Will She Be Like This Forever?

Chapter 91

My heart's been broken and broken and broken and broken

But I keep, keep on hoping and hoping and hoping and hoping

Ben Platt

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Saturday 13th August 2022.

What The Fuck Happened?!

*KATIE'S POV*

The search for my daughter took us into the early hours of the morning, and we were coming up empty. "Why don't you and Ruesha go back to the house? Maybe have a think, have a sleep, and me and Mapi will keep looking?" Ellie suggested and me and my fiancée just looked at each other. "Yeah, okay."

We got back in our car and drove home in silence, me in the passenger seat with Ruesha's hand on my thigh, her thumb rubbing back and forth to comfort me. My tear-stained face was starting to tense up because of the dryness, and no matter how much I hated it, I couldn't get rid of it right now.

"I'm sure she will be okay." Rue whispered but I just stayed silent, concerned. We pulled up home after about 35 minutes and got out of the car, holding hands to the door. I pulled out my key, but Rue stopped me. "Wait!" She shouted and I stopped what I was doing. She looked at the door properly, seeing it was slightly open.

"Lauren! Lauren?!" She shouted, running into the house. I ran after her, screaming my daughter's name as loud as I could, but no response. We searched all of downstairs before we ran up to her room. She wasn't there. We checked every room, coming to our last, and my face dropped as soon as I walked in.

"Ruesha..." I whispered, trying to get her attention from the main bathroom in the house. She came up to me and as soon as she saw what I saw, she ran over to her. Lauren was laid practically lifeless on our bed; her hands tied with rope and duct tape on her mouth.

"Baby. Baby. I'm here. It's okay. You're okay. It's going to be okay." She rambled, trying to untie the roped with her own hands, but it wasn't successful. "I need to go get a knife. Wait here and see if she wakes up." She told me and I just stayed perfectly still against the doorframe, seeing my little baby in pain.

I saw the blood on the bed, and I saw all the bruises on her arms and her neck. Rue came up just a second later, running in with a knife, which normally I would tell her off for, but no words were coming out. She cut of the ropes and slowly but surely took off the tape, pulling her skin with it. Lauren woke up and immediately hit Ruesha straight in the face and jumped backwards, staring to cry. "It's just me. It's Ruesha. It's your mum. You're okay. Can you stay still so I can take this tape off please? I'm nearly done." She whispered and Lauren's eyes closed as tight as they could. Ruesha continued taking off the tape, making Lauren flinch with every movement.

As soon as it was off, Lauren tried to get up off the bed, but collapsed straight away, screaming in pain. "Come on. Back up. Into bed." Rue whispered again and Lauren just shook her head. "No." She replied with a whisper. "It's okay. It's my bed. It's not the bed at John's house." At the sound of her dad's name, she jumped up yet again, looking everywhere for him as she cowered into a ball on the floor. "No. No. Baby. He's not here. He's in jail. He's gone away for everything he did to you and Jo. He's gone. He's never coming back." She spoke again and my little girl made eye contact with me.

We just kind of stopped doing everything we were originally doing and just kept looking at each other. I took one step closer to her and she immediately started crying, holding out her arms for me. I moved as quick as I could and got down on the floor with her, hugging her as tight as I possibly could as we both cried... hard. Her hands wrapped around my body as Ruesha just watched us. It took Lauren a good second to get overwhelmed and push me away, still crying.