Hannah's Fate |COMPLETED| 18+

Chapter Two

I checked my phone for any sign of contact from my parents. Neither of them had even called to make sure I'd been okay on my first day. There was nothing. I should have been more used to the disappointment by then. For whatever reason, I was still holding onto the thought maybe my parents would at least pretend to care more about me. At 22, I shouldn't have cared so much about wanting my parent's attention, but I felt like I needed that validation, like I needed their attention. It must have been normal for children to feel that way when they grew up with absent parents.

I spent much of my childhood raised by my au pair, Tiffany. She was everything my mother wasn't. Kind, caring, and present. She gave me the attention I wasn't getting from my own parents and for the longest time, besides Blair, I felt like she was the only person I could talk to. She was with me the day I got my first period. I had bled through my pants and she gave me a tampon and a change of clothes. By then, I'd already known about period's, but it was still horrifying.

My mom let her go when I turned 14. She told her I was old enough to take care of myself. I always wondered if it had something to do with how close we'd gotten and that made my mom jealous. Or if it was so she could control me more and sculpt me into the perfect replica of her.

I wondered how Tiffany was doing as I loaded my car up with the overnight bag, I brought into the hotel with me. I had made it to Green River, Utah the night before and was almost 2 hours ahead of my schedule. If I kept up with that pace, I'd be in NYC on Thursday. I had planned to be there by Friday so I could have the weekend to recover from the long drive. But a day earlier would be even better. I was already feeling over this trip.

I looked at the hotel and laughed. My mom would have lost her mind had she seen that I was staying in a 2-star hotel. I wondered where the paparazzi was, I could have used my picture being taken outside that hotel.

After leaving my room key with the receptionist and checking out, I left Green River and headed onto the next leg of my trip. I'd be staying in Julesburg, Colorado that night.

I'd been to Colorado a time or two for skiing in Aspen and I'd always loved the state. There was so much natural beauty to it. I had never driven through the state and I was excited to see parts of it I never had before. As far as I had known, Colorado would be one of the most beautiful states I'd be driving through.

After less than two hours of driving, I saw the "Colorful Colorado" sign and got excited. I couldn't wait to be driving down I-70 toward Denver. The mountains there seemed so different, so much more beautiful than anywhere else in the Rocky Mountains, let alone the world.

I reached Grand Junction, Colorado at 9:47 A.M. and stopped for breakfast at a place called "Starvin' Arvin's". I almost wished I would have driven the extra hour and a half so I could have stayed there the night before. It was a gorgeous city surrounded by mountains. I got out of my car and took a deep breath, breathing in the Colorado air. The air there was much thinner than I had remembered.

"Just one?" The hostess asked when I walked into the restaurant.

"Yes, please," I said.

People thought it was weird to eat at restaurants alone, but I'd always done it. I was constantly around people. Family, friends, celebrities. Sometimes it was just nice to be alone. To go eat a meal in peace. I'd sit and listen to people's conversations. I learned a lot about the world by doing this. It allowed me to ground myself before having to submerge myself back into the everyday bustle. Over the years, I had found out that a lot of older, married couples were having affairs. Mostly the bored housewives in Beverly Hills who would be off with their pool boys. But there were also the CEOs that would take their secretary out and think they were fooling everyone by having a "business" lunch yet at the same time, they'd be talking about their extracurricular activities as if no one was around.