Hollow

Chapter 7

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My face was blank, not a hint of emotion was showing. To them, I was calm and collected.

But as I walked down the hallway behind Vanessa, my heart was pounding. An unfamiliar fluttering in my stomach made me anxious and I almost didn't want to walk any further.

I watched Vanessa and Brandon in front of me, wondering how they'd grown to trust me so quickly. It'd been only thirteen days since they'd gotten me from the agency. They were government agents, I assumed they'd be more hesitant to trust someone whom they'd just gotten from a wanted assassination group.

We'd driven to a different building today for the meeting with Miranda and Victor Price. My parents. We didn't stop at the desk in front of the entrance, the woman behind it only glanced at us. There were both children and adults sitting in a waiting room that we passed by.

Vanessa told me that this was a county building used for visitations between children and their biological parents- children who'd been put into foster care. I thought it was an unusual place for my situation, but Vanessa said it would be more comfortable than my holding location.

Vanessa stopped in front of a door and turned to me with a smile. "Alright, Bella. This is it." Her eyes went serious for a moment. "I need you to remember that this is going to be a very emotional experience for your parents. They might try to touch you, hug you probably. That's normal in these situations. Just understand that they aren't a threat to you."

I looked at the door and the fluttering increased. I focused on my breathing to calm myself down before nodding to Vanessa.

"Should we go in now?" I asked her.

"Yes." She grabbed the door handle. "Do you want me to go in first?"

I thought for a moment before nodding. "Yes."

She opened the door and stepped through the doorway, gesturing for me to follow. The first thing that I noticed was that there were two other officers on either side of the room. Maybe it was protocol, but it seemed that Vanessa didn't trust me as much as I initially though.

Vanessa stepped to the side and stopped walking.

"Miranda, Victor, this is Bella." She said.

I looked past her and my breathing shifted. The fluttering in my stomach increased and I clenched my teeth to try and decrease it.

In front of me stood a man and a woman. The woman was beautiful, red hair and blue eyes like me, I noticed. She was wearing a pair of jeans with a lavender blouse, a nice pair of black boots on her feet.

She gasped when she saw me, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She brought a hand up and pressed it to her mouth, her shoulders began to shake.

The man standing beside her looked slightly more together as far as emotions went. He was tall with brown hair and light blue eyes. He wore his own pair of jeans with a black dress shirt and sensible shoes. He wore a look of disbelief mixed with... Sadness? I wasn't sure.

"Bella," Vanessa said. I pulled my gaze from the couple over to her. "These are your parents."

I looked back to them. All of these years I was told that I was an orphan, and yet here I was standing in front of my supposed parents. Could this be true? I couldn't help but question everything that these people told me.