Protecting Leah

The Rumours are Terrible and True

Tree's P.O.V

This was a nightmare. Nothing like this had ever happened before and no one knew how to act. I was calling everyone I knew in Nashville trying to see if anyone had seen Taylor today but no one had. Just as I had hung up from the fourteenth person Scott burst through the door and after talking with Karlie shoved a pile of paperwork into her hands as she muttered, "Oh god." My heart fell to the floor as I made my way to her, seeing the paperwork, 'BIG MACHINE RECORDS SHAREHOLDERS' I froze, I couldn't think, surely they had nothing to do with this. It was mad to consider it. Wasn't it?

Karlie's P.O.V

It couldn't be true, it made perfect sense but it couldn't be true? How could this be possible did they hate her this much. I knew that if I ever found this to be true that I would kill them myself. Scott settled a hand on my shoulder. "Calm down Karlie, we don't know anything yet. It might not be true." I turned to him and looked at him with tears filling my eyes.

"What if it is?" He looked away, I knew he had no answer then all of a sudden voices filled the room. My parents had arrived. "Oh Karlie..." my mom said as I stood and hugged her tight, my dad soon joined in and we just stayed there, tears poured down my face as I began to sob. No one stopped me and I heard Tree leave the room. She was taking this hard, her and Taylor had become so close over the past few months that it almost seemed cruel. Then I heard it, that tiny little voice that means just as much to me as the one that's missing. "Mama, why are people here?" Turning around I see Leah by the stairs looking at everyone in the living room, Tree is standing behind her. I don't say anything but walk over to her and pick her up. Glancing around at everyone I make my way up to mine and Taylor's bedroom. Closing the door behind me as I feel Leah dig in closer as I sit on the bed and she straddles my legs. "Okay bug, well mommy was supposed to pick you up from Aunty Caitlin and Uncle Jack's but she's gotten a bit lost along the way and nobody knows where she is so everyone is trying to find her, okay?" I watch my five year old daughter look around and then nod her tiny head, then she presses herself into me. "Does mommy still love me?"

"Of course she does Leah, she's just a bit lost so we have to wait for her to come home." She nods against me and I lie back, letting Leah be a comfort as I fall into an uneasy sleep only to be woken several hours later by Caitlin shaking me. I sit up blindly, "What's going on?" Caitlin's face slowly comes into view. "Scott has news." That was all it took to get me out of bed, that simple fact of, 'Scott has news' running out the door and downstairs I see a sombre looking Scott waiting. "Well?" I question as he shuffles his feet. "She wasn't there..." I look around at Tree and Caitlin.

"So go find her."  Scott looks up.

"Karlie she wasn't there but they didn't say they didn't know where she was..." My eyesight blurred as I realised that they didn't have her but they didn't say that they didn't know where she was. That was the part that scared me. I looked around and said, "What are they doing then?"

"Sitting on them, waiting for them to make a mistake." I nodded and sat down on the couch wondering what on earth had possessed them to kidnap their own daughter. Then I remembered Andrea's words in New York and how Taylor should be with a man and have a baby the proper way. I felt sick both with worry and disgust at her parents but I knew for this to work I had to carry on for Leah and for my strong wife who hopefully was fighting.