The Mother you Never Were

1.

Bella stared at the mirror in the vanity bathroom, gazing at every feature, every pore and every possible flaw she could pick out of herself, and correcting it. She then straightened out her soft cardigan, and rehearsed what she was going to say before she was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Bella? you in there?" Cole had called from bathroom door and Bella instantly responded "uhm, Ya, coming out in a sec."

"Well, hurry up, talk-show host Markus Kalsane is waiting on stage."
Cole had urged Bella, "Plus I gotta use it, before were get on air." With that, Bella unlocked and turned the door knob, and standing there was Cole, his hair neatly combed, he was standing in the doorway in which blocked Bella from leaving in the first place. Awkwardly, Bella pushed past Cole and made a quick jog in heels to the snacks backstage, where she found 11 year-old Elliot gorging on fresh fruit and strawberries dipped in Belgium chocolate. He was wearing a Nintendo Mario and Wario Tee-shirt while his mother was having a discussion with one of the backstage crew members on what hairstyle Elliot should wear.

It had been nearly five-years since Bella had spoken to Elliot, mostly because Bella had wanted to put the whole debacle behind her, so she stopped visiting Elliot, let alone talking to him overall. So as Bella approached the snack table, Bella grabbed a plastic cup and started pouring herself a cup of water.
Her body ached to say something and when she finished pouring herself a cup of water, Bella finally broke the silence. "Hey...Elliot..." she began.

Elliot looked up at Bella, and said "Hey." There was a long quiet silence between the both of them, and then Bella spoke again. "I'm sorry, for not keeping in touch like I promised." Bella took a sip of her water.
Elliot said through a full mouth, "Why did you? I thought we were supposed to be friends?"

Bella looked at Elliot, and Elliot stared into the plate of fresh fruit. "How've you been?" Bella tried to pick up the conversation again, "I mean how's school?"

"I'm in 6th grade now." Elliot spoke nonchalantly. As if anything didn't really phase him. "It's fun- I guess, nothing like 5th." Bella nodded, and took a drink from the cup. Bella's Eyes observed the backstage as crew members worked tirelessly to get everything ready.
Bella sighed as looked down at the already half-cup of water. "I'm sorry if I stopped talking to you." Bella said to Elliot as he was in mid-chew "it wasn't you, but mostly me, I thought that-" Bella stopped to collect her thoughts "I thought that maybe if I just shoved those bad memories of what happened in Rose's house, that I could just maybe-" Before Bella could finish what she had to say, A crew member had announced that the show was going live in less than a minute.

It was like a movie, one second Bella was right next to Elliot, in backstage and the next, she was sitting next to Cole in front of bright lights, a camera, and a live audience in the background. Next to a small talk show host, who had ridiculously bright teeth and a toothy grin that stretched from ear to ear.
That's when a crew member applied blush to Bella's  light skin as a last attempt to make her skin a little less pale. That's when all the crew members had stepped off the stage, and the crew began rolling.
The crowd had clapped on cue and a booming
Voice came over the speaker:
"Kalsane Show is Recorded during a live studio audience, fifty percent of funds and proceeds go to the NCMEC. And now your Host Markus Kalsane!"

Bella uncrossed her legs as she watched the camera pan over to Markus, she sat comfortably in a chair as Cole slouched in the couch next to Elliot who was twiddling his thumbs. Bella's eyes landed on Markus as the thundering roar of the audience continued before dying down. Then, Markus spoke.

"It's not easy to know where your child is when they're kidnapped. It's not easy when they come back emotionally scarred, or worse, It's especially not easy being the victims parent." Markus began before looking over at Bella who was eyeing his grin,
"And it's especially difficult to let the victims of this horrific crime, to talk about what really happened during it all. That is why, on this beautiful Thursday morning, I bring you three special guests!"
Markus said joyfully, "Introducing,  Cole, Bella and young Elliot, who were all victims of the Mommy House Kidnappings Just 5 years ago." Bella blushed in humiliation as Cole waves to the crowd, Elliot remained staring at his two thumbs. "So let's talk about that." Markus adjusted himself in the cozy accent chair.

