Chapter 69

**Blue**


My plan had been to crawl into bed and lazy the day away in my TOM bubble, but the universe had other plans for me. Abigail, Alan and Artemis have been inside Alan’s office working like crazy since this morning trying to do damage control for the company. I wish there was something I could do to help them, but I can’t think of anything. I decide to check out what’s being said online and get a better idea of what we’ll be up against in that arena.

I’ve gotten a lot better at using the smartphone and can now pretty much do everything without asking for help. I open the search engine and type in Artemis’s name. A ton of articles pop up so I click on the first one. It has a video on the top of the page, so I select it.

*“There is a lot of drama circling the Rhodes family this week. From their son Artemis marrying a girl no one has ever seen or heard of to the head of the family taking over his son’s company. Is there trouble in paradise? The family is famously known for their vast empire of media outlets, but this scandal could kick the family off the tops spot in this city fast. Is Artemis Rhode’s sudden marriage a sign that there is a lot more underneath the perfect family image the Rhodes have always shown? Who is the girl that stole the cities most popular bachelor? Stay tuned.”*

That video ends but when I scroll further down my heart drops to my stomach when I see Maria-Ann. I hesitate before selecting the video as if not watching it would make it not real, btu I have to know what she said about me. After a couple of deep breaths, I click on it.

*“You contacted us when you saw photos of the woman with Artemis Rhodes. What can you tell us about her?”* The interviewer asks.

*“Her name is Blue, like the color. She was living with me and Bucky at the abandoned train station.”* Maria-Ann says.

I can hear the anger in her voice.

*“How long has she been staying there?”* The interviewer asks.

*“Not long, but she took the good space leaving me in the cold every night. She’s a selfish one. Bucky didn’t see it but I did. She was no good, and when I saw she tricked a rich man into marrying her I knew I had to speak up.”* Maria-Ann says.

*“What else can you tell us about this woman who tricked Artemis Rhodes to marry her?” *

*“She was one of them foster kid run aways. Up and left when she was still young. She claimed abuse but they all say that. They just don’t want to behave and cry abuse at the first sign of a little discipline. My guess is she wanted a cushy life and went looking for it. Guess she found it now.*” Maria-Ann spits to the side as if saying those things tasted sour in her mouth, but why would she say them at all?

We haven’t been close, but I thought we had an amicable relationship. I guess I was wrong. They talk for a little longer, but I can’t listen to anymore. I’m not worried about Artemis hearing this since it is more than he already knows but no one else knows I was homeless before we met. What will people do now that they have this information on me? Will they go searching further into my past?

If they bring everything out into the open it would destroy me. All those memories are only meant to live in my nightmares, but once it’s out in the world I won’t ever be able to outrun it. I have to do something…

My first thought is to track Maria-Ann down and demand she explain what made her say those things about me but I don’t want to be made to look more evil. There is always my plan to move on to the next state, but how far can I go where people won’t recognize me? I decide to do some research on small towns far away from a large city. One place pops up a lot…Alaska. It’s not an easy state to get to though and I’m not flush with cash to pay for the trip. The small amount of money I had saved was enough to maybe take me as far as California, but if I can make it there I can work on getting more and possible make it down to Mexico.

Then there is just the matter of getting over the border but then I remember that Artemis had a passport made for me. I’ll leave everything else except the paperwork he had made for me and leave. It will make me look even more like a bad person but there will be sympathy for Artemis. That might give something for his mother to use to get their family name in the news with them looking like victims.

I climb out of bed and search my luggage for my new papers. They end up being in one of Artemis’s bags, so I grab them and empty out one of the bags that had been packed for me. I never got my other bag back but I know how to fix that. I grab my phone and send a quick text to Bryant.
Me: Hey! I’ve been trying to find the bags I had when I first left the hospital. Do you know where it might be?

***Bryant: Yes I do.

Me: Great! Do you think you can drop it off? I want to wear one of my old shirts.

Bryant: Of course Miss Blue

Me: It’s just Blue Mr. Bryant

Bryant: yes ma’am***

I roll my eyes and leave my phone on the bed so I can finish getting things together. The toiletries I grabbed from the hotel in Fiji are moved into the bag I’ll be taking but I don’t pack any of the clothes. It may look like I’m a gold digger that went on the run, but I won’t live up to that name. I won’t take a single thing from Artemis other than the few items I will desperately need. No cash, cards, or expensive clothes and accessories. Speaking of…I look down at my ring and I feel a rush of sadness. Artemis picked this ring out specifically for me, but I can’t take it with me. I would never pawn it either, and it could be dangerous for me to be carrying something so valuable.

If I want to stay under the radar then I can’t have anything with me that could get attention.

Shit…my hair. It’s the one thing about me that everyone knows now. I need to do something about it. Not once have I considered changing it, but I can’t keep it now. I’ll have to stop somewhere and pick up some hair dye before I head to California, but I still need to get there without being seen.

Wait! How am I going to get out of here unseen? I’m guessing Artemis has a full team of security around here and I don’t even know exactly where we are. So, I grab my phone again and pin my current location. We’re in the middle of a large area of woods, but a few miles away is a road that heads back to a small town. All I have to do is hitch hike and get to that small city. Once I’m there I can take the bus to a depot and figure things out from there.

Now to do a little recon.

I open the door to our room and peek out to see if the coast is clear. When I don’t see or hear anything for a few seconds I walk out and head in the direction of what I heard Alan say was the garage. The top floor is one long hallway from one end of the huge house to the other. In the section where the stairs are, there is a circled out section where there are couches and a TV like some sort of break are in the center of the house. It’s weird, but I guess if Alan has a lot of people here then it could be useful. I walk past this stair case and down toward the other side of the house.

Once I make it to the end I find another stair case that leads down to another hallway, but on the wall of the stairs there is a door. I walk down and once I reach the bottom step I check to see if the coast is clear again. No one is around, so I step down and turn toward the random door. When I open it I expect to see a garage or another section of the house, but instead it opens to a deck where a giant hot tub is set up. Beyond the deck is miles of trees and not a security guy in sight.

Maybe Artemis figures we’re safe enough here not to need any.

Perfect.