7 Kids-One Happy Family

Chapter 11

No one could handle what was about to come. No one knew how to. Molly and Carrie were a mess of tears after talking about it for an hour. Mike was on the verge at this point, but he knew someone had to stay strong for his girls. Everyone wanted to hold Mia and their arms to keep her safe and never let her go hoping that all of the bad thoughts that were roaming in her brain at this second would somehow diminish.

After a while, Molly went upstairs to her room to be alone leaving Carrie to cry into her husband's arms alone. "Shhh baby, everything is going to be okay. We're going to keep her safe," Mike whispered in her ear as her body was curled against his.

"How could we not see this coming?" she cried. "How could we not know?"

"I don't think anyone could have seen this coming," he told her.

"No, this is all my fault," Carrie said. "Every single night and day I go through every kid and pray that they're happy. And the ones that I know are going through a hard time I say an extra prayer. If I would have seen this coming, God would have made things better."

"Carrie, this isn't God's doing and you know that," Mike assured her. "But it was God's plan to let us know so we can help Mia in every way we possibly can. Care, I thank God right now for this opportunity to be there for Mia. There's families throughout this world that go through this but by the time they know about it, they've already lost their loved one. We have a chance with Mia, and we are going to do everything it takes in our power to make sure she is alive and healthy, and that she's happy about that."

That afternoon, Molly picked Chloe and Maddie up from school where she took them to the mall and to Iveycake to give Mom and Dad alone time with Mia. Ivey picked up Grayson and Charlotte from daycare. Jason had practice so he wouldn't be home until dinner anyways. Carrie picked Mia up from school and decided to go for a drive.

"Where are we going?" Mia asked noticing her mother wasn't taking the right way home.

"You'll see," Carrie replied shortly. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, what she was going to do, or what she was going to say, but Carrie had to do something.

"Where are we?" Mia asked minutes later as they were right outside of Brentwood. "What is this place?"

"It's the cabin your dad and I own. It's where I do a lot of my songwriting or where your dad and I go for the weekend sometimes," she told her.

"How have I not known about this? Do any of the others know about this?" Mia questioned.

"I don't think so," Carrie shook her head. "We like to keep it our quiet place. Come on."

Carrie and Mia got out of the car and walked down the side of the house and into the woods in the backyard. Carrie led the way through the forest hopping over bushes and bending over to avoid tree branches up until they hit an opening where there was a creek running through the middle of the forest as a small waterfall trickled water to the left of their view.

"This place is amazing," Mia said.

"Isn't it," Carrie smirked as she took a seat on the ground, Mia following her actions.

"Why did you take me here?" Mia asked.

"I thought you might need a quiet place," the mother answered.

Mia twitched a smile to her before looking back at the waterfall, trying to enjoy the scenery instead of thinking about the reason she was here. But the thoughts just kept haunting Mia over and over again. "You know, don't you," Mia couldn't help but say.

Carrie wanted to reply "Mama always knows," only that wasn't true. She didn't always know in this situation, and that's what frightened her the most. Instead, she could only nod. Mia's eyes filled with tears, all of this being too much for her.

Mia was fighting back the tears, but she could see the pain in her mother's eyes that was caused by her, and she broke down from there. "I'm sorry, Momma," she broke down.

"Shh..." Carrie calmed her as she wrapped her daughter up in her arms. She kept thinking about holding her up like this would take all the pain away, but she knew that this wasn't the case. Her daughter was being attacked by something much stronger than she could imagine.

"I don't want to feel like this. I hate this. I hate myself. I hate my life," Mia uttered. Each word that escaped her mouth, broke Carrie a little more. She wasn't sure why she felt the way she did, and she wish she could do something to change how she felt.

"Baby, I wish I could change how you feel about yourself but I know I can't control how you feel," Carrie told her. By this point, she could no longer be the strong one for her daughter as she revealed a few tears herself. "But what I do know that I love you with everything I have, Mia. And I know your father does the same and I know your siblings do the same. I know it feels like you are living in the shadow of Jason and Molly, but you are so different from them in the best ways and you shine so bright yourself. You're smart, you never say anything bad about anyone, you have an ability to support and love your siblings through anything, and best of all you have an unimaginable faith inside you. I know some of these things you don't feel right now, but I see these things shine right through your pain every day."

"How do you do it?" Mia asked. "People criticize you every day about what you wear, how you look, or about your family, or about your singing. Yet, I have never seen you upset over it. When people do that to me, I feel completely useless."

"I get upset over it just like every other person does. There's times every now in then that I'll cry to your dad at night asking what I did to deserve it. There are going to be people and things that make you feel completely useless and make you question yourself. But you have to remember, you have a group of people that love you with absolutely everything they have. You are loved and you are cared for and I will make sure that you will never, ever forget that. Let that pain and darkness that you have in you right now, let it bring something positive because I know you all too well Mia Rose, and as soon as you do that, you are going to do such incredible things and be so happy about it the whole world is just going to light up around you."

"Maybe this was meant to happen," Mia replied looking down at the cut that was on her wrist. "Maybe I had to go through the dark to finally see the light."

"You've always been so smart," Carrie couldn't help but chuckle.

"Do you think this will scar?" Mia asked.

"I'm not sure," Carrie gently held Mia's arm, carefully running her thumb across the wound. "It honestly isn't that deep. It might have a small scar but it should heal. Can I do something?"

"What?" Mia questioned confusingly as her mother shuffled for something in her purse.

She pulled out a sharpie marker that she for some reason kept at all times. "Fans ask me to do it a lot so they can get it tattooed. Now, there is no way in heck that you are getting this tattooed, but I think it's good if you have a little encouragement for a while."

Carrie held her daughter's arm out and began writing. As the marker hit Mia's arm, her senses tingled but then settled, becoming very observant of what her mother was writing in her sloppy, yet neat penmanship.

Even through a storm on the darkest night, don't you ever give up the fight, even when you feel you're all alone...Play On.