Without further ado, let the chapter begin! :)
Ava stared at a small flower in her hands and tried to focus. The flower began to bloom and it started to grow bigger. The flower began to have some thin vines coming from it and Ava looked at Rebecca, "I don't know how to make it stop."
Rebecca said, "Try to calm down and take a deep breathe."
Listening to what Rebecca said, Ava took a deep breathe and watched the flower carefully. The flower began to return to its original form. Ava frowned and whispered, "What did I do?"
"I'm not sure, your nanites were working for a moment but now they're deactivated. It will take time for you to control." Rebecca promised and pat Ava's head.
Ava nodded and looked up at Rebecca, "Can I go play now?"
Rebecca smiled and said, "Of course you can. I'll be upstairs in a few minutes."
With that, Ava left the lab room and made her way upstairs. She hurried down the hallway and peeked inside the dinning room. Rosie was sitting in one of the chairs and tried to finish all of her homework.
It was obvious that Rosie was getting flustered and she tapping her head with a pencil.
"Finals are almost coming up...how am I suppose to jam all seven study guides in my head? I'm not even close to finishing my homework...ugh this is stressing me out." Rosie groaned and rubbed her eyes for a moment.
Ava quietly approached Rosie and tilt her head. She wasn't use to seeing Rosie like this. It still seems strange to Ava and she wants to help her feel better.
Rosie opened the eyes and noticed Ava was right beside her.
"Oh, hi sweetie. What's wrong?" Rosie asked and gave Ava her full attention.
Ava looked at the worksheets, textbooks and papers scattered on the table. "What's that?" Ava asked and grabbed one of the worksheets. It had a lot of writing, Ava couldn't read it because she doesn't understand cursive yet.
"This is my homework. Trust me, its not fun to have this much work to do." Rosie admitted and started to clean up the table.
"Can we go watch a movie?" Ava smiled.
Deep down inside, Rosie still had work to do but she decides to spend some time with Ava. It wouldn't take too long since Ava's bedtime is at seven. So after Ava goes to bed then she will finish her homework.
"Sure. What should we watch?" Rosie asked and picked the little girl up.
Ava thought about it and cuddled close to Rosie, "I don't know."
Rosie shook her head and took Ava to the living room. They sat down on the couch and Rosie grabbed the remote. She began to scroll through the channels and stopped when she spotted a familiar movie.
"Rugrats in Paris, I hadn't seen that one in years." Rosie whispered before she set the remote down.
The girls began to watch the movie and were enjoying it. However, Ava started thinking when she noticed Chuckie missing his mom. For as long as Ava could remember, the only family she knows is Van Kleiss.
To this day, Ava doesn't know if she should miss him or feel something about her father. When it comes to her mom, Ava knows nothing about her. She doesn't feel anything when she thinks about her mom. Is that a bad thing to her?
The girls were giggling when Rebecca finished reading the book 50 Below Zero. Rosie was sitting at the edge of the bed while Rebecca began to tuck Ava in.
"You really love this book, don't you?" Rebecca smiled and put the book back in the book shelf.
Rosie giggled and admitted, "Its my favorite, but when Uncle Rex reads the book, its hilarious. The way he reads it is so dramatic when he does the noises."
"Can he read the book to us?" Ava smiled until Rebecca said, "Well, we can try calling him tomorrow."
Before Rebecca and Rosie could leave the room, Ava called out to them.
"Wait! I have a question." Ava said and they stopped by the doorway.
"You need to sleep Ava." Rebecca reminded her until Ava unexpectedly asked, "Where's my mama?"
They didn't expect Ava to ask them that and they stayed quiet. No one knew what to say until Rosie stepped inside and sat on the bed to face Ava.
"Your...your mom is in a better place now. She protected you from a monster." Rosie whispered quietly.
Ava stared at her and said, "Did mama die?"
Rosie felt conflicted and looked at her mother. They weren't sure what to say until Ava added, "Its okay. I saw people die because of Mr. Zane."
It was turn that Ava has seen a handful of Zane's henchmen perish because of they disobeyed his orders. So death isn't a scary topic to Ava. Although for a four year old to know about this and accepts it concerns Rebecca and Rosie.
"I'm sorry Ava." Rosie sadly said and stroked Ava's cheek.
Ava looked at them and didn't seem to show any emotions until she said, "I want a picture of mama..."
"We'll see what we can find Ava...for now, its time for bed." Rosie said.
This made Ava closed her eyes and didn't say a word. Once Rebecca and Rosie were sure that she was asleep, they silently made their way out of the room. Rosie looked conflicted and whispered, "I didn't expect that from Ava."
"She was bound to learn some things during her time with Zane. She doesn't know that Zane is her brother, which is odd." Rebecca admitted while Rosie looked upset.
Suddenly, Rosie had an idea and looked at her mom, "Call me crazy...but I might have an idea. This might help us get some more information about Ava's mom."
"I still think this is a bad idea." Six muttered as he was escorting Rosie down the elevator. It was the next day and Rosie managed to convinced her parents to let her see Lucas.
Out of anyone, Lucas knew a lot about Zane's past, including his mother. So Rosie hoped that Lucas could give her any information to help Ava get to know her mother. The problem is that Lucas hasn't answered any questions during the interrogations. This was a fifty fifty chance that he'll tell her anything.
