She was twenty-one now and she felt as though she had barely lived, she spent much of her youth doing as she was told, never truly doing the things she wanted to do. As the daughter of a powerful man, there are certain things that are expected of her without question. Not one soul cared about what she wanted her to do, she had tutors, and lessons. She couldn't have boys around and she had to behave in a manner that would not draw unwanted attention to the family. She had to dress a certain way, look a certain way all of this regardless of her own wants, needs or desires. She was constantly running from one thing or another, and when it came time to pay the piper and marry Marcel Bradbury, she ran. She fled what was expected and right into the open and waiting arms of Nicolò , only to run right into a wall of mirrors.
With a start she awoke from the reoccurring nightmare that she had since leaving home. Sitting up in bed, talking to herself, she said "That dream again, the same dream I have had since I was little, when will it stop? Will I ever break free from my father's grasp? Even way out here on the ocean I can feel him. Why can't my life be simple?" her head was spinning from the activities from the previous night, even though she was no longer a member of the crew, she had snuck below deck and danced until the wee hours. She threw on the opera cape she often used as a robe, and her open backed red velvet boudoir slippers, and walked out onto the side deck of the ship. Alannah went to the railing and stared up at the darkening sky, the stars seemed to appear all at once. They looked down on her glittering and false as if showing her that the façade she showed to the world would soon come to an end.
She looked down and the water below and began talking to herself, as if praying to God for guidance. "What is it that I want? I've spent the last five years of my life running from place to place trying to stay a step ahead of my father. I've been hiding and trying to get out from under the tyranny hold of my father, I have been so focused on when he would find me that I have yet to discover what it is that I truly want. Is there more to life than what I have already lived? More than tutors, and coming out parties, marrying for money and power, not love? Is there … is there someone out there for me? What a cruel irony it would be to come full circle and realize that living under Father's thumb is what my life is really all about!" She took a deep breath and tried to calm her rattled nerves. Feeling the cool breeze from the ocean blow open the lower half of her opera cape, which exposed her bare skin caused her to shuddered a little. Looking up once more at the night sky and the stars gleaming down at her, she chuckled to herself. It was the kind of chuckle that was without humor, as if everything in her life up until this very moment had been a horrible nightmare. "And yet once again, despite the fact that I got away again this time by the skin of my toes, I am once more running from my father. I feel trapped, like a bear in the circus. Is this life of running ever going to end?" Irked, she turned her thoughts once more to Storm Haven Island, just outside of Cuba and the Caribbean, and felt something like a small glimmer of hope.