It was dark.

"We can't bring her along with us, Alex." That was the sound of her mother's voice. Celeste sat up, gazing around and finding herself back in her bedroom. She could see that night had fallen through the gaps of the open curtains and she sat up, rubbing her eyes. She slid out of bed and approached the door when she heard her mother's voice again. "We're going on vacation. She'll be nothing but a nuisance."

Celeste cocked her head to one side before pressing her ear against the door curiously. "Of course we won't bring her," her father's voice replied nonchalantly, "She's old enough to stay home by herself. If not, we can have someone come by to check on her."

Celeste took a few steps back when she heard footsteps approaching her door, her wide eyes rising when the door opened and she gasped. Her parents were so very tall, towering over her as if she were still a small child. She backed up against the foot of her bed but they only drew closer.

"Celeste," her mother spoke with a skewered and deep voice, "we have to go somewhere important tomorrow morning. You're going to stay right here, okay?"

When Celeste did nothing but tremble, her father knelt down beside her, taking her hand. He was still much taller than her. "I'm sorry we have to leave you behind," he murmured, though his eyes said otherwise, "But you'll be a good girl, right?" Her gaze moving back and forth between them, she realized they were awaiting an answer. She swallowed hard, nodding slowly and her father gave her forehead a tender kiss. "That's right, Celeste. You're a good girl."

"If I'm a good girl," Celeste's voice was soft and high pitched as she spoke, "that means you will come back, right?"

Her mother laughed. "Of course we will come back; this is our house, isn't it?"

Celeste gazed up at her, avoiding her glowing red eyes. "This is your house but I'm your daughter."

Her father stood, ignoring Celeste's remark. "Yes, this is our house and we paid good money for it. If we didn't come back for too long, we would have so much work to do on it."

Celeste gazed up at them. Although the light coming in from the open door was hitting them directly, they looked like shadows and had glowing bright red eyes; that wasn't right. "What about me? What if I get old and dirty while you're gone too?"

The two of them just laughed, stepping back outside. "Goodnight, Celeste," her mother said as she closed the door.

Suddenly it felt as if the floor below Celeste's feet gave way, dropping her into water. She gasped for air, swimming towards the top but it seemed she'd never reach it.

Just as she felt she'd suffocate, Celeste jerked awake, gasping for precious air as she sat up. Her blurry vision began to clear and she found herself back in the hotel bedroom, still on top of Lysander as she'd fallen asleep. Lysander had awoken at the sound of her gasp and he was propped up on to his elbows, gazing at her worriedly. "Are you okay?"

Celeste nodded, climbing out of bed. "I just had a bad dream." Her shaky body made it's way to the mini fridges and retrieved a water bottle, leaning against it and catching her breath.

She downed her water bottle in a few gulps and turned to find Lysander just behind her. "Are you sure you're okay? You've never woken up like this before."

Celeste nodded again. "I told you I had a bad dream." She gazed at the wall behind him, taking a deep breath; breathing felt good. She tossed out the water bottle before meeting Lysander's gaze. "I think I miss my parents."

It was about noon and Celeste gazed at her cell phone, her finger hovering over the 'Call' button in her mother's contact, Lysander sitting beside her for moral support. She took a deep breath before pushing the button and lifting the phone to her ear on Lysander's side so he could hear too. "I don't know if she'll answer," she whispered to him, "I changed my number not too long ago and she doesn't have it."

After a few rings, she heard a cheery, "Hello?"

Celeste felt relief at the sound of her mother's voice; there was nothing like the bond between mother and child. "Mom, it's Celeste. I'm glad you haven't changed your number."

"Oh, Celeste," her mother responded, "You changed your number though. How are things? You didn't tear apart the house, did you?"

Celeste chuckled. "No, I didn't. I'm actually not at home. I saved up some money and went to Paris."

Her mother gasped. "You're all the way in Paris? All by yourself?"

"No," Celeste answered, "I'm with my boyfriend. Things have been great but I started to miss you and dad so I decided to call you."

Her mother chuckled. "We were in Paris just a couple of weeks ago. You should've let us know you were coming so we could stay a while longer to see you."

"Yeah, maybe I should've," Celeste smiled, realizing her dream was just a dream and nothing she should worry about, "You don't think you can come out here again, can you?"

