Chapter Sixteen

The hotel room was just as lavish and chic as I expected, but I decided not to bask in it for now. Instead, I flopped tiredly on the soft surface of the king sized bed, gazing at the picture-perfect raindrops bouncing off the window beside me.

As my eyes began to flutter closed, an ambush of memories come flooding back to me.

I could picture the way her long blonde hair used to trail down her back. I would gaze into her big, crystal blue eyes and pat the white hat lying neatly on her head. I would watch the way her eyes crinkled with laughter whenever something funny happened, or the way her cheeks turned pink when she was embarrassed.

I could see his dark mustache and short curly hair, the way it stuck up so funnily after I ruffled it. I could cry wholeheartedly into his chest all night, but he wouldn't ever tell me to go away. I could see the little dark-haired boy that he dragged to school every morning, the same boy who was sent to bed without dinner most nights for misbehaving,