DeBeers 03 Twisted Roots

by V. C. Andrews

  Both you and I have family histories that have impacted so dramatically on our personalities and our ambitions. In one of Shakespeare's plays. I think it might be Julius Caesar, he wrote that "the eve sees not itself. but by reflection." I believe he meant we can never really see ourselves until we see ourselves as others might see us, until we step out of ourselves and look at ourselves more objectively and clearly. One way to do that is to go back to understand our roots.

  Both you and I are products of the struggles and tribulations our mothers and fathers endured. Hannah. We judge our parents too harshly without knowing all the facts sometimes. No one can truly appreciate what you went through unless he or she reads your mother Willow's story and I think that would be very true for me as well, Read Rain, Lightning Strikes. and Eye of The Storm before you read my story-- just as I have read Willow and Wicked Forest before reading Twisted Roots-- and you will fully appreciate why I turned out the way I did. This will give you insights into your awn development as well, I'm sure.

  The reason for that lies in the secrets our parents have kept hidden from us to protect us. It was nice to live in a world of innocence, oblivious to all the twists and turns and dark places in our histories, but when we grew old enough to understand, we were permitted to look into these dark places, and like you. I made discoveries and had realizations that were nearly too overwhelming to accept. We should be grateful, I suppose, that our parents tried so hard to protect us from all that, but there comes a time when you have to learn how to live with it and how to protect yourself. Whether we liked it or not. Hannah, we had to grow up fast or else be destroyed by forces from within our own worlds.

  The natural worlds we lived in had a great impact on who we were as well. Hannah. You were brought up in the glamorous and glitzy opulence of Palm Beach. I lived on a beautiful estate in Virginia. There is a lake on our property and it has had a great influence on me. When you are out in Nature, you feel things people in big cities, surrounded by cement, don't feel. I'm sure you who have lived on the ocean can appreciate what I'm saying as well. My mother liked to think of our estate as part of the family. I understand why.

  I hope someday you and I will meet and we can talk about our lives freely. Let's exchange our stories first and get to know each other through the words, the pictures, the images and revelations in them. Let's think of books as letters of introduction, the way people in days long ago used to present themselves to strangers. Let the stories be our references so that when we do meet, we meet like two old friends who have finally been brought back together after a long time and across vast distances.

  Perhaps then we can smile and truly understand the meaning of such words as family and friendship and love.

  And perhaps then we can give to our children the gifts that were given to us. Open the cover of the book. Hannah.

  Unwrap the packages.

  Behold what lies within both our hearts, and like me, become proud of who you are,

  Looking for you.

  Summer