Journey to Love

Chapter 22

Layla had woken up a couple days ago. She was confused, scared and overall relieved.

She was confused. Confused of what was happening, where she was, and that led to her feeling scared, scared of the unknown, but in a way relieved. Relieved that Mrs Williams was by her side 24/7. She hadn't left when she found out about how she lived. In fact Mrs Williams seemed the total opposite. She seemed upset and angry at the way Layla had been living, and that confused her greatly. Wasn't every naughty kid punished? She was just being punished for not listening.

Didn't Mrs Williams know that she was a bad kid. A brat and a selfish little shit.

Yet, Mrs Williams only treated Layla with kindness. Kindness and what she presumed was some form of love.

It was new, unexpected, but defiently not unwelcome. Layla had started to like it, liked the attention, the care.

Layla had been delving into all the different types of children's cartoons on the tv she was given. It had taken a lot of encouragement from Mrs Williams to say that she could watch tv without being punished. She even sat with Layla for majority of it.

Layla was unsure as to why Mrs Williams was still at the hosptial, despite it being the middle of the week, but Mrs Williams reassured Layla that it was perfectly fine, that she had already spoken to the principle and was given sick leave. This way she wouldn't have to leave her side at all.

It was currently mid-afternoon and Layla was sitting on the hosptial bed, with Mrs Williams sitting on the left, both with some uno cards stacked in their hands. They were giggling as the road runner outsmarted the coyote again when there was a knock at the door.

Neither thought too much of it as Mrs Williams placed down a red five. But when the door opened neither the doctor or the nurse walked through the door. That was exactly the first thing Layla noticed.

In fact there were two people who stepped foot into the room. Krystal her social worker and a male she had never seen before. Krystal had checked up on Layla a couple of times informing her that she hadn't need to worry about going back into foster care, which confused her greatly. Where would she be going then? She hoped Mrs Williams wanted to have her, she liked how kind Mrs Williams was.

Her thoughts were running widely as the man smiled at her.

"Good afternoon Layla, how are you feeling today?" Krystal asked. Layla was too frozen in her seat to even think about answering that. Instead she just sat as still as a rock, wanting to be left with Mrs Williams alone in the room.

Krystal must have realised Layla's reluctance as she turned her attention to Mrs Williams, "and goos afternoon Anita, hope you have been well."

"Yes thank you Krystal."

"Thats good," she smiled back, "Layla, I hope you have been having a speedy recovery. I understand how hard and difficult it must be for you right now, in the unknown and how scary it must be. Which is completely normal and completely fine. I uh I want to introduce you to Zane Atwell. Zane here is your biological father"

Layla's eyes bulged out from her head. Her father? she had a father?

W-what was she doing in foster care if she had a direct relative. Did...did he not originally want her? Was she not good enough? Or was she just an accident. One left to be forgotten, for the state to clean up.

But then what was he doing here and now? Part of her was hoping, wishing that Mrs Williams would take her, would want her.

"F-father?" she stuttered out still in shock.

"Yep! He is your father," she smiled happily, clearly unaware of the dream that was shattering in Layla's heart. Layla stilled even further before she reacted purely on instinct.

"No," she replied back.

"What?" she and Zane said at the same time, shocked at her outburst.

"No!" she said louder. "NO, NO,NO! I D-DONT WANT TO GO WITH YOU!" she shouted.

"honey, please tr-"

"I WANT MRS WILLIAMS," Layla latched herself onto Anita, tears flowing down her face as she erupted in hysteria. Layla turned her teary face towards Anita, "Please don't leave me. i dont want to go with him. I-I want to stay with you."

Mrs Williams who was initially shocked by her outburst, placed her arms around Layla's back trying to soothe the crying girl. She looked towards the two adults who looked absolutely dumbstruck.

"I...erm, Anita, would it be possible if we had a talk outside" Krystal asked quietly, unsure how to proceed from here, "After Layla has calmed down of course."

Mrs Williams nodded her head before turning her attention back to the small girl in her arms . When the pair walked outside, a small smile appeared on her face. Layla wanted to go with her. And if thats what Layla wanted, Mrs Williams would fight it all the way.

"Hey, hey, hey, its okay, they're gone," Mrs Williams cooed to Layla.

The girl replied, "B-but they are going to take me away. Please dont let them take me." Layla looked up into Mrs Williams eyes, pure desperation leaking out of her sea blues eyes.

Mrs Williams slowly brought her hand to Layla's cheek, pride flushing through her as Layla didn't flinch from the contact.

Mrs Williams used the pad of her thumb to wipe away the stray tears, "I won't willingly let them take you away beautiful. If you don't want to go with your father, then I will fight for your custody for as long as it takes."

Mrs Williams heart melted at the sight of pure hope glistening in the little girls eyes, at her words. And she vowed that no one, not even her so called father would get in her way.

"Okay? I know this is difficult but I'm going to go speak to Krystal and your father outside, and we are going to have big talk, okay? I want you to stay in here and not worry about a thing, I'll be back in a moment, okay?"

Layla nodded her head, sniffling away her runny nose, Layla rubbed under her eyes, clearing up any tears that may have of fallen.

Mrs Williams gave her another hug, being sure to rub the girls back, soothing her slightly. Mrs Williams slowly let go of Layla and gave her a wide grin before leaving the room, following Krystal and Zane down the hallways.

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Thank you so much for reading! And thank you for 1.7k reads.

Currently just sitting at my City's court house seeing where I have to do jury duty lol.

Words: 1155
Published: 8/6/2023