Chapter 7

Mariah was asleep in the car when a light shake woke her up , she slowly opened her eyes as Emma half smiled at her "were here just go in, get your things and come straight out." As she looked at the house in front of her that was soon to be no longer her home she took a breath putting her hand on the car latch to open the door.

Manny put her hand on her shoulder as Craig put his on the other "you want me to go with you, asked Manny

"If you don't want Manny to I can go, I have done this with my father before, "said Craig.

She then turned to both of them "I need to do this on my own", she said.

I took a breath and got out of the car and walked into the house I began to walk to my room when I heard a voice speak to me "so your back…what your real parents made you realize the real mistake you are?" said Ashley harshly.

I then walked up to her until I was an inch away from her face "actually they care about me, so much in fact they drove me here together despite their differences to get me out of this hell hole" I said to her.

Ashley laughed and then pushed me into the wall "you are not leaving we need someone to clean this house.. " she then yelled upstairs "mother, Mariah has this strange idea she's moving out."

Within a few seconds Krista walked downstairs "oh no no no this will not do, you are a minor and under my custody, both of Ava and Carl are dead, you have nobody else that can raise you."

"Actually I do Krista; my birth parents are outside that door waiting for me so I don't have to suffer with you!"

Krista then grabbed me by the hair and slammed me into the table, I grabbed the lamp and threw it at her, and she then grabbed me again and bashed my head into the wall constantly as I yelled in pain.

Meanwhile outside Craig had a bad feeling strike him he then looked at his watch for the fifth time "it's been 30 minutes and she's not back what if something happened," he said panicking.

Emma smiled "you forget she's a girl she has a lot of things she probably doesn't want to forget, I'm sure she's fine."

Craig couldn't stand it anymore he opened the door of the car and walked towards the house, Manny got out and followed him "Craig, stop you're going crazy!" he smacked her hand away "I have a feeling my daughter is not okay I have to make sure," he yelled as he opened the door.

Manny and Craig saw Krista kicking Mariah on the ground when she saw them out of the corner of her eye she yelled "HELP CALL SOMEBODY!"

Craig acted quickly and pulled Krista away from Mariah and started hitting her as he yelled in anger "how.." punch "dare" punch "you" punch by this time she was lying on the ground "my" kick "daughter" he kicked her repeatedly until she passed out.

Manny ran over to Mariah's side and picked up her passed out body looking at the dark bruises on her rib cage "Craig call 911 Mariah may have something broken" Manny cried holding her in her arms tight.

Craig ran over to the phone panicking as he called 911.

They then heard someone knocking at the door "open up its Toronto police"

Manny opened the door and allowed them to walk in "that woman on the floor she attacked my daughter and Craig fought her for defense to get her off of her Mariah has physical proof her ribs may be broken" said Manny about to cry.

The police nodded " were going to have to take you three along with Krista and her daughter in for questioning, first thing is first however we must get Krista and Mariah to the hospital make sure everything is okay before we go any further."

Manny and Craig nodded as they put Mariah and Krista on stretchers and started carrying them outside Emma quickly got out of the car and ran towards Mariah "oh my god what happened!"

Manny and Craig walked out behind her "Krista was kicking Mariah on the ground when we walked in" said Manny.

Manny, Craig and Emma got back in the car and followed the EMS car to the hospital Craig was already starting to panic "what if she is seriously injured Manny?... what if she can't walk again or anything, it's our fault we left her in there too long before we checked on her," he said crying.

"We can't think negative Craig maybe she's going to be okay," said Manny tears falling down her face.

Once they got to the hospital they sat in the waiting room in silence and then a nurse walked up and Craig and Manny walked up to her "is Mariah okay?"

The nurse took a breath "she has fractured her ribs as expected she will need to stay here a couple of days for supervision make sure everything is okay" she then looked down at her clipboard "now you guys gave her up for adoption at birth correct?"

They both nodded "we both were not at the best place to raise a child, and here recently she looked us up and wanted to meet us."

The nurse nodded "well since her adoptive parents have died and it's clear that Mariah cannot be safe under Krista's care they may be a chance if you all agree that we could reinstate custody of Mariah to you guys however you all three must agree to this."

Craig's eyes beamed with joy until Manny spoke "we already had this discussion with Mariah to live with a friend of ours, we both know and trust her and Mariah is all for it.

As they stood up and the judge reviewed the evidence and made his decision he then spoke " As for the evedience we have received and the ruling for custody of Mariah Danielle Stevens all three of you have come to an agreement and it is granted that custody is presented to Emma Grace Nelson" he then hit the hammer on the desk.

Mariah ran over to Emma and gave her a hug then she hugged Manny and Craig this is what everyone hoped for.

Now it was the hardest part saying goodbye Emma started getting her bags out and taking them inside Mariah then turned to look at Manny and Craig " I want you to know I love you guys, these last few weeks have been a huge adventure the good and the bad."

Manny then spoke "Mariah I love you so much, you have no idea how hard it was to give you away, and my actions for when I saw you again were only in fear of you getting ripped out of my life again, I didn't give you away because I didn't care, I did it to give you everything you deserve that I couldn't dream of providing."

Mariah nodded " I know and understand Manny it's okay."

Craig then spoke "Mariah, I am so proud of who you have become strong and independent, you stood up for what you believed in and who you are, you remind me so much of Manny and so much of myself I love you and anytime you want to talk or see me give me a call anytime I'll make sure we can spend time together and get to know each other."

Manny smiled "Same here, you can visit anytime I'll be ready to see you."

Mariah then gave them both a hug "well it's getting late, I should go on inside."

Manny and Craig both nodded as Mariah turned around to walk inside "bye Mariah, we love you" they both said.

She then turned around and walked back to them "It's not goodbye, when you gave me to mom and dad it was goodbye I will be visiting again soon so it's see you later."

Looking at the scene in the car was Jay and Ellie as they smiled "should we go tell her goodbye?" asked Ellie.

"No, I believe this should remain a moment between the three of them, this is an emotional time for all of them, it's a moment between a mother, father and their child together, regardless of who raised her by blood she is their child."

Ellie nodded in agreement.

Mariah waved as she walked inside, once the door shut tears fell out of Manny's eyes, Craig smiled and put his hands on her shoulder "hey remember she's safe and happy, that's all we can ask for."

Manny nodded " I miss her already" she said getting in the car.

Craig nodded "remember Manny it's never goodbye after all, we will see her later.

THE END!

Author's Note: How did you like the ending? Leave a review telling me how you liked it? If you didn't I like to hear from you! Love you guys, Countrygirl19

She looked out the window she was headed to her new home; she was nervous yet excited at the same time but she knew one thing anything was better than living with Krista and her daughter and Emma seemed exactly like the type of person she would want to live with.

An hour went by as I just listened to my iPod and looked out the window watching scenes pass by I occasionally would glance at Manny and Craig and they would return smiles back to me I believe they are actually respecting my decision not as their birth daughter, but as a person.