The Garden

Anastasia Steele

Anastasia Steele
When I was being bounced around between mom and dad a friend of my fathers wife kept me while he was getting custody of me after my mother left me alone in our home for two weeks. I was three and recalled the garden they had in the backyard. I wondered out there and sat looking at the flowers in wonder. She was a nice lady and didn't see it coming and neither did I. Mom and her boyfriend had followed dad and killed Mrs Allison Grey and took me and ran. I had blood from where it splashed all over me.
Raymond Steele
It took weeks to finally find Anastasia. She had the same clothing on from the day she was taken from the Grey home. Luckily the children were in school at the time of the kidnapping and murder. Anastasia was found hiding behind a dumpster trying to get food to eat. We had to get her to the hospital and call Carrick Grey about finding her and she still had the bloody clothes on from the day of his wife's murder. The dr asked if someone was killed? I explained and she took special precautions to preserve any and all evidence they could. Anastasia was in the hospital for a week. Dr Trevelyan was very gentle with her and I finally got full custody and Carlas rights were terminated. She can't have any contact with me or Anastasia. I couldn't leave the hospital without her panicking. Dr Trevelyan found out that Anastasia loved gardens or flowers of any kind calmed her down. Her ability to talk helped when they asked what had happened. She was able to describe everything. Including the beautiful Angel that took the lady to heaven. She said she hadn't seen mom for a while and had to find food. So she did. She begged me not to allow her mom take her again. Then she went quiet again and read her books on gardens. She learned to read when her mother would leave her alone. She had to.
Dr Trevelyan
We had all the papers signed and mr Grey seemed very upset and he finally told me that it was his wife that the child saw killed. They came to get the daughter away from her father, they wanted him to give them money for drugs and other things. Killing was a new thing for them. We set appointments for a child psychologist to talk to Anastasia about everything and anything she wants to talk about. I had read about the case and it was horrible. Mr Steele had to work and now he has his little helper back with him. She holds onto him tightly like he could disappear at any time. Any time a petite brunette gets close she screams. Mr Steele said her mother is a brunette and petite. We will try to keep the brunettes away from her.
Mr Steele
I heard her screaming, so I thought it was her mother trying to grab her again. Have you warned your staff they might try again?
Dr Trevelyan
I will now, they don't have the killer and her mom 8n custody yet?
Mr Steele
Not yet. We think they are strung out some place. As soon as we can we are going to get to a new place and we will need to be here when they need to have Anastasia for court. How is her health doing now?
Three days later they are gone. Mr Grey came by and said goodbye and gave them his card. Dr Trevelyan gave Anastasia books on gardens of all kinds. The tears and finally a smile and an actual hg for the dr.
Mr. Grey
You were very kind to the little girl, you must have kids at home.
Dr. Trevelyan
No I can't have any and my husband left me for his pregnant girlfriend who is a nurse in his private practice now. So now he has a new wife and child now. So now I have no kids and no husband. I have my parents though. A very good mom and dad. Poor Anastasia doesn't have a good mother, but she seems to have a great father.
Mr Grey
Yes she does. He is a very good parent. He taught her to do everything she knows how to do. Her mother has no idea how smart she really is. She has no idea she could tell the cops what happened and describe who did it.  My four children couldn't speak that well at that age. Ray told me she has been reading whatever she could get her hands on, so he bought her a lot of books. Now he has to move elsewhere. Too bad because he is a nice man. Anastasia could benefit from being around other children.
Dr Trevelyan
I have to see a patient right now, let me know if Anastasia comes back in town I would like to see her again. We say goodbye. She was an exceptional child. Three going on thirty kind of thing.
Three weeks later I get a call from a frantic Carrick Grey. His daughter has been throwing up. Luckily I had a free appointment and had him bring her in.
Mr Grey
I bring Tia in along with my other three children because my sitter is ill as well. By the time she tells me it is a stomach bug and what I will need we are going to my home after the drug store and a pizza place to pick up food. The boys run inside and get it, while I stay with Tia and Mia. Grace Grey is waiting in her car. We finally make it to my home. We couldn't live in the other home, so I bought a place closer to my law firm. The house still hasn't sold because of the murder of my wife. Sadly the blood stain couldn't be totally gotten out for some odd reason.
Dr Grace Grey
We get Tia settled and her stomach is better. She just needs to keep hydrated and crackers until it runs it's course. We eat pizza and the kids are eying me like I am the enemy. Mia is the first one to crack. She asks me about my finger nails and how I keep them so pretty. Somehow I get roped into taking her to a place to have hers done when Tia is better. The boys tell me they have been asked to bring some girls home that know how to do nails. They refused. I laughed and said it was a good decision. So things started slowly and the kids decided that dad needed to marry me and we had a wedding six months later. He finally got a buyer on the house after he heard the Angel story that Anastasia spoke of in her testimony. Mom reminded me of something she said about marrying someone who already had children. It was rough going at first. But we finally got into a routine and our lives got a lot better. The only downside was the trial they found his wife's killer. DNA matched and he got life thanks to testimony of not only Anastasia but her mother. They had her as well, poor Anastasia was saddened by seeing her and she tried to ignore her mother crying out for her. Mr Steele got her out of there as soon as he could. But the damage was done. She was hysterical. I don't know what she had suffered at that woman and her so called boyfriends hands but it was bad. After that I had no idea what happened, he congratulated us on our marriage Anastasia was too distraught to know who anyone was but her father.