A kiss under the Velvet Moon

Gina Grey's Past

Instead of going straight back to her bedroom, the young girl went straight into the kitchen in search of food. Her belly was always so hungry and she had not seen her dad in days and mom hadn't gotten off the couch more then five minutes at a time.

During the summer time, her dad was rarely home. She could never fully understand how someone who is supposed to love you never was never around. These were her parents, parents are supposed to take care of their children. Why didn't her parents not love her enough to care for her?

Mom didn't go grocery shopping again. The fridge was empty aside from a week old empty carton of milk, condiments, a few rotten apples, and some cheese. Cheese didn't go bad, at least that what daddy always told her. Scraping the mold with the back of a spoon, Gina took a big bite of cheddar cheese and set the rest back into the fridge.

Dishes were overflowing in the sink, stuck on particles from weeks of rotten food were beginning to grow a fuzzy white substance on them.

Grossed out, she backed away slowly from the kitchen, her tummy was hurting but there just wasn't anything edible to be found.

She remembered the pantry had some nonperishable foods hiding in there.

A can of peaches, some stale cereal with loops of fruit, and some blue berry Pop-Tarts we're tipped over on the top shelve. A dirty green box marked Mom's property sat on the shelve below.

Curious as to what was inside made her take a second glance but she had no intention of opening it, fearing her mother would find out she'd touched it.

It was probably her stash, she had other boxes sitting around the house too, she thought she had hidden them, but they were all in plain sight. Mama didn't know how to properly hide something she didn't want found.

One day a tall man in a blue uniform came, mom had to sweet talk him to keep him from coming through our front door.

I remember she kept whispering in his ear, touching him in his no no place. The young girl didn't know what her mama was doing but knew she wanted nothing to do with it and quickly ran to her room and hid.

Clearly mama knew the man because she was being really nice to him, he scared her. He smelled like stinky sweet cologne and he had a gun on his hip. Something just wasn't right about him. Mom didn't even talk to daddy like that, it made things seems super confusing. Only daddy's and mommy should do things like that. Mama was moaning and yelling, she swore she could hear it just outside her bedroom door, down the hall.

It made her so scared she had to fight the urge not to climb out her bedroom window and call for help. Gina couldn't find the nerve to do it, as she was only seven. The man started showing up quite often after that and mama started smiling, acting different, that was until a familiar face walked in our her one night.

Daddy hadn't been home in about a week, he had red roses and wine in his hand. He said he had been at a conference for his job and his phone at the hotel hadn't been working. The man mama called Tommy was sitting between her legs we he came through the front door.

Their young daughter, Gina was hiding in the hallway doorway, ready to run to her daddy's side but screams came, then a gun shot, the young girl ran into her room, slamming the door behind her. Gregory was thier in mins pulling the child into his arms, blood covering his blue silk shirt. The blood soaked through the girls dirty white dress, her silent sobs exploding around him. His hand gently caressed her cheek, staining her skin in a red coating of blood and tears. " It's okay Grey, it's okay ! You will never live in this filth again." Pressing his daughter into his blood soaked chest, he promised her the whole world, and she believed every word.

Things were very different from that day on. Gina never saw her mother again. Her father made sure of that, and Tommy, Tommy was thrown in jail, for a plethora of things she couldn't even begin to understand. Mama was in a metal health clinic undergoing substance abuse counseling and acholic anonymous.

Things were starting to look up, her dad remarried a woman named Kate. She worked in as a first grade teacher at a near by school where he worked. She was sweet, young, and seems to love his young daughter right off the bat.

A few years pass by slowly but everything was good they lived in a nice home, had a puppy name twister, and new sister named Sarah, things couldn't get any better.

Her mom got clean, and took her dad to court when she hit fourteen. That's really when, Gina's life began to crash down all around her.

" Greg, I will see my daughter again." Terry slammed the phone down, a beeping dropped call signal wailing loudly in her ear.

Anger raged inside of her, all she wanted was to see Gina again, was that too much to ask?

She eyed her lawyer angrily, " Do you job! Find out where they are hiding, I have my rights, regardless of the situation." She squeezed her eyes shut, running her fingers through her know sleek beached blond hair.

" There are laws put in place for things such as these Terry! Your ex husband, has orders of perfection up against you, you are not allow within 200 feet of him or your daughter. " Her lawyer shifted through papers and set them on the table before them.

Terry let her hand fall hard onto the table infront of her making her hand sting. " I don't care what the papers say, I want to see my child." She eyed the woman beside her sharply and raised from her seating position.

" I am paying you allot of money, you will find them or I will find a new lawyer!" She pushed the computer style chair into the conference table harshly, letting it make a loud bang and stopped out. Before letting the door slam behind her, she snapped, " Find them!"

" Who was that on the phone dear?" A worried Kate asked her husband.

Pinching his fingers between the bridge of his nose, Gregory released a puff of warm air he was holding between his lips.

" It was Terry, she just won't give up! I don't know how much more we can avoid her. Eventually she is going to find us."

Concern raced across his flushed wife's face.

" Oh, honey that horrible woman is never going to find us. Terry is the last person Gina needs back in her life. Why can she just leave our family alone. Gina wants nothing to do with her." Kate poured a cup of coffee for Greg and sat it on the kitchen counter infront of him.

Gregory took a sip of black bitter goodness and sat the coffee mug down a little too hard, black hot liquid spilled over the top.

