Chelsea didn’t have a car. They had been driving around in Blue’s old high school car and another car Jamie had borrowed from a friend. So at nine in the morning, she called the only cab service in all of Snowbird and got a ride. She knew her mother wouldn’t be up yet. Colleen preferred to sleep in, calling it her “beauty sleep.” Her whole life Colleen had been a night owl, keeping the girls up with her to hang out until two in the morning and then writing them notes for school when they were late.
She sat on her front steps and waited for the car. She was in jeans, a pair of knee high boots, an old puffy jacket, and a winter cap pulled low on her head. The paparazzi had taken Ryan’s bait and returned to sunny California. Chelsea was all alone as her breath plumed in front of her in the cold air and she pulled her legs close to try and keep herself warm.
How many mornings had she waited just like this? Sitting in the cold looking up the street and waiting for Blue’s car to come zooming up the lane. He always drove too fast. It made her nervous. He cut corners and he tailgated, but he had never been in an accident. He was a good driver and he knew it. He used to love to show off. His spins and doughnuts would terrify and delight Chelsea all at the same time.
The cab was five minutes late, but Chelsea didn’t mind. She slid into the backseat and gave the driver Terrance’s address. They drove in silence. Maybe Blue would be there; maybe Jamie would be there. But Chelsea refused to let her hopes rise. She had a mission to get her mother away from Terrance; that was what she needed to stay focused on. Terrance was dangerous and Chelsea needed to protect the people she loved from him. She needed to get her mother out of that house, then she needed her sister and Blue so they could all leave together.
The cab pulled up in front of the house and Chelsea closed the door quietly and approached the sleepy mansion. All of the lights were off and the only car in the driveway was her mother’s. Chelsea walked up to the front door and tried the knob, but it was locked. This didn’t deter her. Colleen was notorious for forgetting her keys and there was always a spare hidden somewhere.
Chelsea began to pick up rocks that were in the garden and checking underneath them until she found it. A hide-a-key in the same rock her mother had used at their old house. Chelsea let herself in and stood for a moment in the barren foyer. It was cold and desolate and it felt empty. It was a big mansion with only two people to live in it; it was always going to feel empty.
Chelsea checked the rooms Jamie and Blue had stayed in briefly, but they were both empty. The beds had been made and there was no luggage or stray bits of clothes anywhere. It looked like no one had ever been in those rooms. Her heart saddened, Chelsea climbed the stairs to the master bedroom.
She opened the door quietly and looked in on the dark room. She could see the shape of her mother in bed and see the small movements she made as she slept, deep breaths that moved the blankets and little twitches from her hands and feet. Chelsea walked over the windows and slowly opened the shades allowing the morning light to enter the room.
Colleen gave out a low whine and buried herself under the covers. Chelsea slipped out of her shoes and then joined her mother in bed, wrapping her arms around her dozing shoulders and nuzzling her nose into her neck.
“Have you come to apologize?” Colleen asked without turning around.
“No,” Chelsea answered. “Mom, do you really love Terrance?”
“Of course I do!” Colleen said sitting up in bed with a huff. She took off her eye mask and ran her hands through her messy hair.
“What do you love about him?” Chelsea asked as she sat up, as well.
“I love that he takes care of me. He has this nice big house that’s all paid off and he has a successful business. I love that he likes to go out; we go dancing and to the best restaurants.”
“Is that all?” Chelsea asked.
“I know it don’t sound like much to you, Chelsea. I know you have your record contract and piles of money, but it means something to me. You know all those men I’ve dated: bartenders, guys who worked in tattoo parlors, bouncers. They weren’t real men of substance and I have struggled a great deal providing for you girls. It’s nice to have someone to take care of me in my old age.”
“You’re not old-”
“No, but I soon will be, and then who will have me?”
“I will, Mom, and Jamie will. We can take care of you. I do have piles of money and I want to share them with you. You could come back to LA with me and you could have your own house that’s all paid for.”
“And who will I spend time with, you? You’re young and famous. I’ll just be your old mom, slowing you down.”
“That’s not true and you know it. You can party with the best of them.”
“Yeah, and I also know that after a certain age that starts to get pathetic. I don’t want to go to Hollywood. Snowbird is my home. I want to live here, and I don’t want to be alone.”
“But Terrance is a bad guy, Mom. He’s really bad, he’s dangerous-”
“I don’t want to hear you repeating Blue DeMarco’s lies! He has it in for his poor father. Terrance worked a lot when Blue was little and he pushed him hard and made him work too and now Blue is all mad that he didn’t have a childhood like everyone else’s. Sure he didn’t get to play video games and had to work instead, but that doesn’t make Terrance a monster.”
“No,” Chelsea agreed, “but this does. Terrance has Jamie, Mom. He’s had her for days. I called and try to offer him some money, but he wasn’t interested.” Colleen opened her mother to interject, but Chelsea had already pressed play on the recording app and the sound of her voice and Terrance’s was carried out through the phone’s speakers.
At first Colleen refused to listen, turning her head away and rolling her eyes. But the voices couldn’t be denied; they clearly belonged to Chelsea and Terrance. Then her eyes went wide as Terrance so casually spoke of kidnapping Jamie. She looked at the phone as her face became horrified. But she listened to it, she listened to every last second, and when the recording was done, she stared at Chelsea as tears began to slip from her eyes.
“I don’t...how could this...Jamie is missing...I don’t...” Wracked with sobs Colleen tried to form a coherent sentence, but half-formed thoughts kept slipping out as she tried to process what was happening.
“Terrance swore Jamie was safe. He was just keeping her as a collateral so Blue would fight. We tried to find her, we looked for days, but there was nothing. So Blue agreed to fight and Terrance swears that once the fight is over, we get Jamie back.”
“This whole time...” Colleen said, putting her hand over her mouth. “He’s been sleeping next to me for days. I kept telling him I was worried about you girls, but he said not to worry, that Blue’s lies would fall apart and you would all come home. I believed him. I’ve been with him. We went to dinner last night! My daughter is trapped somewhere and I was dining with her kidnapper.” She fell into sobs and Chelsea took her mother in her arms and ran her hands up and down her back and shushed and soothed her.
“It’ll be all right,” she whispered over and over again as she rocked her mother.
“The police!” Colleen said, sitting up and pulling herself out of Chelsea’s hold. “We need to call the police.” She fell out of bed and began racing around the room reaching for jeans and tops and dressing quickly.
“The local police are in on it. They know all about the fighting pits and if we call the police they’ll hurt Jamie as a punishment.”
Colleen stood next to her dresser a pair of pants in one hand and a boot in the other. At Chelsea’s words she slumped over and dropped her clothes and then came back and sat on the edge of the bed. She shook her head, “I can’t believe I trusted this man. I can’t believe I trusted him more than my own daughters, but I do that, don’t I?” Chelsea didn’t say anything. “Well no more. You’re right, Chelsea. We need to get out of this town. Let’s get your sister and never look back.”