Blackthorne, Gallagher & Royal?

Chapter 1

The day I ran away I wasn't planning to leave, the day just escalated to that point. Everyone thinks the lives of the rich are so easy. They're wrong. If the life of the rich is so good how come there are so many rich kids that get in trouble or run away. Some are just running to see if someone cares enough to come after them; others are running to get away from what their parents want them to do. My reason is a mix of both. While many think that arranged marriages are a rare thing, in the country of Appilachia it is actually very common. Even families that don't have vast amounts of money will arrange marriages for their kids to people they think are worthy of their kids.

My name is Rebecca Petrovich and I was four and a half, almost five, the day my parents told me that they had arranged a marriage for me, but I wouldn't be married until I turn sixteen. Sixteen is when you can get married if your marriage was arranged before the girl was five, since I guess they thought at that time you were dying to start your family. This law was written in the 1950s so I guess that kind of explains it, since then the life expectancy was only 48 years old. They had a shorter time to live their lives, but now that life expectancy is 80 years old, I think the law needs to change. In many first-world countries women are getting married in their 20s. Why can't that be normal here? Rant over, now where was I? Oh, yeah.

So I ran away, but you know how most people who run away have no supplies or resources, yeah well did I mention that my parents have money. I have been getting an allowance of $300 a month since I was three. My parents just deposit money into a bank account that I have a debit card for to pay for things I want that my nanny deems unnecessary for me to have. My parents pay for the necessities but things like expensive toys or a really expensive dress that isn't wanted near a time I'm not going to a party we were invited to, I have to pay for. At the time I had been saving up to buy a doll that could have lots of accessories that when I added up the total cost, was over $2000. I had been saving up for five months so I could get this doll, that's $1500 I had saved up. So I took my debit card with me, because my emergency credit card my parents could cancel, I'm the only one with access to my debit card.

Getting out of the house was probably the easiest part, I just told my nanny that I wanted to go shopping and when we got to the mall of boutiques I lost her in a boutique, when she saw something she wanted to save up to buy. From there I caught a taxi from the boutiques to the airport. At the airport I realized that they can't sell a plane ticket to a minor or give a ticket to a minor without an adult present, okay fine there was a sign near where you get dropped off. As I was trying to figure out what to do I came up with the idea to pay someone to be my adult that is dropping me off and getting my ticket for my flight. I was hopeful that someone would be willing to do that for me so I get on-line, using a computer terminal they had handy cause I knew they could track my phone to my location so I left it at home, and purchased a plane ticket to America, because you know Land of the Free. Luckily I found someone who was willing go along with my idea, it cost me an open-ended plane ticket, with just enough time to get through security and get to my boarding area before they started boarding my section, first class of course; my life had been in style until now so I didn't know any different. I would've chartered a plane had it been less easy to track and cheaper, I only have so much money.

As they are boarding the other areas of the plane I wonder how long it will take for someone to notice I'm gone and start searching for me. I never thought they would do what they did.

My plane flight was uneventful so I had enough time to think about what my next move would be. When we landed, we luckily didn't have to go through customs because I had left my passport at home, I found a bus routes map and chose a stop that has many routes that lead to it so that when they look for me I have a little more free time before I'm dragged back home. There was a bus that runs a route that stops at the destination that I had chosen and it was boarding so it could leave, so I hopped on right after a lady so it would look like I was with her if anyone were to question my being there and found a seat on the bus. There were a couple stops between the airport and the stop I wanted so I had to wait for my stop. At the interchange I thought that there would be a pay phone or something that I could use but when I searched for one, I couldn't find one, but there was a taxi waiting for someone to hire it.

I know that I had only about a thousand dollars left in my account but I was hungry, and it would look weird if I were to ask the taxi to take me to the edge of town, so I asked to be taken to a grocery store. The look I was given by the driver was like, "Aren't you a little young to be sent to get groceries?" but the driver just drove me without asking questions. Until I saw the time on the dashboard of the taxi, 2:55am, I hadn't realized how late it had gotten, I was still on Appilachian time, it would have been 8:55pm at home. Luck just seemed to be on my side that day because the grocery store was close to the edge of town and it was still open.

I went inside and got something to eat, and when I came back out, the taxi was gone like I had hoped, because I didn't want anyone in the town to be suspicious as to why I was there and who I am.