"Sorry, honey, we're a little too busy now."

"Oh, are you far?"

"All the way over in Miami. We couldn't just drop everything and leave."

"That's okay; it was a shot in the dark anyway. How are you guys? You never call me anymore."

"We've been busy. These days, the work seems endless. We've been great though. Things have been going really well."

Celeste smiled at Lysander before speaking again. "I'm glad you guys are okay. I've been doing great too. Recently I had my art showcased in a gallery and last night I met with another gallery owner. He said he was very impressed."

Her mother mumbled something to someone else. "Celeste, dear, I have to go. I'll call you when I'm not busy."

"Okay. Bye, mom." The line was dead before her mother returned the goodbye and Celeste gazed at her phone for a minute before turning to Lysander. "We have to go see them."

Lysander furrowed his brow. "You want to go see them? What about the gallery?"

Celeste returned her gaze to her phone. "Maybe we could go after that. I just feel like we should see them."

He took a deep breath, nodding. "Okay, Celeste, if that's what you really want."

A month passed and Ethan had given Celeste plenty of time to pace herself with her paintings so things went just as smoothly as she predicted. She and Lysander had a fancy dinner and afterwards she did some research to figure out where exactly in Miami they were; with her connections, she managed to find them without trouble. She planned to surprise them and her mother had been too busy to answer the phone anyway.

After a very long flight, the plane landed and Celeste and Lysander took a cab to the hotel where her parents were staying and Celeste squeezed Lysander's hand as the elevator rose to their floor.

"Are you nervous about seeing your own parents?" he asked her.

Celeste shook her head before cocking her head to one side thoughtfully, shrugging. "I haven't seen them in a long time... like since I was fifteen."

Lysander eyed her. "That's an awfully long time to go without seeing your own parents."

She shrugged again. "They move us around without coming by to see how it goes. I don't really know why they like to move so much; they hardly ever come home." She glued her gaze to the screen that told her which floor they were passing. "They're very busy."

The elevator rang a bell and the door opened to reveal the elegant top floor where the presidential suite was; that was where her parents would be staying, no doubt. She continued to squeeze Lysander's hand until they were finally at their door. She lifted her hand and gave a knock, holding her breath until she couldn't anymore; all they heard was silence.

"Maybe they're out right now," she told Lysander, "Let's book a-..."

She was interrupted by the door opening. Her mother looked just as young as ever; probably putting her money into Botox and plastic surgery, but that wasn't what concerned Celeste. What concerned her was the fact that her mother had on teenaged girl pajamas and, judging by her hair, she hadn't left the hotel in days. Her father was behind her, lounging on the sofa without a care in the world. If this is what they were spending their time doing, what in the world kept them too occupied to answer the phone?

"Celeste," her mother gasped and she could see her father shift behind her, "Um... what are you doing here?"

Celeste gave them the benefit of the doubt and a smile. "I wanted to surprise you. Now that I'm not in school anymore, I figured why not? I missed you guys. I thought you'd be at my graduation but I didn't see you."

Her mother sheepishly chuckled, scratching her head. "Yeah, um, something came up. Honey... come and see your daughter. She's all grown up."

Her father came up behind her mother, his gaze going from Celeste to Lysander and back again. "Where? I don't see my daughter." Celeste giggled and he ruffled her hair. "When did you graduate? I thought you were sixteen."

Celeste furrowed her brow. "I was sixteen two years ago, dad. I graduated in May; it's July."

He chuckled. "Time flies, huh? Why don't you two come inside?"

Celeste led Lysander inside once her parents stepped aside and her father closed the door. She sat down in between Lysander and her mother on the sofa, leaving her father to sit in the recliner, which he didn't seem to mind. "Celeste," her mother spoke from the other side of her, "Aren't you going to introduce us to your boyfriend?"

"Oh yeah," Celeste smiled, "This is Lysander." She paused to let Lysander greet them. "We met at Sweet Amoris."

Her father furrowed his brow. "What's Sweet Amoris?"

Celeste cleared her throat. "The high school that you enrolled me in last semester."

"Oh, right," he tapped his arm rest with his fingernails, "So how long will you be in town?"

