My Billionaire Prince [#Completed]

Part 4 - Ana's story

Twenty years back

New Orleans, Louisiana

The famous Florentine hotel in the French Quarter section of New Orleans city was on fire. It was a multiple alarm fire, meaning of highest severity with possibility of casualties. The hotel was famous for tourists and artists and was fully occupied that night when a multiple alarm fire broke out in the tenth floor of the hotel.

Roy Rogers was one of the firefighters fighting to contain the fire. He was managing one of the tall ladders to reach the tenth and eleventh floor windows. He was breaking the glass to let the people out who were stuck on these floors, when he noticed loud banging above him. He looked up and noticed someone was desperately banging on the glass window on the eleventh floor right above him. He immediately moved his ladder in position to break the window carefully. As the glass window gave away, a powerful blast of fire hit him and he ducked down. Suddenly two hands appeared and threw a bundle at him, when the floor below them gave up and consumed the people inside.

Roy Rogers caught the bundle and looked inside. His heart stopped for a second as a beautiful pair of eyes looked at him. It was a six months old baby girl. He immediately took her down and rushed her to one of the ambulances standing there to receive the injured.

As the nurse took the baby from his arms, she asked Roy for details and he had none, so she wrote baby Rogers on the chart and after initial checkup sent her to the nearest children's hospital for further evaluation.

Baby Rogers was doing fine, but days have passed and no one stepped forward to claim her. The hotel was completely destroyed and all the occupants details and documents were gone. Most the occupants were foreigners, so the local authorities had no clue whom to contact regarding baby Rogers. After few days she was handed over to the local orphanage where she was christened as Ana Rogers by the local priest.

Ana grew up as Ana Rogers in different orphanages as she was shifted multiple times because of economy and financial issues within the welfare system.

At age six she was transferred to a orphanage in Northern California and there she met Sally, who was almost twelve. Ana realized how different rest of the World was when she started attending school. Till then she thought all kids grew up like her in orphanages.

She didn't understand why she was different, why she was not being kissed and hugged by her caretaker like the other kids caretakers did after school. Later she came to know that other caretakers are called parents and she was different because she had no parents. She tried to ask about her parents but was given different answers, so she asked Sally.

"Sally, where are my parents? When will I be kissed and hugged like other kids?"

"Honey, your parents had to go to far away place on some important work. Till then I am always here to kiss and hug you." She then hugged Ana to hide her face as she didn't want Ana to see her crying. She was able to postpone the inevitable for now, but some day she will have to tell her the truth about her parents.

Ana wasn't like other kids. She didn't fight for handouts or other goodies people brought into the orphanage. She just wanted someone to hug and kiss her and take care of her like a baby. Everyday after school she spent her time watching parents kissing and hugging their kids and yearned for that experience. She wanted to know how it felt to be picked up, engulfed and squeezed in the arms of an big warm adult. She was willing to do anything to feel the warm embrace of parents. Everytime she saw her friends being hugged by their parents, she felt a lump in her throat and sadness and pain in her heart. She didn't know how to handle it and used to cry for hours, not knowing why her parents had to leave her.

Whenever people visit the orphanage, she looked forward to their hugs and kisses. When Sally warned her not to hug and kiss strangers, she got mad at Sally.