Steal the Show •On Hold•

Chapter Thirty

Here, Ughlifeissoboring! Go to bed!

Artemis and Jade stood at a bus stop. A man walked up to them with his wife and six kids.

"Oh my god, you're Artemis Crock!" The oldest kid, a boy about twelve exclaimed, in Vietnamese, of course.

Artemis laughed. "Indeed I am."

"Awesome! Can I-"

Artemis just pulled out a pen, sticking out her hand. The boy rummaged through his hoodie pocket, pulling out a crumpled receipt , which he sheepishly handed to her.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Bao."

"Oh, my mom loved that name. It's my sister Jade's middle name." Artemis jerked her head towards Jade.

Meanwhile, Jade was talking to the boy's dad. "That's a lot of kids."

"Yeah, they're exhausting. But they're worth it," The man said.

"The little girls are cute."

"Yeah. They look just like my older sister, Bich, did."

"Did?" Artemis asked, having overheard the conversation.

"She was kidnapped years ago. No one has seen or heard from her since."

"That's horrible."

"It is. I named two of my daughters after her."

"Really?"

"Yes. Bich and Paula."

"Wait, Paula?"

"Yes. That was her English name, though it technically translates to Jade, which is your name. But that's what she was called. Bich, or Paula, Nguyen."

"Random question," Jade said, eyes wide. She opened her wallet pulling out a picture of her mother at eighteen on her wedding day. "This wouldn't happen to be her, would it?" She showed the picture to the man.

His eyes widened and he snatched the picture out of Jade's hands. "How did you get this?!"

"She's our mother," Artemis said in shock. Her mother had mentioned having two younger brothers, but Artemis didn't think that she'd run into one of them.

Bao's jaw dropped. 'Artemis Crock is my cousin?!' He mouthed in disbelief.

"She is? How is she? What happened to her? Why didn't she come back? Why-" His father continued.

"She's fine. When she got kidnapped she was sold as a sex slave to our father, and brought to the US. That's what happened to her, and why she never came back. She couldn't. Dad got arrested a couple months ago. She's at a hotel right now, actually and-"

"Could you take me to her?!"

"Of course."

The man, Artemis and Jade's uncle, apparently, shot a look at his wife, who nodded. Artemis and Jade took him to the hotel, Bao tagging along, ecstatic.

Jade knocked on the door. "Hey, Mom, you have a visitor."

The door opened to reveal a confused looking Paula. She saw the man and complete shock spread across her face. "Kim?" She whispered.

"Bich!"

"I can't believe it," Paula muttered.

"YOU can't believe it? We thought you were dead! Your daughters filled me in. I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that."