Her's abandoned

The past

Jennifer's POV

I am getting ready for my show, and as always, I sit in my dressing room I am waiting for the opening act to finish to go on stage. I love being on stage. I feel free and another person on stage. I feel like I have no past and sadness inside me. I can be whoever I want to be on stage. I don't have to be that sad child that never knew love. My fans can love me. I don't have to be lonely when I am on stage as I am surrounded by thousands of people that love me. I know they don't love the real me. They love the persona on stage. They dream of having my life, and I dream of having their lives—what a sad world where no one is happy. Everyone wants to be someone else. The opening act finishes, and I hear the crowd starting to scream my name. I walk to the stage, and the show begins.

"Good evening, New York! Are you ready to Rock!" I shout.

"Yeah!" The crowd shouts as my band start playing the first song. The show is long, and I am tired by the end of it. I sweat a lot on stage as the lights are warm. I run off the stage after and go to my dressing room to grab my bag. I want to get to my hotel and go and rest. I had a busy day and had a photoshoot for my new CD cover and Rock magazine. I am not crazy about doing it, but it comes with the job. I grab my bag, and as I walk out, tired and sweaty, John Hudson stands in front of me. Really? Is this guy following me? I liked going out with him one night, but now he is everywhere I go. I am not in the mood tonight to even talk to him. I do not want to go out as I am tired. I want to call Mabel and hear how she and my dogs are doing, then try to get some sleep without dreams. When I am this tired, I sometimes can sleep and don't have nightmares. I sigh as I see him.

"Jennifer! I missed you, so I had to fly to New York to see you," John says.

"Not tonight, John. I had a horrible day, and I am tired," I say as I walk past him.

"Wow, I did not deserve that," He says.

"I did not ask you to come here. You could have called my manager and asked about my schedule. I am tired, and I want to go to bed," I say. I know I sound rude, but I am tired and do not have time for this right now.

"Okay, may I call you tomorrow and see if you are busy?" He asks. I feel sorry for my behavior and give him my cellphone number.

"Yeah, call tomorrow. Maybe I will feel better," I say as I run downstairs and jump in the limo that takes me to my hotel.

At the hotel, I take a shower and get dressed in shorts and a tank top. I will never wear a tank top in public without my armband. As long as my back and arm are covered, I am fine, and people will not see the scars. Finally, I fall on the bed and feel the tiredness taking over. Soon I am asleep.

Third-person's POV

*Flashback*

"Come, little one, he is asleep, and now is our time to getaway. Your mother and siblings are fast asleep as well," Mabel says to the little girl who is sitting in her bed. Blood is streaming from her arm where her stepdad has cut her with the knife. Mable takes a cloth and wraps it around her arm as she carries the nine-year-old little girl to her old car. If she does not save this child tonight, the little girl will die at the hands of her stepfather as soon as he wakes up. The little girl is in and out of consciousness as they drive out of California. The road is long, but they will be in Texas soon.

Along the highway, Mabel stops a few times to take care of the child and make sure she has not lost too much blood. She knows the child is in pain, and she has to get her to a doctor as soon as possible, but she first has to get away far enough. The girl was used to pain, and she was tough. So she does not stop and drive all the way to Houston. Mabel first drives to her house, where her husband and children stay. She has to work in California as she could not find a job in Houston at that time. She carries the child into her house, and her husband runs to call the doctor that stays a few houses from them. Her husband knows about the little girl, and he is like Mabel. They can not stand a child getting hurt. The doctor is retired, and he is willing to help them. He knows Mabel and her husband do not have much money, so he helps them for free. He stops the bleeding and stitches the little girl up. He can see the child has been abused, and after Mabel made him swear never to tell anybody who the little girl is, she tells him the whole story. The little girl stays with Mable and her husband until she has healed enough, and then Mabel has to take her to the orphanage. Luckily Mabel got a job there as well, so she can see the little girl every day. Her mother never registered her at birth, although it is against the law, so there were no data or records of the little girl in the database, and the orphanage did not care as in the neighborhood where the orphanage was those things happened all the time. At that time in Hollywood, the rich and the famous could get away with anything, and no one would ever question them. Mabel had to make sure her parents never knew where she was to protect her. Mabel knew the little girl's stepdad would not hesitate to kill her if he found her. He would have silenced her to keep his Hollywood image of a good father and great husband. Mabel told the orphanage she found the little girl in a ditch and that she was hurt. She took her to a doctor, and he helped her. All the little girl was told was that she could choose a name or use her birth name. The little girl was not stupid and gave the first name that came to her mind- Jennifer Preston. She never wanted to see her family again.