Rosie can always hope for the best.
"I'm just going to ask Lucas a few questions. If he doesn't answer them then that's fine. Its worth a shot dad." Rosie sigh and twiddle her thumbs around.
Calan stood by the secure cell door and said, "You have authorization to go inside Rosie. Are you sure about this?"
Rosie nodded but looked at Six, "You need to stay outside though."
"Not gonna happen." Six frowned and Rosie sigh. She knew this wasn't going to be an easy task. Calan said, "We'll be watching her from the cameras, so if the boy tries anything then we'll step in."
"Great, now I can go in." Rosie smiled and hurried inside the cell.
Once the cell doors were sealed shut, Rosie looked at Lucas. He was sitting on the edge of his bed with a book in his hands. Lucas appears to be reading but casually said, "Took you long enough to visit me."
"You're a ray of sunshine." Rosie sarcastically mentioned and kept her distance.
Lucas set the book on his pillow and stretched his arms up, "What do you want?"
Rosie whispered, "I'm sorry for asking this...but do you know where I can find any picture of Ava's mom? Can you tell me about her?"
Those questions caught Lucas off guard, it was more personal rather than finding out the whereabouts of his friend. Lucas casually lean back on his bed and admitted, "Well, its been a three years...sometimes you forget what someone looks like once they're gone."
"Doesn't Zane have any pictures of his mom?" Rosie faintly said.
Lucas shook his head and sigh. Throughout the years, Lucas tried to save any old pictures of Stephanie in secret. He hoped to give them to Ava one day but it would never happen because of Zane. Zane made sure all the pictures of his mother were never seem again.
Lucas had an idea and sat up from his bed, "Try to find any information by using their mom's name. Stephanie Peterson. I'm sure you can find one picture, maybe from her driver's license."
"That's actually a good idea, thanks Lucas. Do you have anymore things you know? Maybe a date of birth or a middle name?" Rosie smiled.
"Princess, that's all I know. Sorry." Lucas remarked and went back to grab his book to start reading again.
Rosie felt hopeful and hurried to leave the cell but slowly stopped. She looked back at Lucas, "Do you...want more books to read? Or maybe some puzzles?"
Lucas glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Look, you're helping me with this. So I want to repay you. I'm not saying that you're going to leave this cell, you're still being punished for letting Zane do some illegal human experiments on Ava and a few other people. But I will give you a few things to help pass the time. Do you want some more books or some puzzles? Or maybe a notebook?" Rosie asked awkwardly.
Seeing Rosie flustered made Lucas chuckled. "Surprise me with whatever you have. I do have a request."
Rosie didn't like the sound of this but allowed Lucas to continue. He looked at the hidden camera in the corners of the room. "I'll start talking and give you anything that I know. But in exchange, I want Rosie to visit me every week. That's all I'm asking for."
"So Lucas wants Rosie to visit him? I feel like that might be a bad idea." Rebecca told Six while they were setting up the table. They weren't sure if they should allow Rosie to go near Lucas again.
"I know this is a bad idea but Knight wants anymore information that Lucas might have." Six said and shook his head.
Rebecca smiled when she heard the girls giggling from the living room.
"She has a good heart but I'm worried people might take advantage of her kindness." Rebecca admitted but they heard Aaron yelled, "Get the camera away from me!"
"But you're a pretty princess!" Rosie laughed when Aaron stormed in the dinning room with an upset look on his face. Six and Rebecca noticed Aaron had make up on his face with a few bows in his hair.
Six began to smirk and asked, "Do we want to know?"
Aaron glared at him and mumbled, "Don't ask."
Ava hurried in the dinning room and held up a pink feather boa. She squealed, "You need to wear this Aary!"
Rosie smirked when he noticed Aaron looking conflicted. He hung his head down in defeat and fell on his knees, "Okay."
Ava smiled and wrapped the boa around Aaron's neck. Rosie giggled and took a few pictures of them but went to help her parents. Once the table was set up, Rosie went to the kitchen.
"Hey mom, where's the lemonade?" Rosie called out when she searched the fridge. She began to pout and glanced behind her for a moment. Rosie flinched when she spotted Zane and backed away to a wall.
Zane stared at her with his cold green eyes and took a step forward. However, he vanished to thin air when Six entered the kitchen. Six noticed Rosie looked pale and startled by something.
"What's wrong?" Six frowned.
Knowing that she's going insane, Rosie decides to lie, "I thought a spider. Don't worry dad, it was just my mind playing tricks on me."
Six wasn't convinced but said, "Go sit down, I'll handle with the lemonade."
"Okay...thanks dad."
That's it for Chapter 20, thank you everyone for reading this story :) I can't believe its already 20 chapters, time does fly by fast :)
Thank you YellowAngela for the last review! I agree with that, Six wouldn't dare to throw away Rosie's stuff. Even though he really wants to XD I hope things are going well for you, is the online school still going on? Because my siblings are done with there classes.
For the next few days are going to be busy for me. Tomorrow is my mommy's birthday and we're going out for dinner at the afternoon. Friday is my sister's birthday and Saturday is her small birthday party. So I'm going to be busy this week. Wish me luck, I'm the only other one who has a license besides my mom XD So Chapter 21 might have a slight delay but I'll try to post it next weekend. Until then, have a nice day everyone and stay safe :)