Celeste shrugged. "I don't know. I'll talk to some people and see if there are any galleries around here looking for artists but if not, I probably will only stay a couple of weeks. I only wanted to visit you guys; Florida doesn't seem like the most amazing place to be honest."

"Well how long were you in Paris?" her mother chimed in.

"About a month," Celeste answered, "but only because there was so much to see and do, on top of the gallery. I did so much shopping there, though."

"So where do you plan to stay?" her mother asked.

Celeste gave them a smile. "We were gonna book a room here, so we could spend time with you guys."

"Oh, that's nice," her father slowly said, meeting her mother's gaze before giving Celeste a smile, "Your flight here was long, wasn't it? You should go book your room and get some rest."

"Maybe you're right," Celeste agreed, "It's getting kind of late. Let's go get our room, Lysander. Tomorrow we should all spend the day together. Wouldn't that be fun?"

They booked their room and were both tired enough to be in bed at the same time. The air conditioning was high and Celeste was comfortable and happy, her arm over Lysander's waist and her head on his shoulder.

"I can't wait until tomorrow," she murmured.

Lysander lifted her arm off of him, turning her around so her back was to his chest and he held her tightly. "You should sleep now and get excited when you wake up."

She giggled. "I can't help it. I'm so happy that I'm finally getting involved with my parents. I've never really known them that well, you know? It'd be nice to get to know them; they're my parents, after all."

He kissed her head. "Yes, but the longer you take to fall asleep, the longer it'll be until you get to see them again."

She nodded. "You're right."

After a full night's rest, Celeste awoke early the next morning, finding the spot where Lysander had been sleeping to be empty. She curiously cocked her head to one side, climbing out of bed. "Lysander?" she called, taking slow steps towards the door of the suite's bedroom and peering out. She found him clenching his phone and tossing something in the garbage. "You're up early," she chuckled, opening the door completely and approaching him, "What's the occasion?"

He turned to face her, giving her an obviously forced smile. "I don't know; I just happened to wake up."

She grinned. "Why don't we go have breakfast with my parents?"

His expression became troubled and he avoided her gaze. "I think we should stay and have breakfast here. We haven't had breakfast together since we left Sweet Amoris."

Celeste nodded before shrugging. "Alright, we could do that. But lunch with my parents for sure, okay?" He didn't reply, ordering room service as Celeste plopped down on the sofa, gazing up at him until he sat down beside her. "I hope they don't intend to lounge around like before while I'm here," she giggled, "They looked like they'd been inside for days."

He took a deep breath, meeting her gaze. "Celeste, maybe we should just forget about this. You said you wanted to go to London, right? Why don't we do that and see Big Ben instead?"

She furrowed her brow. "Look, I know this isn't the prettiest city in the world, especially considering we were in Paris, but I'm here to see my parents. I can't 'just forget about this'."

He took her hand. "Celeste, I'm saying this because I love you. They didn't seem too interested yesterday; we should leave."

She shook her head, withdrawing her hand. "I don't know what's gotten into you this morning but I'm not gonna leave. I think I know my parents just a little better than you do and I'm insisting on staying."

She eyed him and he sighed, looking away. "Okay. I'm sorry."

After breakfast, they both washed up and prepared themselves for the day, before leaving the hotel room and walking down the hall to Celeste's parents' room. She rapped on the door, anxiously awaiting a response but when she received only silence, she rapped on it again.

"Oh are you looking for the people who were there last night?" a voice startled Celeste from behind and she turned to see a man in uniform; a hotel employee. She nodded. "They checked out a few hours ago. You missed them."

Celeste furrowed her brow. "They checked out? That can't be right." She lifted her gaze to Lysander. "Let's go back. I'll call them and see what's going on."

She led the way back to the hotel room and Lysander disappeared into the bedroom, leaving her to pace as she dialed both of her parents' numbers and received no answer for either. She sighed, rolling her eyes and her gaze landed on the crumbled up piece of paper in the garbage can that Lysander had tossed out in the morning. Curiosity came over her and she knelt down, retrieving the paper and unfolding the creases until it was legible.

"Celeste," she heard Lysander say behind her, "don't read that!"

However, he was just moments late as the note was already open in her hands.

'Dear Celeste,

You are not the daughter we wanted.'