She remembered the Christmas they went to see her grandparents. She did not get one present only her brother and sister did. She was looking longingly at how her grandparents picked up her brother and sister and kissed and hugged them while she was standing at the door. Then, her grandfather looked up and told her to go to the kitchen and eat with the servants, and he will not allow a bastard in his house. She did not know what that meant until later in life. Her mother ignored her existence, and she felt left out. She knew her mother regretted having her and that she was nothing but a stone in her mother's path of happiness. She never tried to get any love from them as she knew they would never love her, and all she wanted was to be left alone and that the hurt would stop. That night when she was nine was the last time Jennifer ever cried, and she promised herself no matter how much it hurts, she will never very again. Her childhood was touch until nine. She also did not get any love in the orphanage, but at least the hurting was gone. She had Mabel, the only person that ever gave her a hug and a kiss in her life. She was the shadow child that will forever live in the shadows of others' happiness and never have happiness of her own.

In the Steward household, there was chaos the morning after Jennifer disappeared. Norman Steward went to the girl to check if she was still alive after finding the knife covered in blood next to himself when he woke up after a night of drugs and drinking. When he got to her room, the room was empty. The girl was gone. He called Lola and asked her where the girl had gone. Lola panicked as she saw the blood and the knife in Norman's hand.

"What have you done? Did you kill her? You know the servants know about her although I never registered her," Lola says. She was sitting on the child's bed, and something in her broke. The blood on the bed was her little girl's blood- the girl she was never allowed to love. The girl she never hugged or kissed, or protected. She should have. The child was her child, and she was only a little girl. Lola starts crying as she thinks this time Norman went too far and killed her child. How often did she not want to go to the little girl's room and hug and kiss her and tell her everything would be okay? But she never did. She ignored the child as it was easier for her to ignore she had a child and life in peace with the man she loved. Her parents also did not want anything to do with the child, so she could not take her to her parents. She called her Jenny in her mind as that is the name she would have given the child if she was given a chance to love her. Norman looks at her, and she stops crying.

"Are you crying over your bloody bastard child? If you never cheated on me, that thing would not have been born, and we would not be in this predicament. You are the reason I did what I did. Maybe she ran away. What if she ran away to a police station and told them the bloody truth. I would be done in Hollywood, and my name will be ruined forever," Norman shouted at Lola.

"She is too afraid to talk, so she will never say your name or mine. She will be afraid the police will bring her back here, and she will have to live this nightmare of a life we gave her!" Lola shouts at Norman.

"You are right. Get the servants in here. We need to talk to them, and they need never mention there was another child in this house," Norman says. Lola gets up, and one of the servants comes to her.

"Your daughter is safe, Mrs. Steward. Mabel took her to safety last night, and you do not have to worry about her talking. Mabel will look after her, and she will be safe," The servants say softly.

"Thank you for telling me it is a great relief to know. I know I was not there for my little girl, but at least now I know she is safe and she will live," Lola says.

"I will go and clean her room. I will not tell anyone else where your little girl is. If sir asks, tell him you fired Mabel, and she will not come back," The servant says.

That night we all sat around the dinner table. Our other children are used to not seeing my little Jenny, so they do not ask about her.

"Where is Mabel, mom?" my son Preston asks.

"She broke one of my precious cups, and I fired her," I say. After that, Mabel and my little girl were never mentioned in the Steward household again. Lola still wonders somedays what has become of her daughter, but she forgot about her over the years like she did when she was around.