When I wake up, I'm completely numb to the bone. Every limb is nonexistent, every nerve is hardened, my vision is a hazy blur. My mind draws a blank as I find myself slipping into mental shock. I'm not sure how long I've been on the floor. There is still vivid daylight surrounding me, so I know it hasn't been long.

I still hear Melissa screaming at me through the phone. "MILA? ARE YOU THERE? WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT WAS THAT SOUND? ARE YOU OKAY?" She screeches. I'm not sure how I was able to grab my phone, it is almost as if an unseen force did it for me as I had no awareness of my limbs.

"I'm here." My voice is hollow.

Melissa is crying brokenly on the other end. "You were right! You were right about Amanda! I am so sorry! Alessa is dead! The police said they found her body. They're doing an autopsy on her right now. Amanda did something to her! The police informed me that Amanda used my computer to search up lethal methods. She searched for chloroform and how to make it! I was so stupid to not see this!"

"Chloroform?" I mutter flatly.

"Yes, the police initially asked me about the searches. But once I told them I was at work when that was searched, they went to Amanda about it. Amanda...she….was ordered to return back to take a lie detection test and she took off."

Melissa coughs out a heavy sob. Her wailing suddenly turns to a scream of frustration."I was so stupid! I should have known she was bullshitting! I didn't know! I just didn't know!" Melissa continues to cry as I listened to her in muted silence. No words were spoken for a few moments. She has to collect herself into one piece again.

"She was drugging the twins. I remember Emma and Riley told me that they didn't like being alone with their Mommy, but I just thought they were being bratty. Amanda searched for the chloroform ever since I let her move into the house with me!"

A sharp gasp of shock escapes my lungs when I hear this. I would have started screaming and raving at Melissa if I didn't feel so numb.

Melissa sighs. "Yes, yes, I invited her to live with us! She kept begging to live with us! She kept saying she wanted to be with her daughters. She wanted to raise her new baby with all of her girls. That's when things started to change. Before Amanda moved in, we just started discussing everything. Around that time, I went on a business trip and I chose to take Olive and the twins along to Texas. Sydney got in trouble at school so I left her behind. Sydney kept calling me one night, telling me that someone was messing with one of my cars in the driveway in the middle of the night. She kept saying that she saw a dark figure doing something with my car, making the alarm going off. Sydney told me she turned the car off with the keys, but the person kept coming to the car. Six times, she said. I thought it was a prank, but Sydney was terrified out of her mind. I told her to keep the doors locked and tell her to call 911 if something happens. But nothing did. In fact, Sydney said that the person just left and that was it. Sydney kept talking about it for days. But I honestly thought she was playing a dumb joke and was taking it too far, so I took her cell phone away." Melissa croaks. "I haven't been talkative that much, because there were so many strange things occurring in the house."

Melissa pauses as she takes in shallow breaths. "It was small at first. I noticed that some of my clothes and shoes went missing. Some of the girls' toys went missing. But then whenever I had to go on a business trip, I'd leave Amanda to babysit the girls so she could spend alone time with them and every time I would come back, the twins would always seem sleepy and drowsy. It was very strange because the twins are always hyper. But when they're alone with Amanda, they're exhausted and barely able to get out of bed. I was concerned at first, but Amanda reassured me that she took the kids outside or the park and the girls just exhausted themselves. Like an idiot, I believed her. I put so much trust into her and she does this! But it turns out she was drugging the twins with cold medicine. Anything that would make them sleepy. Amanda knew my work hours and the older ones' school hours and she somehow managed to get away with this for months. I was so oblivious for the longest time. I just thought certain things were coincidences and saw the best in Amanda. More strange occurrences started happened within the first few months of her living with us. There was this black SUV that would drive through the neighborhood and park near my house for three weeks. I figured it was a neighbor or some random person. But then I started to get calls. It was….it is hard to describe. There was never a voice at the end. It was music. Songs with violent lyrics that spoke of killing and death. Lyrics about shooting someone dead and slitting their throats. I don't know any of the songs or the artists as I don't like that kind of music. Like a dumbass, I thought it was a silly prank by some teenagers. I didn't report it because it only went on for two days straight and never again. I simply blocked the number. I thought maybe Sydney gave my number to her friends for a sick joke. I actually went to confront her about it, but Sydney simply told me that she's been getting mysterious calls herself. Expect there is never a voice or music on the other end, simply just breathing. Someone is breathing into the phone and that's it."

I force out my voice with all of my willpower. "Amanda was behind all of this! You let her into our lives!" I whisper brokenly.

"I'm so sorry, Mila. I did this to us. I ruined everything. After Alessa went missing, Amanda was acting weird. She wasn't crying or upset about her disappearance. She had no concern and never mentioned Alessa once. I started to suspect her and I would press her for answers, but she would avoid the question. I didn't think she did anything to Alessa at the time, I just thought she knew where she was. But next thing I knew, Amanda ran off to Montana to her older brother for help. Her brother called the police on her and they caught her."

Melissa pauses once more. "There has been a bunch of new updates!" Automatically there is abrupt strength in my limbs that allows me to sit upright. I look upon the phone and I refresh my browser. Because of the fact that my family is connected to the Reed Murders, Alessa's case has been heavily covered by the media. There are countless articles of updates on the case. My heart is impulsing in my chest erratically, I feel as if my heart is going to explode at any moment. Almost obsessively, I read article after article. All of them are worse than the last.

Human Remains confirmed to be Alessa Sessler.

