3rd Person P.O.V.
The bell signifying the end of the last period in school rings and a bunch of little kids happily rush out of the doors to get picked up by their parents.
One of those kids being the little Sienna Knight-Mathers.
The little cute girl looks like a perfect mixture between her mommy and daddy, and she often gets asked question about her famous parents by all of the other kids she goes to school with, even though most of them have parents that are all either in the music industry or in the acting field themselves. The school they all attend being a private charter school reserved mostly for the children of the rich and famous.
Sienna's parents happen to have a legendary status however, so she gets pestered and asked questions about them quite often, today being no exception, and the little girl is a little annoyed right now. She cannot wait to get away from this place, and she's happy that it isn't her mommy or daddy picking her up this time, but one of their security guards, because at least the other kids then wouldn't be trying to crowd the car and take a peak at them.
Today her father's security is late coming to oick her up, however. And little Sienna knows exactly what the routine is supposed to be in case something like this has ever happened, even though it's never ever happened before.
She is to go back inside the school building and wait there, until somebody finally does show up to pick her up and take her home. She is also supposed to take out her cell and call either mommy or daddy.
But little Sienna didn't feel like doing any of that. It's a really nice day outside today, and she doesn't want to go back insode the stifling school building, so she walks a few blocks away instead and sits on one of the benches by the side of the road, dangling her little feet from it, her pink backpack tossed caressly by her side. She starts digging in it for her phone to call her father's security and let them know where she would be waiting for them to finally come get her.
Just then, somebody sits down on the bench right next to her though.
Sienna looks up and she sees some strange older lady.
Strange because of the way the woman is dressed, for one thing. She is all bundled up in a bunch of really heavy looking clothes, even though it is literally the middle of July right now and it's pretty warm outside. Also, she immediately smiles at the little girl, making Sienna feel unsettled.
Especially when the weird lady suddenly grits her.
"Hi, Sienna," she smiles, causing the little girl's eyes to immediately widen in shock.
"How do you know my name, Miss?" She asks shyly and then starts to immediately distance herself from the woman.
"Doesn't matter anyways cause I've been taught not to talk to stangers," she mutters sassily under her breath, scooting off from the bench and grabbing her school bag.
"But I am not a stranger to you though, Sienna. I'm your grandmother," the lady announces.
Little Sienna shakes her head softly.
"Don't have a grandmother," she states with a small frown on her angelic face as her eyebrows pull together over her hazel eyes.
"Aww, baby girl. Mommy never told you about me, has she?" The older lady then says, shaking her head sadly with such a lost look on her face, causing Sienna to feel bad for her.
"It's okay, baby, I don't really blame your momma for keeping me a secret, because the thing is, Sienna, that I wasn't a good mom to your own mommy at all. But I would love to make up for it with you. I'd like us to have a relationship, Sienna. Do you understand what I'm telling you, girl?" The woman slowly smiles.
"Not really," Sienna slowly shakes her head.
Just then, a black Escalade pulls up. One of her daddy's security guards!
But it's sort of strange how her father's security knew exactly where to find her, considering that she hasn't yet had a chance to text them exactly where she was.
Still, Sienna doesn't think much of it.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I have to go. Bye!" She tells the older woman, then waves at her, taking off running towards the car.
She knocks on one of the tinted windows in the back.
Once the door opens, however, the man that little Sienna sees sitting in the car, is not one she recognizes at all. She knows all of the guards working for her father, but this person is not one of them.
"Who are you?" She starts to ask.
Right before a cloth with something smelling funny and like some sort of medicine is suddenly being placed over her nose and mouth.
Sienna struggles, but it's all futile.
The small girl's body going limp in her arms, Candance Jones looks down at her grandbaby sadly, wiping a stray tear off of her face before handing Sienna off to her accomplice, who promptly hides her inside of the Escalade, shutting the doors behind them.
"I'm sorry, baby," Candqnce whispers walking around the other side of the car and getting in through the passenger door. "But your mommy and daddy are both paid and now granny is trying to get paid as well."
