FULL CIRCLE

Moving in

After an emotional couple of hours, Leah sat down with Dinah, telling her how Brad had approached her on Face book, telling her he knew her parents, and had agreed to meet him at her mother's restaurant. When Camila and Sofie scolded her about meeting strangers online, Lauren came to her defense and pointed out she was smart for arranging the meeting where Camila could watch over her.

The adults were currently arguing about what to do now that they had evidence of Brad breaking the law by being in the presence of a minor. He was a registered sex offender, and Dinah was already putting in a call to his parole officer while they argued over security for both houses.

"You should go lay down honey, you don't have to be involved with this process." Camila gently told a puffy eyed Leah. Finding out all that she did, the women knew had to be trying for the teenager. No one who ever wanted to know their father dreamed that they would be told they were a rapist. A dead beat sure, but not a rapist.

"I want to be involved. He did this horrible thing to my mother, and I'm the product of that. I'm alive because of his evil, but I'm also alive because my birth mother was amazing. I want to do this for her. I need to." Leah mumbled, casting a guilty look at Lauren.

Lauren, seeing the shame and guilt in her eyes said, " Hey. What he did to me, that has nothing to do with you. I would have loved to lie to you about him, and tell you all these made up but wonderful stories so that you wouldn't feel the way you're feeling. But I can't because once you knew my name, you could have googled me and found out all of this on your own, and the last thing I wanted was for you to find out that way. You deserved the truth and I told you, but don't go feeling sorry for me or regretting the wonderful life I gave you. I would do it all over again. I was lucky to have something beautiful come out of something so horrible. I don't regret having you, and I never will. So if you need to go and sort through all that you learned today, no one, and I mean no one will think lowly of you. I didn't go through with having you and giving you to a loving family so you could carry his shame. You Leah Michelle Cabello, come from a loving family, and that's all anyone even you needs to know."

Leah nodded, tears leaking from her eyes that she quickly wiped away. "I guess laying down for a little while would be okay. You'll still be here?" she asked shyly, not wanting her mother to leave so soon.

Lauren gave her a soft smile, and said, "I'll still be here. I just have to call my mom and let her know whats going on."

Leah nodded and hugged Camila and Sofie, saving Lauren last so she could savor being in her arms before going up the stairs, sadly subdued.

"Is she going to be okay? I feel horrible for leaving tomorrow when so much has happened." Sofie mumbled, worried as she watched Leah disappear up the stairs.

Camila sighed, going back to the couch and cuddling with her best friend Ally for a moment as she thought of her answer.

"You have to go Sofie. One because I can't afford for you to be failing classes, and two because you worked hard to be there and Leah understands that. She had me and Lauren, we'll make sure she is okay." Camila assured her worried sister.

Sofie was about to protest, when Lauren shot Camila a worried look as she asked,"Are you paying for her college? At Georgia tech?"

Camila frowned replying,"I have to. I adopted her so she didn't qualify for financial aid. It's not that bad though, the house and cars are already paid for thankfully. I just had to pay my student loans back, and Sofie didn't qualify with mine already there, so I paid mine off so she was able to get one, and I've been making payments every month while putting some money aside for Leah. She want's to go to an art school in San Francisco and it's a bit expensive. I have the restaurant, and the life insurance from our parents, but I used the insurance to pay off the rest of the house and cars."