"Bella-" Markus said and it made her look up from her lap. "It's been about 5 years since you, Cole and Elliot had been taken by Rose, How do you feel now that you're undergoing therapy, and that you're reunited with Cole and Elliot?" Bella sat upright in the chair as struggled to find words to describe how she felt, it was only suddenly when she found the word to say, that it came out "Well, being back together is a nice thing I feel like I'm re-connecting with lost family members, Cole and Elliott they are like practically family the matter too much to me and it is just nice to be back together on this stage, especially after five years of pure torture without them it's like a sinking heartache." Bella had spoke in a soft manner and didn't get the time to think about her thoughts before the next question was passed down to Cole, "Mr. Mancini-" Markus was back at it with that damn toothy grin.

Cole looked up at Markus, as he asked the question " in the time where you were at Rose's house did you miss your own mother?" And Cole chuckled "I missed her too much to the point where it hurt, I thought about every single second And what I would've done to get out of there." Cole responded quickly and without error as Markus asked Cole another question, "I heard your mother was in the crowd, so I wanted to call her out." Bella, Elliot and Cole watched as the cameras panned around to the spotlight where Coles mother was sitting. She was a lot older than what Bella remembered, so it took her a while to understand that it was Coles mom.

Before the cameras panned back over to the stage, Cole looked at Bella and Then turned his attention towards Elliot who was watching the crowd. Markus was clapping along with the audience. Markus then turned towards Elliot, who was now kicking his legs back and forth on the chair. "Only thirty minutes into our morning show and we haven't even asked out youngest member, Elliot." Markus grinned,

"Hey there, Sport," Markus spoke in a childish tone as Bella cringed and Cole looked on. "How are you?"
Elliot grew shy as he stimmed his fingers. "I-I'm g-good." Elliot spoke softly. Markus turned his attention towards the audience and spoke out "Ladies and Gentlemen, Elliot was just 6 years old when he was taken alongside with Bella and Cole-"Markus was interrupted by Elliot's mother, who was watching in the crowd "ACTUALLY HE WAS SEVEN!" She shouted as she was ushered out by security, Markus, Bella, Cole and Elliot had stared at Elliot's mom as she left the studio and Markus, briefly apologized for what had just happened before laughing awkwardly and continuing, "he spent at least a few months in the hospital due to malnutrition." Markus obviously didn't want to focus so much on Elliot or Cole, he wanted to focus more on Bella and what she had to do.

There was a brief silence between the four of them as Markus briefly came up with questions to ask Bella
"Bella it's back to you, I want to hear what you have to say about all of this what are your thoughts?"

Bella swallowed as the camera was focused on you and like an instant lights dimmed and spotlights had focused on her the cameras had done the same and just like that, the anxiety had bubbled up inside her she never thought that she would be here at this point and more importantly she never thought that she would be speaking about an incident that had happened five years ago. Bella looked amongst the crowd as she took a breath.

"I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember sitting in a Warm to hot basement it was dark and I was thirsty I was hungry I was scared I wanted to leave I wanted to go home and I wanted to see my dad again but, I couldn't, I was stuck here in this basement with two different people and About I think a day or two later I had hatched a plan to get out of there." Tears had formed on the edge of her eye lids as she began to relive the time she was kidnapped. "I had planned to gain the trust of Rose. Of course, Cole doubted me, but once I gained her trust it was easy to be what Momm-er- Rose would've wanted me to have been in her sick twisted mindset. She made me do terrible things to Cole, which made Elliot think low of me." Tears were now cascading down Bella's cheeks as she started to remember more and more about the incident.

"Things like physical harm, it was almost so bad, that Cole was placed in a tub of hot water in a murky tub. But now I know, Rose wasn't my mom, Rose was the mother she never was."