The thunder rumbled loudly and shook the house. Victoria Pex was startled awake from her deep sleep by the sheer impact of the storm outside. Unlike most people, under normal circumstances the sound of a storm soothed Victoria. However she remembered today had been the day of the funeral of her grandmother, and she felt the heavy melancholy return.

She couldn’t believe her grandmother was gone. She didn’t know how she was going to go on without Grandma’s wit, her subtle sarcasm or her unquestioning love and pride in Victoria no matter what she did. She had truly lost her best friend and the only person who knew the real Victoria Pex, all her dark secrets, all her insecurities and fears and loved her despite everything. From now on she would have to pretend to be the Victoria Pex everyone else knew her as.

Victoria raised her arm and stared at the ring she had inherited from grandma on her finger. It was entirely too big for her and too grand. However for today having it on her finger made her feel closer to grandma. The stones on the ring glistened in the semi darkness. It was one big sapphire surrounded by diamonds. The ring itself was a few hundred years old. It had been passed down in the family for centuries. Victoria had been touched that grandma had chosen her as its new owner. She knew her mother had been displeased when the will had been read. However, she found it funny that grandma had left everyone with this last surprise even after she was gone.

“I am going to miss you so much grandma. I feel so alone without you”, Victoria whispered to the ring, thinking back to the funeral this morning. It had been a very small private event. Grandma had been buried in the family cemetery on their estate. Her parents had gone out of their way to keep the news of the funeral out of the media’s attention. In fact the only attendees had been her parents, Victoria, her estranged Aunt Elisabeth with her husband and daughters, and Victoria’s boyfriend Noah...