Harry Ruberman, April 5th, 2021

"We have a tragic update in our ongoing search for answers. Remains of little Alessa Sessler have been found in the forest. Her babysitter Amanda Carpenter has been arrested and charged with her death." Seattle Police Department announces. "Current Prisoner Christian Grey has been charged with criminal conspiracy in his involvement in this case."

Missing Alessa Sessler's body was discovered in the woodland near her Aunt's house. Her body was found on April 3rd, but the official identification only came on April 5th. The authorities discovered that the child's body was discovered 100 yards from her Aunt's house in Woodside Park. The body of the child is currently undergoing an autopsy.

Amanda Carpenter has been charged with multiple counts.

April 5th, 2021, written by Julia Mosby.

Amanda Carpenter has booked into the King County Jail Courtroom on Friday, on charges of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, child abuse, Removal and concealment of body, and multiple counts of criminal conspiracy.

Special Agent Evan Rzcukmen testified that Carpenter has made 'inculpatory statements' during interviews with investigators since Alessa went missing. Rzcukmen revealed that Amanda confessed to her involvement in the death of Alessa Sessler.

"Her story would keep changing, every small detail to every major detail would change on a whim. When she told us the story at first, it seemed well-rehearsed. As if she practiced it repeatedly. She claimed that she missed Alessa with all of her heart and that she desperately wanted to help find her. But she would evade giving important details about her disappearance." Evan Rzcukmen.

"Me and my partner kept questioning her through November to March. We had to place pressure on her to pull out the truth and she confessed."

Amanda Carpenter confessed to looking up chloroform six times on November 8th, the day of the death of Alessa Sessler. Additionally, Amanda searched multiple questions online on Melissa's computer and on her personal cell phone.

On Melissa Reed's computer, she searched, "Chloroform." "How to make chloroform from home?"

On her cell phone, she searched; "How much blood does a person need to lose to die?" "How to break a neck?" "How long does it take to strangle someone?" "How many Tylenol pills does a person take to overdose?" "Quick ways to die." "What can cause a house fire?"

She admitted to drugging Alessa with the chloroform so she could go partying at 2:00 pm. She admitted that she did this to her other young daughter before because she could not get the children to "be quiet." She claims that she gave Alessa a high dose of chloroform because she was very "fussy." She also gave her cold medicine additionally. Amanda said she panicked when Alessa began to vomit and convulse. Alessa stopped breathing and was "pulseless." Amanda revealed that she duct-taped Alessa's mouth shut and put the child into a trash bag to hide the body from the other girls. She said that she was hiding any and all evidence once the older children arrived home. She took the bag and discarded the bag in the vast forest behind the house. She went back to the house to grab Alessa's clothes and other objects to pretend that the robbers took it. At 3:20 pm, she drove her car down 1 mile away from the house to plant her car in the forest to pretend that it was stolen. Amanda returned home on foot at 3:40 pm and she began to "clean up" any remaining evidence by stealing multiple laptops and tossed them into the next-door neighbor's trash can.

Upon returning home, her older daughters arrived home and she began to delete previous texts and emails for unknown reasons.

Then at 4:55 pm, she called 911 to report Alessa was missing. Amanda initially reported that someone broke into the house, stolen multiple items, and abducted Alessa from her crib. Amanda admitted to faking a home invasion to make her story believable.

During the interviews, Amanda mentioned Christian Grey nineteen times. Connecting him to the crime, confessing that Christian and her spoke about killing all of her daughters and Louis Reed's relatives so she could be "free," Amanda confessed to planning to set Melissa Reed's house on fire with all of the children and Melissa herself inside but admits that she was 'contemplating' on this idea for months, but was never sure on how to act on it. Additionally, Amanda confessed that she tried to pay two unidentified men to shoot and kill Arthur Reed and his wife, Nancy Reed for 'stealing' her infant daughter from her. But the attack did not materialize as there was reportedly a miscommunication and the payment was never issued. She admitted to spying on the Reed family, gaining information from Melissa Reed and instructing how the men could kill the two.

I stop reading. I feel all of my limbs becoming limp, my phone dropping to the floor with a hard thud.

I find myself swimming in the currents of numbness. Stella permeates my mind. Alessa resembled her so much, she had her boisterous spirit, her lovely smile, her charming beauty. Now she's gone. I loved Alessa more than I loved myself.

I'm at the mercy of a powerful force of grief. I never experienced grief like this before. Every memory plays like a film in my head, repeating itself over and over. I'm lost as if I lost a big part of me. A part of me that could never get back. The overwhelming wave of wretchedness threatened to engulf my mind and soul.

I couldn't bear the thought of not hearing her sweet giggle, not seeing her beautiful face, not hearing her tender voice calling me "Mama,"

"Mama?" My eyes snap to Selyse. I'm so consumed with grief that I did not notice that she is sitting next to me. She stares up at me with visible worry in her eyes. Even though she is one year old, I could tell she could sense that there is something wrong with me. I run my fingers through her soft red hair. "It's okay. It's okay." My voice is barely audible.

Selyse responds by wrapping her little arms around my arm in a tight embrace. I hear Watson cooing softly to herself and Hope comes into my line of sight by running through the house innocently. I feel my spirits beginning to lift slightly.

They are the only ones I have left.

Next chapter will come soon. Now I'm getting ready to finish this story with several more chapters. Originally I was going to make this into a love story, but I'm not good at romance in stories and I always like crime/mystery/horror stories better than romance. Though the death of a child is quite hard to write.

I just prefer dark stories over lighthearted ones because they are more interesting and unpredictable. The next chapters will focus on Mila living life without her first child and how her grieving will affect the other children.

P.S. I have other stories on my account. Check them out, I'm updating and revising some of them. Naruto story and other ones.