Adam hears her words and feels them as they pierce his heart. This girl, she can get to him like no other. He feels this draw to her like he has never felt with anyone else. Inside of him, he feels this need to please her. But he also feels this need to keep her. He is at war deep within himself. A part of him wants to let her go. Let her go home to her father and to her life. Let her travel the world and absolve the guilt that she feels over losing her mother. He wants to give her for her dreams and her freedom.

    Adam calls her name and she reluctantly turns to face him, dreading what he might say if he noticed her odd behavior. “Hmm?” Bella looks at him over her shoulder and he is watching her closely. “Um, this is nice. I enjoyed spending time with you, watching movies and everything.” “Oh, yeah. Me too.” Bella smiles. “It was good.” “Maybe we could do it again sometime,” Adam says, but it sounds like more of a question.

  Adam turns to look at Bella, who is sound asleep on the bed beside of him. After the movie Tag, they decided to watch the 2018 Halloween movie, because she swore that she loved Michael Myers. When she heard him say that he had never seen them she had lost her mind. “What? You have never seen a Halloween movie?” She gave him this look as if to ask him which rock had he just crawled out from under. “Uh, I don't watch movies or tv.” Adam had told her and she shook her head, clearly finding that concept unfathomable.

Apparently, they had seen Bella has encroaching on their territory or something because they had attacked. Brutally. The girls and Bella had physical education that morning and the coach decided that making them run laps in the hot eighty-six-degree sun had been the way to go. So Bella had put on her PE uniform, the black shorts and the white tee shirt. Setting off on her laps, she was soon swarmed by the girls who got behind her and kept stepping on the backs of her shoes, trying to trip her. Spurred on, she ran as hard and fast as she could to get away from them, exerting herself to the point of exhaustion. At one point the girls caught up to her and messed with her some more, which resulted in her tripping and falling, scraping her knees and palms on the asphalt.

  Bella was dressed and sitting on the bed, waiting for Adam to come in with the food. She had agreed to have supper with him, confused by the question. They had just eaten breakfast together when he had asked, so she was not sure why he was treating that meal differently. She had wanted to ask Lumi earlier when he had come in for just a moment to give her a hug, but he had left quickly, telling her that Adam was sending him and Cole on a mission. Chad had come in and hung out with her for a while, playing Minecraft on the Xbox with her for about an hour, but she knew a seven-year-old was not likely to have the answers she sought.