You can't choose your family, only your friends. Sometimes those friends are more like family than anyone else. Sometimes people come into your life at the most inopportune time, but they come to mean the world to you. Yet one thing, one event, one relation can shatter that world that you have built. NO matter how independent you may be, someone can walk into your life and all of a sudden they become your rock. They become all you rely on. All you trust. That's what Sam became to me...My rock, my world. I was raised to be independent. To not ask for or rely on anyone for help. I never asked for Sam's help. I never wanted to involve him in my life. But I needed him there. I needed his strength. His assurance, his love. He gave it all to me, until he found out where I came from and what I was. I had to prove myself. I had to make him understand. I wasn't like them. I would make him understand how much he means to me, even if it kills me.