Chapter 16

"What! You're supposed to be helping her! Not sending her away to foster care!" Sam yelled at Melissa.

"Sam! Sam, calm down. Now you know Melissa has no say in where Mikaela's dad wants her to stay. We can work this out, can't we?" Judy directed her question to Melissa and the two detectives.

"The only thing we can do is wait until the court date. If Mikaela's father is sentenced to more than a year in prison, Mikaela can choose to either live on her own, or be set up for adoption. Your family can try to adopt her if that is your wish, or you can set up another family to adopt her. But for now, she is going to have to stay in foster care for a few months." Melissa said sadly. Sam grabbed Mikaela's hand tightly.

"When does she have to leave?" He asked quietly.

"Legally, she has to leave as soon as possible. We can drive her to her house to gather her belongings and then drop her off at the facility." One of the detectives spoke up.

"So she can't even stay for one more night?" Sam asked. The detectives shook their heads no. Mikaela had been silent this whole time. Sam had just noticed.

"Are you okay?" He asked her. She ignored his question.

"Are you sure I only have to be there until the court date? Nothing is going to change right?" Her voice was breaking slightly.

"Yes, we're positive." Melissa told her. Mikaela nodded.

"Then I'll go. What other choice do I have?" She told everyone. Sam looked at her while she looked down at her lap.

"Well, since that was easier than I thought it would be, would you all like to accompany Mikaela and I to her house and then to the foster care facility?" The three Witwickys nodded their heads eagerly. They all walked out of the house leaving their meals happy to be with Mikaela for a few more minutes. It was as if Sam and Mikaela's hands were glued together permanently since they refused to let go of each other. They rode the whole way to Mikaela's house in silence and right before they got out of the car, Melissa stopped them.

"Mikaela, we'll give you half an hour to get all of your things together. I'm sorry it couldn't be longer, but we're short on time. We brought you three duffel bags to fill. Unfortunately, that's all you can take with you. I'll wait out here." She told her.

"Okay." Mikaela said before walking out of the car with Sam and the three duffel bags. They walked up to the door and open it, surprised to find it unlocked. The door squeaked slightly as it opened and Mikaela looked around at the place she had been abused for the last few months of her life. She was happy to see that it mostly looked exactly how she had left it but after seeing Victoria and her children at the mall, she was nervous to see her room and what had been done to it. She led Sam up the stairs and took a deep breath before turning the doorknob to open it and see her room.

"Oh my god" was all Mikaela could say as she looked around at what used to be her bedroom. All of her pictures on her walls and dresser had been torn down. By looking in the drawers, she could see that the clothes inside of them were no longer hers. There were three huge garbage bags in the corner of the room and as Mikaela expected, they had all of her belongings inside of them.

"Why did your dad get rid of all of your stuff Mikaela?" Sam asked her.

"It wasn't my dad. It was Alison." She told him.

"Who's Alison?" Mikaela realized she forgot to even tell Sam about Victoria and her family along with meeting them at the mall.

"She's my dad's girlfriend's daughter. She's the same age as me and when I left, my dad let her move into my room and I guess she got rid of all of my stuff. Sam I have to tell you something though." She made him sit down on the bed.

"I saw Victoria, Alison and Jake, Victoria's son, at the mall when I went shopping with your mom. That was when Alison told me that she had moved into my room. But she told me something else too. Remember the necklace you gave me for my birthday?"

Sam nodded. "When I talked to Alison, she was wearing it. She refused to give it back and said it was hers now that she had my room and all of my stuff. I don't think I can get it back Sam. I'm so sorry." She was crying now. Sam hugged her tightly.

"Mikaela, don't worry. I'm not mad at you for anything. I am pissed off at this Alison though. If I ever meet her, I swear I'm going to get your necklace back. It belongs to you and no one else Mikaela." She smiled up at him as he wiped her tears away.

"Thank you Sam. I love you." She told him and then kissed him lightly on the lips. Sam smiled and then helped her stand up.

"I love you too. Don't worry we're going to get through this together. Now, since all of your stuff is already bagged, we don't really need to do anything do we?" He asked her. Mikaela looked around her room and saw that Alison did a really good job of getting rid of anything that belonged to Mikaela.

"I guess not. I just want to look through the bags really quickly to make sure I didn't miss anything. And then I'm going to get my toothbrush and stuff and then we can leave." She told him. He helped her open and look through all three bags before Mikaela was satisfied that at least most of her stuff was inside of them. She even found her phone and charger lying on the bottom of the bag which made her happy. At least now she had some means of communication with other people.

"Okay. I guess it's all here. Can you help me carry the bags Sam?"

"Yeah, of course." He picked up two of the garbage bags while Mikaela picked up one and they drug them down the stairs and out the door. Mikaela looked back at the house she had once lived in but surprisingly, felt no remorse or sadness from leaving it behind. She felt as if she was beginning a new, more loving life than she had once had. Melissa looked surprised when she saw the two teens coming into the car so quickly.

"Wow. That only took ten minutes. You sure can pack quickly Mikaela." She laughed lightly. Instead of trying to explain what had actually happened, Mikaela just laughed along. She was tired of trying to explain storied to everyone. It wore her out and mostly got her no farther than where she was before.

"Okay, well then off to the foster care facility. It's called Rhea County Foster Care Facility. The rooms they have are broken up by age group. Fortunately, since your age group does not have very many children in foster care, and many of the younger children were taken out to be fostered by families instead, it's going to be pretty empty in the facility. I wouldn't be surprised if you have an entire room all to yourself. Um…the owner of the facility is named Leah. If you have any questions you can ask her. Is there anything I forgot to mention?" Melissa asked Mikaela as they pulled up in front of Rhea's Foster Care. Mikaela suddenly had butterflies in her stomach. She squeezed Sam's hand again and shook her head no.

"Well then, I think we're all set to go in. Welcome to Rhea's Mikaela!" Melissa told the frightened teen as she stood up out of the car staring at the place she would call home for the next few months.