquisite,” he said bending down to kiss her hand gently.

“Thank you,” she said shyly.

He took the corsage out of the box and placed it on her wrist.

“It’s a lily.  I thought maybe you might like to take a piece of your mom along with us tonight,” he said somberly.

“It’s beautiful,” Vie said looking at Henry. It seemed that both the men in her life had the exact same notion about Vivian’s mom Lily. Vie felt honored to bring her along.

“Are you ready Princess?” Carter asked taking her arm.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Vie said.

They arrived at the dance and everyone swarmed around them.  After all, Carter was the hero of the hour after scoring the winning touchdown. The attention started to make Vie feel uncomfortable and Carter could see it in her eyes. Carter walked over to the DJ booth and put in a special request.  Then he glided back over to Vie, took her hand, and led her to the dance floor.  She started to panic with a fast song still playing, but Carter looked her in the eyes and said, “I believe they are about to play our song.” Just then the music changed to the soft tempo of a song they both loved.

Carter took
Vie’s
hand and spun her around and pulled her closer him. Their body’s swayed like one, back and forth to the rhythm of the music. Vie rested her head on Carter’s shoulder as he sang the words to their song softly into her ear. There was no place else she would rather be then right here right now in Carter’s arms. The night was truly magical and Carter Stone was definitely a prince. The music stopped and Carter pulled away as he gazed into her eyes with surprise.

“What is it?” Vie said.

“Your eyes…I can see a hint of violet in them again,” he said mystified by their beauty.

“I guess the dress just brings out the color in my eyes,” she said trying to cover again.

Vie excused herself saying she had to use the restroom, panicked about what Carter saw in her eyes. Gabriel had told her that the deeper her feelings grew for Carter the more at risk she was of exposing her true self, her physical self, and Vie knew that was exactly what was happening. Words could not describe the way she was feeling about Carter right now.

Vie was washing her hands when Tess came in with her posse of three, giggling uncontrollably at Vie.

“Great dress Vie!
  Where did you ever find it?” she said touching the material in admiration.

“I didn’t…Carter bought it for me,” Vie replied.

“Oh, that makes sense. I mean given your obvious bad taste in friends.  I’m sure he thought there was no telling what kind of rags you might show up in,” she said laughing with her girls.

“Well I can see you personally selected your own gown for the evening because the color suits you beautifully…green with envy!” Vie said drying her hands on the towel and exiting the restroom feeling fantastic about having the last word.

Meanwhile, Carter was in the men’s room finishing up when the door opened and Jeremy walked in. Jeremy looked at him with hate filled eyes. Carter nodded, acknowledging his presence and walked toward the door.

“Not so fast,” Jeremy said stopping him.

“I have something to tell you about Vivian…Vie or whatever she is calling herself,” he said upset.

“I’m not interested in anything you have to say about Vie so if you’ll excuse me,” Carter said sliding his hand on Jeremy’s arm to move him aside.

“Well then maybe I should show you,” he said placing his phone in Carter’s face and hitting play.

Carter watched a video playing of Jeremy and Vie on his phone. She was telling him she missed him and loved him and wanted to be with him forever. Carter was stunned and in disbelief so he accused Jeremy of making a phony video. Jeremy dared him to look at the timestamp on his phone to prove it was authentic. Carter quickly noticed the date and time and noticed it was taken last Saturday night after his date with Vie. He remembered her wearing the exact same white night shirt that evening when he went to her window. “It can’t be,” Carter thought to himself.

“It’s Vie, Carter or Vivian. It really doesn’t matter what name we call her, the point is she doesn’t know who she wants and the way I see it, she is playing us both,” Jeremy said.

Carter ripped the phone out of his hand and stormed through the door running right into Vie. Vie noticed immediately that his eyes had changed. She didn’t see love in his eyes.  In fact she didn’t see anything at all but darkness. Then she saw Jeremy standing behind him, looking guilty and almost saddened by what he had done. Carter said nothing; he just opened the phone and played the video for her. Vie was completely shocked by what she was watching but Carter was too angry to notice her genuine surprise. Vie wanted to explain, but she didn’t know how to tell him what she herself did not understand, which was how Vivian got out.
Vie’s
silence to Carter was an admission of guilt and he threw the phone to the ground, shattering it into pieces.

“I’ve never seen you at a loss for words, but let me give you a few.  I never, ever want to see your face again!” he said in a low deep profound voice.

Betrayal was something Carter could not get over and Vie had betrayed him. Tess, of course, was standing close by watching and smirking.  She jumped at the chance to rescue Carter from his pain. They left the gym together, leaving Vie standing in the hall speechless. Her world had just come crashing down and she couldn’t breathe. Jeremy went to her, but she pushed him away, angry with him for hurting Carter.

“Let me take you home Vie?” Jeremy said.

“No, I have to find Carter, I have to tell him,” she said weeping.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now Vie. Wait until tomorrow when things settle down,” Jeremy said seeing the pain in her eyes.

He hated to admit it but this girl standing before him, whoever she was, was desperately in love with Carter Stone. Vie started to leave and everyone in the entire gym was pointing and looking at her as she ran out of the gym and down the street. Running faster and faster at the speed of light, she arrived at the ranch banging on Gabriel’s door. He answered and Vie fell into his arms.

“What have I done?” she gasped to Gabriel.

Gabriel lifted her up and carried her to the couch. He laid her down and stroked her head softly. He had never seen anything more beautiful in all of his existence then Vie right now. She was truly an angel. Gabriel asked her what had happened and she told him what she knew about the video and what battered state Carter was in. Gabriel told Vie he would look for Carter and explain everything to him.  He told her to rest and he would be back shortly.

Gabriel looked everywhere and couldn’t locate Carter. It was like he had disappeared into thin air. Meanwhile Vie had decided to look for him herself. She went back to the dance hoping he would return. When Gabriel came back, Vie was gone and now he had to find two people. “How did this happen,” he wondered. Then he remembered little Sarah talking about a secret place her and Carter went where no one else could find them. He went up to the house and found Sarah watching her cartoons. Gabriel asked her to tell him where the secret place was, but she wouldn’t. She said it was a secret and she couldn’t tell anyone. Gabe explained that Carter might need him and that it was okay to share a secret if someone was hurt. Sarah gave in and disclosed the location to Gabe. It was a great spot hidden very well at the end of the property line. Gabriel entered and there sat Carter, broken hearted and lost.

“Rough night I hear?” he said to Carter.

“How did you find me?” Carter asked somberly.

“Sarah,” he confessed.

“Betrayed again,” Carter said defeated.

“Carter, I’m going to tell you something that you might find hard to believe right now but Vie did not betray you,” he said confidently.

“You obviously don’t know her very well either,” he said.  “She is very good at deceiving people.”

“ENOUGH!” Gabriel roared loudly at Carter.

“You don’t deserve her! If you could believe that about Vie for even one second than you don’t deserve her at all!” he shouted.

“I saw it Gabe with my own two eyes. You don’t know what happened, you don’t know anything!” he shouted louder.

“No Carter, it is you who does not know anything and it is time…time for you to hear the truth.” Gabriel said ready to shed the light.

Gabriel explained who Vie was and how she came to be Vivian. He told Carter about the mission and some of the problems Vie was having with Vivian surfacing unexpectedly. He told him that part of the reason she could surface was because of the strong feelings Vie had developed for him. He explained that she did love him and that Vivian loved Jeremy and that was all there was to it. Carter did not seem shocked by the disclosure of the rather unbelievable tale. In fact, it explained lots of things about Vie to him. He was angry that she did not tell him who she really was but Gabe explained that she was forbidden to do so.