The large black car then drives off with Sienna's little pink school bag being left laying abandoned on the ground.
Her cell beeping inside of it, one of Marshall's bodyguard who had gotten held back by a sudden flat tire in his car, calling her, trying to locate his boss's daughter after not finding her on school grounds.
***
Aisha's P.O.V.
"So, what DOES scare you?" An interviewer asks Marshall on the set of his Not Afraid music video.
Marshall appears to be deep in thought, then deadpans all serious like, "Eight legged insects. And giraffes."
"Giraffes?!"
"I've got a thing with giraffes, man. I don't like their necks," Marshall continues all thoughtful like.
All I can do is shake my head as I laugh quietly to myself. This boy is too much!! He knows damn well he's not scared of no damn giraffes, is he?!
Let me test that theory out later though, I think to myself, sort of evilly. Of all the years I knew him, Marshall swore up and down that he ain't scared of anything. Let me find out he's really afraid of one of the cutest most harmless looking animal on the planet!!
Then again, he's been acting kind of scared of me lately, walking on eggshells around me and acting real sheepish like. Which isn't like him, like at all. If I wasn't as secure as I am in our relationship, I would swear he's acting so strangely around me lately because he must've fucked up somehow. But I know Marshall would never cheat on me. He loves me.
"Daddy, are you really scared of giraffes?" Marshall's adopted daughter, Whitney, pipes up innocently as soon as her father makes his way into the family room, where her and I are both watching his Making The Video for Not Afraid on TV.
Marshall glances at himself at the TV screen and makes a face. As overly critical as he always is of his own work and performances, something clearly bugs him about whatever it is he currently sees, but he plays it off.
"Nah, baby. Your dad ain't scared of anything," he states to Whitney, picking her up and tickling her.
"We'll see about that," I mumble to myself and pick up my phone and google a picture of a giraffe.
"Marshall, come here check these song lyrics for me, please. I'm not quite sure about this part right here," I smile sweetly, angling my phone towards him as he frowns.
"Since when you take notes on your phone, Aisha," he takes the phone absent-mindedly from my hand.
"Um... probably since technology doesn't bother me nearly as much as it does you, and it's a lot easier to type song lyrics on a phone instead of carrying those bulky notepads around that you love so much," I lightly roll my eyes at him.
"My notepads ain't bulky, yo," he grumbles like an old man. Then finally looks down at the phone screen. "Yoooooo, what the fuck?!" He damn near throws my phone at me then, and I can't help it, I double in laughter.
"What did you show him, Aisha?!" Whitney wants to know. She jumps up and down trying to peak at whatever is on my phone's screen.
"Oh my God, Oh my God!!" I continue to laugh quietly as Marshall practically glares at me. "You really ARE scared of them, whoa!! That's such a weird phobia to have, that's the funniest thing!!"
Marshall continues to glare at me.
"I swear to God man, you are so childish, Aisha," he mumbles as his face gets slightly red.
Yes, even after all these years, I still enjoy messing with him and pissing him off. Not in any kind of malicious way, of course. But you know... He is kind of cute once he starts getting all worked up and stuff.
"What is dad afraid of, giraffes?" Hailie asks, casually strolling into the kitchen and grabbing a piece of toast from a plate. "You never knew that, Aisha?" She grins at me, pouring herself a glass of orange joucy.
"Nope," I giggle. "But please tell me more."
"Hailie..." Marshall glares at his older daughter warningly, but fondly. We all know he could never actually be mad at her, or any of his kids really.
"So yeah, like... Back when me and Alaina were little and he used to take us to the zoo, he would refuse to let us go into the giraffes inclave," Hailie giggles, and I follow behind Marshall who is attempting to angrily walk away from all of us at this point and wrap my arms around his waist.
"Marshall, I seriously can't believe you've been hiding something this huge from me all these years," I say playfully. "Now, you know I will tease you endlessly about it until I drive you crazy."
