This is Home

Bailey

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"And I used to go by Indigo. It appears all our hopes of having the past as the present has fallen short." I step back, actually proud with what I said back.

"It appears your parents are influential in your recent discovery." He steps closer, but he doesn't reach out. Weirdly enough, I wish he would wrap he arms around me like when I was younger.

I loved Lilian, as my believed mother, but I was always a daddy's girl. I would be attached to Ryan's hip whenever he wasn't working. And when he was, I would sit by my window at school, at home, and wait for him to come home and squeeze me with a hug.

He used to call me Peanut. He used to throw me in the air when he take me out to the park by our house — that was before I got to big. That was before I realized I was kidnapped. Before I found out my entire life was a complete lie. I was never his Peanut. I was never Bailey Young.

"Why do I have to be the rope in the middle of your two biker gangs?" I sound exhausted, probably because I am. I am so tired of this all. I want to move back to Toronto to see all my friends again. I want my life to go back to before — before what? My subconscious decides now to chime in, before you were kidnapped or before you found out the truth?

It's a question I didn't want to ponder over, because, honestly, I don't know the answer. I could easily say I wish I was never kidnapped, but I was. I can't change that. I can't change that I built an entire life on a lie, but it was a lie I enjoyed. I had two parents that...loved me. I had a best friend that would come over every weekend, and we called each other sisters. We had a beautiful home where I had my own bedroom, that I, thankfully painted over the blush pink to a soft grey. All of that feels taken away by the truth. I feel like I can't love Lilian and Ryan. I feel like I can't see my best friend turned sister ever again. That I will never see my Toronto bedroom again, and probably repaint the walls once I grow up — again. All of it is gone. Just. Like. That.

"You weren't supposed to be." Shockingly, Ryan doesn't inch closer to me. He probably sees my unease at all of this, and at being locked in a remake of my childhood bedroom.

"How was it supposed to be? Was I expected to grow up in Rhythm? A small town known for its bike clubs? Where rivalries are merely a part of my everyday life?"

Ryan laughs, "the small part town makes me laugh. You've grown up in Downtown Toronto, I don't think I can imagine you in a cottage home, experiencing the same thing over and over."

"But I was born here? I was here for five years." I counter.

"Yes you were," he pauses. His hand carefully touching the dresser drawer's paintings. He traces them with his large fingers, "but Toronto became your only home. I hate how it went down. I hate that the way I got you in my life was from a past malicious, but I don't regret the years I raised you."

"I do." Even trying to confess that out loud hurts my head.

"You don't believe that." I don't. But he doesn't get to just walk away from kidnapping me. Not like this. I can't be that stupid to love my kidnapper and accept them once again as if nothing has happened.

"I want to go home." Though, I have no idea which home I'm talking about desperately going back to. Would it be Toronto? I do miss it there, but I don't want to go back as Bailey Young, the kidnapped victim who moved back in with her kidnappers. Or would it be here, in Rhythm? I supposed I could make it work. I like Jessie, even though her fashion sense leaves some room for improvement. Jax and Meghan are great — though, they've been busy with the club and we haven't spent a lot of time together. I adore my grandmother, here. She's funny and, for lack of a better term, a savage. And Speed....god, I don't even know what that is about.

Could I do it? Could I stay here? Could I attend a small town high school and live as the daughter of a motorcycle club? My eyes twitch from all this thinking.

But I know the answer. "I don't mean Toronto with you. I mean I want to stay here. I want to stay in Rhythm, as Bailey Hart."

Ryan's lips twitch, and then he's quick. He pounces on me and slaps my face. I stumble backwards landing hard on my tailbone.

He's never hit me before. He's never hit me before. I can only think this as he again slaps me. But the slapping turns into violent punches. He lands one on my head and I start to see dots between the shadows. Before everything goes dark he seethes, "you will forget them all, Bailey. You will never be a Hart again."

The pounding in my head recedes, but so does the light in the room. Everything seizes as I shut my eyes.

I'm getting real tired of people knocking me out.

•••••••

Sorry guys! Really short chapter of Bailey's. Next up is Speed's, and he's venomous. Stay tuned, loves.