𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑→𝕹𝖆𝖙𝖊 𝕬𝖗𝖈𝖍𝖎𝖇𝖆𝖑𝖉

REMEMBER THE TIME

three years prior

It had only been a week after school ended before Anastasia got bored of not going to school. Her father had been on a business trip in Australia and had since returned but the Bass' were unable to go on vacation just yet because of the workload their father had taken on. So both Anastasia and Chuck were frequently left alone to do whatever their hearts desired in New York or in the comfort of their own homes. Her brother, Chuck was content with  being left alone at the Palace because quite frankly he could do whatever he wanted. However, Anastasia's curiosity continued to grow as she grew with boredom. Serena had been preoccupied with traveling and Blair only wanted to shop. Anastasia wanted an adventure of some sort, so the brown girl did what she always did when she was alone in the house....snoop through her father's things. Anastasia always admired her father, even though he was cold and never showed mutual feelings for her, because of his hard work. Anastasia wanted an empire of her own. She didn't want to model for a brand, she wanted to own it. She didn't want shares in a franchise of hotels. She wanted to own all of them. Unlike Charles, Anastasia felt she needed to prove herself. Even at fourteen, she was still getting awkward stares when in public with her brother or her father. The whispers included: "is she really his daughter?" "never thought Bart would adopt" "With all that money Bart could at least straighten her hair,". It was hurtful to her as a child but the pain lessened as she got older. She always wondered about her mother or what she was like.

Anastasia and Chuck were only three days apart, with Chuck being the oldest. Bart had been with Chuck's mother for a while and one could say they were more "exclusive." But being the person Bart is, he also had many affairs. One being with Anastasia's mother. She had gotten pregnant around the same time, Chuck's mother was pregnant with him.  Bart immediately ended the affair and explained to Brielle that she must give the baby up for adoption because he wasn't going to raise two children, let alone one of his mistresses. Bart explained that when Chuck was born his mother passed away after giving birth. A few days later, Anastasia was born and Bart immediately fell in love with her, he no longer wanted to give her up for adoption. Bart explained to Anastasia that he begged her mother to stay but she said she didn't want her daughter and wasn't ready to raise one. Bart then told Anastasia, that her mother ran away and he had no idea how to get in contact with her. Anastasia always wondered what her mother looked like, felt like, or even smelled like. Bart never talked about her and often said that their relationship was mainly physical and he didn't know anything about her.

So here, Anastasia was filled with boredom spinning around in her father's puffy chair in his office. She kept leaning back and looking at the chandelier at the ceiling. For a few seconds she felt like she was floating and then she fell over as soon as her brooding brother charged in and scared her.

"Ana, what are you doing in here?"

She realized she was still sprawled on the floor and got up to pick up all the papers that fell with her.

"I'm bored. I came in here because there is nothing to do in this house. Any suggestions brother?" She said dryly.

"Nate's having a party later on and we are going, so maybe you should go shopping with Blair to get a cute outfit," Chuck said while walking around the quiet office.

"I'm so tired of shopping. I wanna do something fun. What's so fun about running my father's credit card up?" She said while sinking in her chair.

"Watching his reaction after getting the bill,"

"Come on sis, let's go out. Please." He said with a pouty lip.

"I gotta clean all this stuff up first, so you go ahead without me and I'll call you so I can know where to meet you, okay" She said while hunching down to grab the many papers that fell.

"Let Maria handle that, come on,"

"It's not Maria's responsibility to clean up all our messes," She yelled.

"You're right it's her purpose and she gets paid for it. Come on before I leave you. You really want Dad to find you in here," He said quickly while standing at the door.

"Just go, I'll call you." She said while shooing him away.

"Bye, sis."

"Bye, bro." She said while looking at the ground. There were so many papers so she began to stack them up. After stacking them up she scanned the room to make sure she got them all up then she saw a manilla folder filled with paper sticking out behind a file cabinet. Since she was in here, she thought she might as well snoop. All of them were letters from Brielle Matthews. Did Daddy finally get a girlfriend she thought? She stopped and then looked at them and picked one to open.

*𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝐵𝒶𝓇𝓉,

𝐼'𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝑔𝑜𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂. 𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒹𝒶𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝓇. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝑒𝓇. 𝒫𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒻𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝓇. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝓃𝑜 𝑜𝓅𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝐼 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓅𝑜𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑒𝓌 𝓂𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒. 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝑒. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝑒𝒹. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝐵𝒶𝓇𝓉, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝓊𝓈𝒽𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒩𝑒𝓌 𝒴𝑜𝓇𝓀. 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝐵𝒶𝓇𝓉. 𝒞𝒶𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓉 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝒾𝒸𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒? 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝐵𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓁𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓌.

𝒮𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓁𝓎,

𝐵𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓁𝓁𝑒 𝑀𝒶𝓉𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓌𝓈.*

And this is the letter that changed it all for her.