"You already drive me crazy, girl," he says quietly and turns around to face me. "And," he murmurs discreetly in my ear. "Imma tell you right now. You lucky as hell, baby, that they kids are right here. Cause I would've been made you pay for this. See, you think this shit here is funny. Keep playing with me, Aisha."
"Ooooooh, I'm so scared," I say playfully, batting my lashes at him, then pretend to stare at something behind him. "Oh my God, look, a giraffe!! How did it get here?!"
I know that I'm annoying him right now, but I'm sort of enjoying it.
I wiggle out of his grasp and run to where the girls are seated at the table and snatch a piece of bacon from one of the plates. "Girls, please tell your dad to stop being a big baby and come join us for brunch already."
"Stop being a big baby, daddy," Whitney then says eagerly.
Marshall pretends to be all indignified but goes to sit down to eat with us, stealing the next piece of bacon from my plate. As we are all eating and having a good time with each other, I'm glad that Marshall and I are seemingly getting back on track, who would've thought that all I needed was to make fun of him for him to stop acting like he's uncomfortable to so much as even breathe around me all of a sudden.
We continue to eat and watch TV, but I can't help but glance at the clock that's mounted on the wall a couple of times, thinking that Sienna should be back from school by now already.
You see, we had let Whitney stay home today in solidarity with her older sisters whom both couldn't go to their classes today because apparently the building they two go to has asbestos, so their school is currently closed for disinfection. Which Hai and Alaina both were more than excited about. Teenagers.
Anyways, Marshall had caved in and let Whitney stay back too, even though that had nothing to do with her, and the place she goes to school is perfectly fine, and we were going to let Sienna skip a day too, but unfortunately, Sienna has really been falling back in her math class lately, so we ultimately decided that she DID need to go after all. And the way that girl was wailing about it, I swear, you would think both Marshall and I have gravely betrayed her but whatever.
Anyways, she is supposed to be back by now, brought back by Marshall's security so she could join in on Family Day with us. I've got a bag of her favorite cheese doodles sitting on the table too. Not exactly healthy, but she loves those things, gets her love for nasty ass heart-attack-waiting-to-happen food from her daddy, and I can't help but spoiling her with those.
I look at the clock again, and I don't know what it is, mother's intuition maybe, but I'm starting to get uneasy.
Marshall suddenly sneaking up on me though and pouring pancake syrup all in my hair like a big ass manchild he is, suddenly distracts me though.
Because really, Marshall?! My hair?!
Oh, so this man wanna die DIE!!
I chase after my husband and jump on his back as all three of his little girls are currently laughing at us.
"You are dead, Marshall!! I will kill you and feed your remains to a giraffe!!" I growl, causing him to chuckle as he easily flips me off of his back and on the living room couch.
"So violent," he smirks, throwing the line I usually use on him back at me.
"Um, can you guys like... try and not have sex right in front of us? We are children," Alaina then deadpans and suddenly, it's like it's freezing inside the room as Marshall's head snaps towards her.
"What was that, Lainey? What you know about that, huh, girl?" He asks his daughter, who starts to laugh nervously.
"I mean, I... was just saying, dad..."
Just then, Marshall's phone rings, buzzing loudly in the pocket of his pants, Alaina literally being saved by it from her father's wrath.
"Yo?" My husband then answers his phone.
He listens for a few seconds to whatever the person at the other end of the line had to say, and then all of a sudden, his face pales and a blank expression flashes immediately through it.
"Fuck you mean, you can't find her?!" He then exclaims so loudly that all of us quite literally jump.
And a realization hits me that Marshall has just cussed in front of his daughters.
Which is something he normally doesn't do, so I know whatever so just said to him was serious.
Then what he just said registers more and more in my mind, and I suddenly remember that nagging feeling I kept on getting, that mother's intuition thing.
Sienna, something's happened to our baby girl...
---
Sooooo, if by any off chance somebody is reading this book for the 2nd time, y'all might or might not remember exactly how the original storyline had went, but if you do remember then you know that the whole Sienna gets kidnapped plot wasn't originally in the book, but it's one of the small changes I have decided to make...