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“Enough.” My mother cuts me off, her words bouncing off the walls. “Enough of playing the victim, Allison! Sign the damn NDA.”
“You have ten seconds to get the fuck out of here before I call the cops.” I hear my father’s voice. “You wouldn’t—” “The press would love to know you caused a scene in a bar. That tends to be good for the reputation, I’m sure.”
my mother sidestep Travis until she’s facing me again and say, “Our lawyer will be in touch soon with the NDA, Allison Smith. Make a smart choice for once in your life. You have one week.”
The ground beneath my feet isn’t sturdy anymore. My vision blurs with tears, dizziness. Both. My ears ring, but I still hear his voice. I think it’s Travis. I think he’s calling my name. What must be his hands land on my shoulder. My eyesight focuses long enough to see his moving lips, but my hearing hasn’t caught up.
“Allie.” Travis. “Allie, talk to me.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“I found a lot more than that.” I found love. And then I lost it.
“It was, but at the time, I didn’t think about it. I just kept going, taking it day by day. I was too young to see the real dangers, and I think… I think I would’ve given up if I had thought about what I was doing for too long. Why I was forced to do it.”
“It was the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened to me. How that woman knew everything about my family without knowing them. She was convincing enough to fool a twelve-year-old.”
“My mother shared everything online. Still does.”
“She shared pictures of me with my school diplomas. In those photos, you could clearly see the name of the school and my grade. That may look harmless to people who don’t have bad intentions and may just follow her because they’re curious about her life, but evil people exist out there. People like Claudia. And you never know if they’re watching.”
“How we share all kinds of stuff on the internet as if it were a private diary. Live locations, pictures of the fronts of our houses, our cars. I feel like we’ve lost sight of the dangers of social media because we’re constantly exposed to it. We don’t think what we share could have life-endangering consequences, but it did in your case. Tell me, was your mother warned against sharing so much on social media after the kidnapping?” “The police told her to share less stuff or do it more vaguely,” I recall. Jada told her the same thing. “But she said it was her job, so…”
“So, she didn’t care that her negligence got her daughter kidnapped and nearly sold into a trafficking ring, and she kept oversharing on social media,” he finishes the thought for me. My hands start shaking again. “Something like that.” “You’ve never agreed to being online.” “I mean, she took pictures and videos of me when I was a kid, but I didn’t know what she was doing with them. I didn’t know what social media was or how many people had access to information about me. Eventually, getting so many pictures taken became annoying, and…and when I didn’t want to do it anymore, she got really
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“What was your father’s role in all of this?” he asks next. “His social media presence isn’t as big as your mother’s, but he does share some things.” “We never got along, my father and I. He wasn’t loving, supportive, or understanding. He was never on my side despite knowing that I wanted to be left alone. He said I should listen to my mother because she was righ...
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When asked, some parents said that by hiding their kids from their audience, they’d create a dangerous curiosity around them. That people would go out of their way to see what their children looked like, and that by showing their faces, they’d take control of the narrative. As one of those children—now an adult—do you have an opinion about this?”
“I always try to understand both sides, and in this case… I… I get it. I really do. I understand why some parents think they’re doing their kids a favor by showing their faces online. I want to believe most of them do so because their children are a part of their lives, and they feel proud of them and genuinely don’t think it’s dangerous. But at the same time, it’s so… so selfish. So irresponsible. The internet isn’t safe no matter how much we’ve convinced ourselves otherwise. We all know this by now. A little girl was almost abducted not long ago because her mother shared their address to
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their kids to that willingly. Why would anyone do that? It’s a sticky situation, I know that. But as someone who was on the other side, I need parents to understand it can ruin lives. It ruined mine.” “So you’re saying it can be okay to show children in online spaces?” George presses.
don’t think it’s safe to post your children’s certificates, showing identifiable information. I don’t think it’s necessary to film your child’s temper tantrums or other vulnerable moments and post them online, whether you have a million followers or a hundred. I don’t think it’s fair to ignore your child when they say they don’t want to take pictures and dismiss them by saying they don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t think it should be legal to make money off your kids and never put that money toward their education or future.”
it isn’t a legal requirement for children in social media.” “Yet,” George says. It sounds like a promise. “I…” Deep breath, Allie. “I took ten thousand dollars in cash from my parents’ safe before escaping because I couldn’t risk them monitoring my location through my credit card, and I had no other way to get money. It felt like I was stealing, but it was my money too. I’d helped earn it by participating in advertising campaigns against my will.”
“You’ve just mentioned child actors. Do you relate to them in any way?” he asks next. “Minors being exploited and abused in the entertainment industry has been a topic of discussion for years.” “My heart breaks for them. I can understand what they’re going through.”
“But at the same time, I believe our situations aren’t quite the same. It’s difficult to explain. From my limited understanding, even though there’s still a very long way to go, the law protects actors more than it protects us, probably because social media is such a new thing—Coogan accounts are an example. I’m not saying injustices don’t happen—they absolutely do—but I think things are different with social media.” “How so?”
