Chapter 1: The Swans

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Swan, are you ready to meet your new daughter?" The young couple exchanged eager smiles and nodded.

"Come on in." the man called. Ms. Candice entered the room holding Emma's small hand. With her other hand she clutched a small, white blanket against her chest.

"Hi there." The woman greeted as she grinned widely at her new child. Emma ducked away shyly, hiding her face in Ms. Candice's dress.

"Aww" Mr. Swan chuckled lightly.

"Sorry, she a little shy." Ms. Candice stated.

"Well, that's alright." Ms. Swan replied crouching down to Emma's level. "She'll warm up to us; won't you little one?" Emma dodged behind Ms. Candice's legs, her hands gripping at the woman's dress.

"Here, look at what we brought for you." Ms. Swan held out a small doll. Emma peered curiously from behind Candice's legs.

"Go on." She said smiling down at the child. Emma looked up as Ms. Candice gently stroked her blonde curls. "It's okay." She reassured the child. Emma tentatively took a step towards the strange woman. She reached her an arm out and took the doll. The new parents smiled lovingly at the child as she carefully inspected her new toy.

"Isn't she beautiful, Darren?" she asked her husband.

"She's perfect."

After a long day of work, Darren Swan was happy to return home to his loving family. "I'm home!" he called cheerfully as he hung his coat. He smiled towards his wife who was by the sink washing dishes. He expected her to come greet him, as she usually did, but instead she turned away.

"Daddy!" He looked to see Emma running towards him with open arms. He scooped her up and placed a kiss against her small cheek.

"How's my girl been?" He asked bouncing her on his hip.

"Good. I colored a picture for you. You wanna see it?"

"I'd love t-

"Not right now, Emma." His wife interrupted. "Mommy and Daddy need to talk. Why don't you go play in your room?"

"Aw… okay." She complied.

Ms. Swan leaned against the kitchen counter, drying her hands off with a towel as she faced her husband. "What is it?" he asked concerned. She breathed a heavy sigh, still unsure of how to tell him.

"I'm pregnant." She stated bluntly. He looked at her, baffled.

"What? You can't be. I thought that-"

"Yeah, well so did I." For a moment, neither one said anything.

"So what does this mean?" he questioned, breaking the silence.

"It means… it means we have to give her back." Her husband stood speechless for a moment.

"What? You mean Emma? No, no that's not happening. She's our child now, Lizzie. We can't give her back."

"We can't afford two kids, Darren."

"We'll figure something out. I'll get another job."

"You've already been trying to find better work just to make ends meet now."

"Well there's got to be something we can do!"

"There's nothing we can do except take Emma back. It's what's best."

"Best? For who? For us? Well what about what's best for Emma?!"

"I'm trying to do what's best for the baby!" She yelled gesturing towards her stomach.

"Emma's our baby too. We adopted her. She's our child."

"She's not our real child. She'll get adopted again by some other couple. This." She said placing her hand against her stomach. "This is our real child and we need to do what's best for it."

Darren shook his head in disbelief and stormed away.

Emma's POV

Something's wrong with Mommy and Daddy. Daddy is acting really sad. At breakfast, when I blew bubbles in my chocolate milk, he didn't laugh like he always does. Mommy is acting funny too; she put some of my clothes and my favorite toys in a suitcase and when I took them back out, she got mad and told me to go in the living room and watch tv.

The Flintstones are on now. I laugh because Barney is silly. Mommy and Daddy are in the kitchen talking to Ms. Cathy. Ms. Cathy is a really nice lady. She comes to visit sometimes and we talk and play games. She always asks me a lot of questions. Like if Mommy and Daddy are nice to me, and what happens when I get in trouble, and if I get plenty of food to eat. She's kind of nosy, but it's okay I don't mind answering questions, as long as she keeps letting me choose what game we play. We didn't play any games today though; she didn't even want to ask me questions. Instead, she just said hi and then went to go talk with Mommy and Daddy.

I hear somebody come into the room. It's Daddy. "Whatcha watching munchkin?" he asks.

"Flintstones." I answer.

"Do you want to come upstairs and help me with something?"

"Sure." I get up and take his hand and we walk upstairs together. We go into my room where Mommy has the suitcase and lots of my other stuff laying on the bed. Daddy grabs the suitcase and then rummages through the other stuff, shoving a couple of things into the suitcase. "What are you doing with my stuff? Why's it all in a suitcase?" Daddy sighs and looks down at something in his hands. It's my doll. He stares at her for a while and then he kneels down in front of me. He hands me my doll and I smile and hug her tight against my chest. I look at Daddy. He's smiling at me but he doesn't look happy."What's wrong, Daddy?"

"Emma… there's… there's something I need to tell you. I don't know if you'll understand...—"

"What is it, Daddy?"

"I'm not your Daddy." I laugh.

"Course you're my Daddy, silly"

"No, I'm not. And Mommy isn't really your Mommy either." I frown now because Daddy is talking in his serious voice, which means he's not just being silly, but what he's saying is silly.

"What are you talking 'bout?"

"You-"

"Darren!" Mommy interrupts. "Come on, it's time." I look at Daddy, confused; time for what? And what are they doing with all my stuff? And why did Daddy say he wasn't my Daddy and that Mommy wasn't my Mommy? Nothing is making any sense and I want to ask someone but I can't because everything starts happening so fast. Daddy grabs me and the suitcase and we go downstairs. Then he takes me outside where Mommy and Ms. Cathy are standing by Ms. Cathy's car. Daddy puts my suitcase in her car.

"Hey!" I yell. "That's my stuff. She can't have it."

"It's okay." Ms. Cathy says. She leans down and puts her hand under my chin, stroking my cheek with her thumb. "You're going to come with me."

"What? No, I don't want to go with you. I want to stay here with Mommy and Daddy." Ms. Cathy turns to look at Daddy.

"Did you explain to her?" He shakes his head.

"No…not really…I just…I couldn't…." She turns back to look at me.

"Emma, honey, you're going to come with me now, and I'm going to take you to a really nice place to stay for a while until we find you a new Mommy and Daddy, ok?"

"No! No, I don't want a new Mommy and Daddy!" I start to cry. I don't understand what's happening. I turn to look at Mommy. She comes and kneels down by me.

"I know it's hard for you to understand right now, but it will be okay I promise."

"Why don't you want to be my Mommy anymore? Why are you making me leave?"

"I'm sorry. We can't keep you anymore." She gets up and walks over by Daddy. I try to follow but Ms. Cathy picks me up and takes me to her car. I kick and scream as she forces me into a car seat.

"No!" I cry. "I don't want to go. No!" Daddy comes over and I think he's going to help me but instead he holds me down while Ms. Cathy buckles me in. "No, Daddy. Don't let her take me. I'll be a good girl. I promise. Please don't let her take me Daddy!" He puts his hand on his cheek and I look up at him. I see little droplets of water running down his cheek. He leans down and kisses my forehead.

"I'm so sorry, Emma." He shuts the door and walks away. I call after him but he doesn't even turn around to look at me. I try to find Mommy but I don't see her anywhere. Ms. Cathy gets in the car and I watch my home get smaller and smaller as we drive away.

Thank you to all who followed and favorited this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review I would love to hear feedback :).