Chapter 30

**Blue**


Bryant and Dane escort me back to the hotel. They must sense I’m in no mood to talk because they don’t say a word even when we reach the room. I walk to my bedroom and close the door behind me, cutting the rest of the world out. My thoughts and feelings are a mess right now and I need time to understand it all. I’ve never felt anything like this before and it’s making me mad.

I carefully hang my new dress in the closet where Artemis has been keeping his suits. For a second I consider messing them up a little, but once again I refrain from letting my emotions get the best of me.

Bastard. I’d like to kick him in the shine.

Taking a deep breath, I close the closet and drop down on the bed with a huff. Day…what it it? Day four? I can’t even tell any more. It feels like ages since I was teleported into this alternate universe where a super-rich guy asked to marry him.

Deciding I have given him enough thought for today I decide to watch some TV and order a huge ice cream sundae. Have you had one of those? They are amazing! Ten out of ten recommend! Thankfully we have a phone in our room, and I don’t have to leave to order it. Once that’s done, I slide make and get comfortable on the bed and turn on the TV. I flip through a few channels looking for something that catches my attention. Since I don’t know much of what is popular right now I pick a channel and try to enjoy what looks like some kind of movie.

I recognize the actors in it, but I can’t remember their names. The longer I watch it’s clear that they are pretending to be engaged. The movie is more of a comedy, and I laugh a lot as I watch but there are also some scenes where things get…complicated. In the end the guy gets his girl, and they live happily ever after. I wish real life worked out that way, but as we all know…it doesn’t. Sometimes we have to go through a lot of shit to even get a ‘happy for now’ ending.

Once the movie is over, I feel like cursing someone out again. It didn’t relax me like I hoped, and I grumble to myself until someone knocks at the bedroom door.

“What?” I yell at whoever dares disturb my pity party.

“Your ice cream is here Miss Blue.” Yes!

I scramble off the bed and throw the door open to see a giant man holding a glass filled with ice cream and all these yummy toppings.

“Thank you.” I snatch it from him and close the door in his face.

I can hear him chuckling from the other side of the door and I scowl at it like maybe he could sense it on the other side. Even annoyed I don’t seem threatening to that guy.

I hate him. Okay, I hate everyone right now. I’m just in a bad mood and happy to hate everything but this delicious ice cream sundae. It will be the love of my life until it’s gone and then I’ll be grumpy again.

Womanhood…am I right?

Anyway, I plant myself on the bed and put my feet up with a happy sigh.

“It’s just you and me.” I say to the sundae before pulling out a giant spoonful of sweet goodness and stuff it into my mouth.

No need to be polite in my world of sulking and hate.

Another movie starts and I get lost in the story. It seems like a cute love story, but the guy is sort of an ass. Girl I can relate…

He seems so genuine but in the end, she finds out he was only with her because of a bet!

“You deserve better girl! Drop his ass!” I yell at the TV. “Sneaky bastard.”

In the end she goes to meet them at the same place they went swimming together! That is when I go off at the girl because seriously? He’s an asshole and she should have moved on to someone better. Apparently, there are like four other movies with these two but like hell I’m going to watch that!

Okay who am I kidding? I’m going to watch it because I’m curious about what happens.

Unfortunately they don’t play the next film but I take out my phone and look up the movie I just watched and they line the next few movies in a row underneath it. Convenient. I make sure to remember the names and talk to…*him* about renting them.

I start flipping through channels, stopping to watch whatever is on for a few minutes before moving on. My sundae is gone too soon, and I settle further down in the bed to enjoy my solitude. It’s nice not to have to hear Artemis’s mother talking about how amazing the wedding she is planning will be. Or how she knows the best way to plan such an important event. The woman is going to be a pill to deal with, but she’ll be my family, so I guess I’ll have to get used to it. I won’t like it, but I’ll deal with it.

While I’m changing channels a news station comes up and I hesitate but end up staying on the channel. They talk about a lot of things going on around the world, and I’m shocked by the amount of bad things that happen every day. When I was travelling I spent so much time thinking of ways to keep myself alive that I didn’t think about others. I realize now how selfish that is. An idea starts to form while I watch the news move on to sports and weather. I let out a breath of relief that there is nothing about what happened to those kids. Of course as soon as I think about it the images appear on the screen again.

My stomach rolls and I think I’m about to evacuate the sundae but try my best to hold it in.

*“We have some new information on the case involving the several children whose lives were taken too soon. A total of seven children were found and some had passed from natural causes not related to the horrible crime that brought this story to light. The police also found a photographic record of each child who entered this home. Police hope to find another lead by tracking down as many of these past foster kids as possible…”*

Pictures?

I try to run through my time with them but so much it is a tangled web of random memories. Then I remember the day I came home from school with the new outfit my foster mother had bought for me and she said she wanted to take a picture as well. I thought it was because she wanted to remember the day like other mothers like to, but after that day her kind façade was shed and the true her came out.

That was the last time I received new clothing and I wore that dress until it was too tight and she was forced to buy me something else. From the looks of them it was clear they were used but I wore them until they didn’t fit and we went through the same thing again.

The one thing I can say is that even though I was treated terribly by all the foster families I was in, I was never violated. I have scars and received unjust punishment but never that. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have mental scars from the other things that happened and I have nightmares about them nearly every night. I can’t help but wish that the police find them and they suffer even a fraction of what they put all those children through. A lifetime of torture wouldn’t be enough but life in prison is enough.

I start to run through a few memories to try and see if I remember them talking about a place beside the house. Somewhere maybe they would hide if the cops were looking for them. I growl in frustration when nothing comes to mind.

There has to be something, but I was so young that all those memories are fuzzy.

“Dammit!”

I might not have been able to do anything back then but maybe…maybe I could do something now. Artemis offered me money to agree to this marriage, and I refused then but now…

God what am I thinking? Am I planning on going on a one woman man hunt for those horrible people? What can I really do to help the cops with this? It’s been too long and I can barley think about that time without being physically ill.

Another knock comes from the other side of the door, and I walk over to open it.

“A package came for you Miss Blue.” Bryant says holding a small box out to me. “We already scanned it for explosives or weapons.”

What? Do people mail explosives? Never mind I don’t want to know.

I take the box and open it in front of him just in case. When I see what’s inside, I gasp and drop the box to the ground.

Oh my god!

“What’s wrong Miss Blue? What is it?”

I look up at him horrified.