“Well… aside from different laws, realistically, how many children and teenagers can be actors? It’s a very restrictive industry. There’s no room for everyone. Social media is a whole different playing field because anyone can become influential overnight. Anyone can post pictures and videos of their kids and go viral. You don’t need to pass any audition or background check or be hired by a powerful network. Being an actor is unreachable to most, but anyone can be a social media personality nowadays. “That’s also why I wanted to be here today. We need to protect children in as many ways as we
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“Which is why you’ve brought irrefutable evidence to the studio.”
“In order to ensure a successful escape from her family home in Los Angeles, Allison Buccieri made a video showcasing her parents’ abuse over the years and threatened to release it to the press if they ever contacted her again. Which they did, only days ago. Eden Productions will now show you the video that protected Allison all these years.”
I’m still not convinced this isn’t a dream as Travis shuts the car door and sets those green eyes on me. I can’t breathe. Travis is twenty feet away, here, in Los Angeles, and I can’t breathe.
Unable to move, I watch as he rounds the car—it’s not his truck, so it must be a rental—his tall body coming into full view. He doesn’t get close, but he doesn’t need to. His eyes don’t stray from mine, not once, and that’s enough to make everything come back.
“Allie.”
“Sweetheart…” That word feels like a punch to the gut. My eyes get glassy, and I can’t see him clearly anymore. But I hear his heavy footsteps climbing up to the front porch of Jada and Paul’s house. To me. “What’s wrong?” he asks, his voice soft and close and everything that is good in this world. Everything I don’t deserve. I blink the tears away. “Why are you here?” I breathe out. “Why did you…”
“I’m here for you, Allie.” My chest caves in.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m here for you,” he repeats. “Because we don’t belong apart.” I can’t breathe normally anymore. “I lied to you,” I whisper, my guilt caving in even deeper. He sighs. “Allie.”
“N-No.” My voice shakes along with my head. “I’m a liar, Travis. I lied to you, to everyone, for a year.” “I watched you on TV. We all did,”
“But even before that, Charlie showed me.” “What ...
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“The videos. From your family. The articles about the kidnapping.” My heart stops. “You knew who I was all this time?” “No,” he says. I wouldn’t know how to feel if he’d said anything else. “But when your family left, Charlie recognized them and showed me everything. I’m so fucking sorry, Allie.”
“You’re a good man. The best I know. You deserve better than someone who lies, hides, and doesn’t have a healthy relationship with themselves. Someone who doesn’t know how to do anything but run away from her problems.”
“I’m here because I can’t fucking stand being in my own house knowing you’re not there.” His words leave a sea of goose bumps on my skin. “I’m not mad at you,”
“I understand why you had to lie or omit things. I don’t hold it against you. I could never.” “You should,” I whisper. “No, I shouldn’t,” he argues. “You don’t owe anyone your full story, Allie. Not even me. You were going to tell me that day in my office, am I right?” I give him a faint nod. “That’s good enough for me. You needed time to trust me, to feel comfortable opening up to someone for the first time. I, of all people, know what that’s like.”
“No, Travis, you don’t. I’ve barely opened up to you because I was scared shitless of getting close to anyone. I couldn’t risk people finding out about my past. So don’t tell me you don’t hold that against me because you must. You’ve let a stranger into your business, into your home, when I’ve done nothing but hide things from you or lie about them.”
“I don’t know you?”
“You’re gonna look at me with those beautiful eyes and tell me I don’t know t...
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fucking person I’ve ever met, and that I admire you more than I’ve ever admired anyone? You’re gonna tell me I don’t know that you love carrot cake beyond reason, that you change into your pajamas as soon as you get home because you can’t stand sitting on the couch with your outside clothes on, that you love cooking because it brings you peace, that math gives you a purpose, and tha...
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“So allow me to get to know you. And let me show you who I am too. If you’ve been closed off, so have I.”
“Why are you really here?”
“I’m not good with words or feelings,” he says in a low voice. Quietly, just for the two of us. “You… you’ve made me feel things
I’d never felt before. It was uncomfortable at first. Until I learned to put a name on it.” I close my eyes, my pulse beating in my throat. “Travis…” “You don’t have to say anything.”
“You may not feel the same, and I’d understand. But I couldn’t—” “I feel the same,” I breathe out. “I feel everything. Every single thing, Travis. I have for months.” ...
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“I’ve missed you so much,” I croak out. One of his hands moves to rest at the nape of my neck. “I’ve missed you more. Trust me on that.”
“I don’t want to stop talking to you, and I don’t want us to become strangers. I want you to get to know me, to really know me, and I want to know you better too. I care about you more than I’ve ever cared about anyone, but I’m not ready for… for more. Not yet, even though I want to. I need to find myself first because you deserve the best version of me, and she doesn’t exist yet. I-I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need to apologize for asking for what you need.”
“However long it takes you, Allie, I’ll be here. You’ve got me, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”
