Chapter Fifty-One

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Vicki stared at her phone silently. Her eyes looked at the news article that had popped up onto her feed that morning. It brought a sinking feeling right to the pit of her stomach. She felt tears prick behind her eyes as she focused on one thing. The picture attached to the article. Of a face she knew all too well. Kesha.

The picture was old, obviously taken from when Kesha was a kid, but it was her just the same.

Vicki read the article word for word with painstaking caution. Certain words jumped harshly out of her. Allegations. Abuse. Court. Legal action. But one word screamed out about all the others; Demi Lovato.

The Demi Lovato was the woman Kesha had been running from all this time? The Demi Lovato? No way. That was too much to deal with. Vicki suddenly found that even she, who liked to believe that she was capable of overcoming anything life threw at her, couldn't cope.

Beside her Kesha stirred in her sleep, the light from behind the curtain clearly disturbing her. Vicki bit her lip, praying that Kesha would stay asleep until she could organise her thoughts. Obviously she had no such luck.

"Mm, Vic?" Kesha mumbled sleepily. "What time is it?"

"Eight thirty," Vicki replied, her voice tense from the effort of keeping it together.

Kesha looked up at her with sleepy eyes, a drowsy smile swimming onto her face. She shifted, sitting herself up.

"Huh, pretty late for us then," she winked.

Slowly her smile slipped away as she studied Vicki's features. She took in the woman's tense body. Her white knuckles gripping her black phone. Her sharp teeth digging forcefully into her thin lips. Something was wrong.

"Vicki? What's up?" Ask asked, straightening up. Her body language screamed one thing: run. Kesha was always ready for a quick escape these days. Even at eight thirty in the morning.

Vicki sighed, wondering how to approach this topic. She tried desperately to hold her cool, afraid that she would scare Kesha away. But something told Vicki that this was simply bigger than her. And there was nothing she could do to contain it.

"Demi Lovato is the reason you ran away!?" She suddenly exclaimed, her free hand flying into the air to exaggerate her point. "Demi Lovato, the singer!?"

Kesha froze. Her heart stopped beating in her chest, her lungs closed up and her eyes glazed over. She didn't understand it. How could Vicki possibly know that? Next to nobody knew that.

Her hands flew to her mouth, fearing that she would vomit what little food remained in her stomach. Kesha quickly fled from the room, her only though was to get to the bathroom.

The second she reached it she the flung the door open, locking in behind her. Then she threw herself to the floor and began wrenching into the toilet bowl.

Deep down, she knew that this was an over reaction. She'd always known really that her secret wouldn't stay secret for long. Demi-freaking-Lovato was looking for her, for crying out loud! Things like that didn't stay secret for long.

Vicki got up from her bed, regaining her composure. Carefully she walked up to the bathroom door, knocking politely. There she waited until she heard the lock click, letting her in.

Kesha was still on the floor, evidently crawling across it to unlock the door before going back to the toilet. Vicki stood over her silently, reaching out to pull back Kesha's hair and pat her back.

Kesha didn't wretch again, she simply stayed very still until the nausea faded. Then she grabbed a fistful of toilet paper and roughly whipped her leaking eyes.

"I guess you think I'm pretty silly," she grumbled judgmentally. "Well I'm not you know. If you knew what she put me through-"

"Well I don't, Kesha," Vicki cut in bluntly. "Because you haven't told me. How can I support you if you haven't told me? You didn't tell me Demi Lovato was looking for you. She has a lot of money. She could take me to court for keeping you here. Didn't I need to be prepared for that? Did you ever think about that?"

"No," Kesha said in a small voice, avoiding Vicki's eyes.

"No," Vicki agreed. A harsh silence fell over them.

"Then I guess I should warn you that Demi's money is nothing compared to my parents' money. They've got...a lot..." Kesha admitted guiltily. "And they're much more likely to sue you too."

Vicki let out a gasp of exasperation, her hands flying to her head. Kesha flinched, feeling bad. Vicki ignored her, she could feel a migraine coming on.

"Oh god," she groaned. "How did this happen to me?"

As Kesha watched Vicki have what appeared to be a nervous breakdown, she suddenly realised that she still didn't know the answer to the question that was pressing her. How did Vicki know?

"Hey, how come you suddenly know about Demi?" She snapped, sitting up on her heels indignantly.

Without saying a word, Vicki passed over her phone. Kesha read the article silently, horror plastered all over her face. Once she got to the end, she let the device slip from her fingers.

"They're going to take Demi to court for kidnapping?" She whispered brokenly. "But why?"

"You read the article," Vicki replied blankly. "'Mr and Mrs Hart-Cooper believe that Miss Lovato has been trying to coerce Miss Hart-Cooper from the beginning, even leading to the young girls suicide attempt just weeks ago'." Vicki read allowed, after picking up her phone. "Was that true? Your suicide attempt?"

Kesha shrugged lamely, "yeah."

"Because of Demi?"

"No!" Kesha cried, looking horrified. "Because my parents tried to take her away from me! I mean, she drives me crazy and I hate her, but as a kid she was my whole world... I guess I liked the version of her I kept in the back of my mind for years. The version where she comes rushing in and scoops me up in her arms and takes me back to Texas. And that's it, everybody's happy. Not this Demi who makes everything messy and loud, and we just keep hurting each other. Where we just don't work together. Where we're too broken to fit..."

Vicki looked at Kesha for a long moment. She finally felt like she was getting somewhere with the girl. This was a real break through. Maybe just in time!

"But Kesha, that's life!" She exclaimed, dropped down beside the girl and holding her wrists tightly, causing Kesha to finally look up at her. "People are messy. People make mistakes. People hurt the ones they love. Usually when they're so caught up worrying about what the right thing to do is that they totally miss it! You're not too broken to fit together because you're not meant to fit together with somebody! You're meant to be a whole and complete person all on your own! You are two different people who are still working on being complete, and you don't need anybody else to do it for you. God, Kesha, that woman must love you for you to think that highly of her. And maybe that's something worth saving?"

"What are you saying?" Kesha asked tearfully.

"I'm saying I think it's time to stop hiding," Vicki said.

She pulled Kesha up, drying her tears away. Kesha's bottom lip trembled and she gripped onto Vicki's hand desperately for support.

"I'm saying it's time to find Demi."

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