Chapter twenty four

Ivy:POV


"That was a long story." Pj says.


"Yes, yes it was, now let's go get Charlie and Toby." I say picking my daughter up.


"Great where are they?" Pj asks excitedly, slightly bouncing up and down.


"Umm..." I mumble, looking around. Hah, Josh is getting a lecture from his dad.


"You don't know where they are do you?" Pj asks me, pinching the bridge of his nose.


"No...". I murmur, looking down.


"Great, just great." Pj throwing his hands in the air.


"Look, there they are! They're with Josh's mom?" I say confused, tilting my head to the side. We walk over to Josh's mom, and she's holding Toby and Charlie's seated next to her.


"Hi, do you know where Teddy went?" She asks faking a smile.


"Yes, she's right over-" I stop in the middle of my sentence and grab Charlie, while Pj grabs Toby, and we run for it.


"Hey, you can't just take them!" She yells, but by the time that we hear her, we're already back inside of the hotel.


"Did she chase after us?" I ask breathlessly, turning to Pj. He turns his head to look behind us, and nods his head no.


"What a great mother in law she would have been." I say sarcastically, walking towards the elevator, with Pj following behind. I try to catch my breath, as I lean against the elevator wall. Pj looks down at Charlie and lightly smiles.


"Hey Charlie." He says his voice cracking, as he bends to her height.


"Hey Toby." Pj says looking at the two of them. Charlie has a confused look, and Toby stays silent. Charlie looks at him for a while, before tilting her head to the side and responding with three simple words:


"Who are you?"


Teddy:POV


I fall back into the couch, letting out a sigh. Each minute today has been like an hour, filled with so much chaos, and drama. I swear, most of the times I feel like I'm in a soap opera. I stand back up, and decide to change out of this wedding dress, when the door bursts open and, Pj, Teddy, Ivy, Charlie, and Toby come in. Pj stomps in looking like he's about to burst into tears, and harshly sits down next to me. "What happened now?" I groan and stand up.


"Its Charlie, she doesn't remember him." Ivy says sitting down.


"Well, it's been a year, and they're both still very young, Toby probably doesn't remember either, he was only a few months old when you went missing, and Charlie was only 3, you can't blame them." I say sadly, and cross my arms.


"But if I would have never been lost, they would still remember me." Pj whispers, looking down.


"I know, but there's nothing you could have done." I shrug.


"That's the thing though! There's tons of things I could have done! I could have called, even if it was someone else's phone, I could have saved enough money to get a flight back home, I could have written a letter and sent it, I didn't do anything!" Pj yells, running a hand through his hair.


I sit back down next to him, and think about everything he just said. He's right. He could have done any of those.


"Why didn't you then?" I ask, looking down at the carpet, crossing my arms.


"I was scared that...by me disappearing, everyone would be relieved not to have me around anymore."Pj says, squeezing his eyes shut, as he let out a sigh. We just sit


there in silence for a good minute,


or two, before Ivy breaks it.


"Um, I'll just leave you two to talk. Let's go kids." Ivy chuckles nervously, as she exits the room, with the kids tagging along.


"Why would you think that?" I ask, slowly while tilting my head to the side.


"Come on Teddy. Everyone knows that I've always been the disappointment of the family ever since I learned how to talk." He laughs dryly, and leans back on the couch.


"Look, right this second I don't have to talk sense into you, that'll have to wait until we get home, but I can take care of this. Charlie, get in here!" I yell, and Charlie runs into the room. I bend down to her height, and bring Pj down with me, and he scoffs. "Okay, you don't remember him, but Charlie, this is your older brother Pj." I say slowly, and wait for her reaction. She ponders the thought fora moment, before looking at Pj, then back at me.


"Why don't I remember him?" She asks, looking over at him.


"Well um, when you were younger, he got lost." I frown. Charlie stands there, and I feel bad for her. These past few months have been so much to handle, not just for me, but for her too. The rest of the family going missing, getting taken away, and now something like this getting sprung on her? "If you have any questions to ask him you can, I just need to talk to Ivy real quick." I kiss her on the forehead, and stand up.


I walk back over to see Ivy standing in the hallway, leaning against the wall. "Did you get the tickets?" She asks, and I nod.


"Now it's your turn to start packing." I smile, and Ivy groans.


"I'll be done in about 40 minutes." She mumbles, before heading off to the beds. I turn to look back at Pj and Charlie.


"I actually do have a question." Charlie says in a small voice, as she sits down. I lean forward a bit, as Pj motions for her to continue. "Was mommy always crazy?" She asks tilting her head to the side, and I watch as Pj bursts out laughing.

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