" I just don't know Hun! If she keeps pushing, we are only going to have to push harder. All that women brings, is sadness. Gina doesn't need that."

" What do I not need dad?" Gina appeared from the top of the loft, her legs dangling over the edge of the carpet.

Her father whispered an obscenity under his breath and shook his head in his wives direction.

" Nothing to worry about honey! Breakfast should be done in a few if you want to come down soon."

" Okay dad." She answered from the top of the stairwell, her fluffy white slippers covering her feet.

She walked back into her now upstairs bedroom and flung herself onto her queen sized bed. Things were so far from what she remembered, her life was near perfect now. She had her best friend, a shaggy haired miniature poodle named twister and her human friends at school, what could be better?

Twisting her hair into a a messy bun, she finished a chapter and regretfully set it face down, and pulled on a pair of jeans.

Breakfast was ready by now and she didn't want it becoming cold.

When she returned downstairs, her baby sister Sarah was awake and sitting in her high chain eating pieces of cereal and chucking some down to the floor for Twister.

Sarah was babbling nonsense and then giggling as she threw colorful looking loops at the dog. Twister obliged her by eating every

single loop.

Her mom and dad were in the kitchen bringing over plates a foot high, full of steaming hot pancakes, blue berry and chocolate chip to be precise.

Sarah was already trying to paw the plates and mama Kate sat in them down infront of us.

" Sarah, honey hold on a minute, and you can have some." Kate pushed the plate of food away from misses sticky fingers.

Her Dad finally came over and took seat beside her, Gina tore a few pieces for baby Sarah to snack on while she waited for mom.

Taking her fork into her hand, Gina took a huge bite, the chocolate and berry mingling together in her mouth.

She enjoyed these days, Sundays were always her favorite. It became a tradition, the only thing missing was fresh oj, today we were having chocolate milk instead. Taking a large gulp, she sat the half empty cup infront of her, she lick off her milk mustache, Sarah looked intrigued. She giggled softly to herself before going in for another bite of pancake.

Mom than took a seat beside her and scraped off a whole hotcake cut up into tiny pieces infront of her. Sarah thanked her with a hand full of her half eaten pieces, and then began to gobble down the new ones.

Dad glanced down at us both and just shook his head. " If I only had a camera to capture that loving moment. " He flashed his wife a mouth full of white teeth, trying to hide the laugh that was behind it.

" Sarah is a sharing, caring girl, you should see when she asked to take a sip of your drink. You usually find backwashed pieces of food in the straw. " Gina made gestures of a fake gag. " It's really not pretty dad! "

Her father squinted his eyes and arched a brow, acknowledging that Gina statement was in fact true. Her face was covered in drool and chocolate. Gooey gobs of breaded goodness sliding down her chin but it didn't seem to bother her any. She was only two and as cute as a button.

She looked like her mama Kate, with her light burnett hair and honey colored eyes. The only thing she had of her father features was his funny facial expressions, and his nose.

She was to cute, she knew it and that was okay because everything was right with the world. Gina's life was everything she had ever had hoped it would be. She let a smile form on her lips before taking a long swig of her milk.

After everyone had finished breakfast, mama Kate took a very tired Sarah into her arms, washing her down with a warm washrag. It was a surprise, her sister didn't fight or argue, she was too tired and ready for her mid morning nap.

Her Dad was finishing up hand washing the dishes from thier morning breakfast. While he was busy Gina washed down the kitchen table where Sarah had smeared hand fulls of food into the wood.

" Dad, you know I am not dumb, I know when something is bothering you. I can see it in your eyes. " Greg nearly dropped the coffee cup he was rinsing off under the running water. Slipping from his fingertips he caught it before it hit the floor.

" You know me to well daughter. " He gently placed the cup upside to dry in the rack beside the sink. Greg walked over to his daughter and patted her on the back before letting out a long sigh.

" I don't want you to needlessly worry about anything darling. " He let his hand slide over her sleek locks before pressing a kiss to the very top of her head.

She didn't decide to push the subject to far but she knew that her intuition was right, something was bothering her father and she was going to figure it out, one way or another.

New York City, the sun was just beginning to sink below the skyline, tall buildings built of steal made eye blinding reflexions look like mirrors of suns. Terry, aka Samantha, was sitting at her twenty story office building. Her long blood red nails tapped impatiently against they keys on her keyboard. Endless paperwork was beginning to pile up beside her, with no end in sight.

" As soon as things settle down here and Tommy gets out of the pen, this damn job can kiss my ass."

She ran her fingers through her now deep red burgundy curls. Her name along with her looks took a back seat, she refused to be that woman she once was. She was weak, pathetic, and damn right off her rocker. This new and improved version of herself, was going to climb ladders, and conquer the world.

Only she refused to be sitting behind a computer all day long doing it. She had plans of her own, and this stupid office building had nothing to do with it.

She only needed to keep up this charade, until her daughter was old enough, to join her in her pursuit to become something no one can take away from her. She was going to become the most powerful madam in all of Vegas. At least, that was her plan, she just needed to work a few more extra years, so she could get out of this piss hole.

She had saved up just enough to make ends meet but that would never pay for the building that she had in mind, just outside of Las Vegas.

It would pose as a nightclub, but behind closed doors, she would give the customers exactly what they really wanted and her lovely daughter, would be right beside her bringing in the most high paying wolves of the city. The elites, the most powerful scandalous peolpe in sin city.

Time, and some very high-powered attorneys was all she needed to make her dreams come true. It was only a matter of time, she just needed time.