What!?

10

Iliana is terrified of what the next scene will be. She has no control over what is being shown and it's moving towards the worst day of her life. The day she never wants to remember ever again.

"Blake, call your brothers down here. We need to have an emergency meeting." Blake doesn't hesitate. His mother is trying not to cry. He can count on one hand the times he's seen his mother cry or try not to cry and still have fingers left over.

His brothers drop everything once he tells them about their mother almost crying.

"What's going on mom?" Blake says once he takes his seat and the others are settled in their own seats.

"Two days ago the Bloomington's went missing," all the boys sit up terrified.

"We just got a call from the police, they found their bodies and need one of us to identify them. You're father has already ordered the jet to get ready. We'll be leaving just as soon as I can pack some bags and get to the airport. He'll meet me there."

"Mom, Ili?" Blake asks on behalf of them all.

"She was with a nanny when her parents were taken." All the boys relax with her words. Elizabeth, however, waited for the next question.

"Where will she live?" Isaac asks.

On top of Isaac's question, Blake demands, "Bring her here. Bring her home to live with us. She's family and needs to be with us."

"Are you sure? Her parents families are demanding her, it might take sometime to get her here and I'll have to stay and fight for her. She might have nightmares for some time. Your father and I live on the other side of the house from you. You ten will be the ones awakened by her screams."

"Bring her here, mom. We need her here. Her parents didn't ever even talk about their family. As far as I know she's never met any of them." Preston says angrily.

"You are right, actually. We were named guardians should anything happen to them and Blake, I would like to name you guardian of not just your brothers but Iliana as well, should anything happen to us before they reach eighteen years of age."

"Of course, I would be honored. Just make sure that nothing happens to you and father. I have no wish to be a young twenty something father of ten."

Elizabeth gives him a sad smile, "We have no intention of anything happening to us. This will be just in case, as it was with Joel."  With that Elizabeth loses her fight to keep the tears at bay.

"Mom, do they know what happened to them?" Blake asks gently.

"They won't give out any information at this time. But from what I gather the bodies are in pretty bad shape, like they were beaten to death or tortured. But by who or why, your guess is as good as mine." Elizabeth pulls herself together.

"When we get back I'll need to show you the files we have on Iliana's relatives. Should they ever get their hands on her it's unlikely that any of us would ever see her alive again. Please, get her room ready. It likely will take several days for us to get custody. Your father has already had his lawyer petition the courts for her. Hopefully her family won't give us too much shit before we are able to bring her back.

"We'll be holding a memorial for them when we do get back, they had requested cremation in their wills. We've already bought space for their ashes." Elizabeth has to stop and regain control before she can finish. 

"I'm sorry, just don't give the maids or nanny's any problems please? Get Iliana's room ready without any fighting."

They all assure her that they will.

As she leaves the room some of the boys start crying. They are all rather close to Iliana's family. They loved Lovina and Joel as second parents. As much as it's hurting them, they can only imagine how hard Iliana is taking it.

The scene moves over to Iliana.

No matter what the boys might have thought  or imagined how she would take it, they were wrong. When she found out her parents died she collapsed. Then the screaming started. She was hysterical and they couldn't get her to calm down. A doctor was called and a sedative had to be given. After that, Iliana hardly even moved. She refused to speak or interact with any one.

That is until Elizabeth and Clayburn showed up.

She took one look at them and she rushed to Elizabeth's arms and broke down crying.

For the rest of the night Elizabeth held Iliana in her arms and just rocked her to calm her down.

While she was doing that, Clayburn went and identified the bodies. After gaining their personal effects that were with the bodies the bodies were released to him.

He made arrangements for a funeral home to pick them up.

"Iliana, would you like to say goodbye to your parents? I think it would be better if you didn't. Clayburn says that their bodies are in really bad shape. I think it would be a good idea if you just remember them how they were as they left that last time."

"So they'll have a closed casket at the funeral?" Iliana says emotionally drained.

"No, sweetheart. Your parents requested to be cremated in their wills. They'll be cremated and we'll carry their ashes with us back home. If you'd like we can have a necklace with some of their ashes in it made, but the rest we'll have put in a nice urn and set in a cemetery. We've already ordered plaques for them both."

"Sounds good. No, if you think I shouldn't see them like this, then it's better and the idea of wearing their ashes kinda creeps me out. So you don't need to worry about that, but if you or father Clayburn would like to keep some of their ashes you can. I know you loved my parents a lot."

"Thank you, Iliana, I appreciate that."

Elizabeth calls Clayburn and tells him to go ahead and have the bodies cremated. Tomorrow they'll come and choose urns for them.

Clayburn tells her that the judge is willing to hear their case in two days time. Elizabeth is amazed at how fast they are able to get a hearing. "It seems that it's a rather high profile case for some reason. They want her settled as soon as they can."

"Does the lawyer have the files?" Elizabeth asks anxiously. Hopefully the information they have compiled about the relatives will be sufficient for the judge to award them custody rather than the relatives.

"Yeah, he has it and he's very pleased by it. He thinks that by the end of reading it that all the relatives that petitioned for custody will actually end up in police custody and have criminal charges handed out to them on top of it."

"We can only hope so." Elizabeth says grimly.

Iliana had never known what she had just seen. She had no idea that Blake and Isaac were the first ones to request her to live with them. She starts to cry.