Forbidden

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Wow! This is your house?" Mariana asked as she hopped out of Stef's car still tightly holding her doll from Lena as Stef came around with the bags. "Yes, it is ours now. You, me, and Mama".

Stef began to lead her to the door but when she looked back Mariana was still just looking around the yard in the house. "I've never been in a house this large that wasn't a group home. I still can't believe that this is real life".

Stef sat the bags down by the door and went over to the little girl. "Well believe it Miss Thang". Stef knelt down to her level, "If we are being honest. I can't believe it either. It has been a very hard and sad couple of weeks without your smiling face, my love. In fact, I know of one person in particular who has taken it pretty rough. I think that you might know her. Tall, pretty, really cool curly hair." A smile grew on both of their faces as Mariana ran inside of the house.

"Mama! Mama!" Mariana ran through the entire downstairs happy as can be. But instead of bumping into Lena she ran into Dana and Sharon. She gave her Gram a big hug as Sharon introduced herself as her grandmother. After being told that Lena was upstairs, Mariana ran right up stairs with the other three women right behind her. "Mama, I'm home!" Mariana saw the light on in one of the rooms and ran right to it. The little girl became so overwhelmed with emotion as she looked at what she could tell was her room. There were pink walls, beautiful dolls, and it felt like a room fit for a princess. Then right there in her bed was Lena fast asleep.

"Awe, she wanted to come up here to make sure everything was perfect for you", Sharon explained. "She must have fallen asleep from all of the excitement" Dana chimed in. "Go ahead honey, do you want to wake her up?" Mariana smiled and kissed Lena's cheek. "No it's ok. I will see her in the morning."

After that Sharon and Dana decided to leave and let the girls get comfortable with each other, even though Stef tried to convince them to stay in one of the extra rooms.

So now it was just Mariana and Stef left there to bond. After realizing that Mariana was probably starving Stef heated up tons of the left over spaghetti that Lena made the other night. Stef wasn't much of the cook so she was extremely thankful that she had someone who was. But when they both were still hungry after polishing off the spaghetti, Stef decided that ice cream and cookies would suffice; and Mariana definitely was not going to protest.

As the night went on they found themselves watching princess movies, snuggled up on the couch. The movie "Tangled" was just about over when Stef noticed the solemn expression on her face. "What's wrong Miss Thang? You didn't like the movie?" Mariana wiped a small tear that fell and leaned into Stef even closer. "What's wrong sweetheart?" Stef asked worried lifting her up across her lap. "It's just, she's like me. She didn't have a family or anyone to love her. She was all alone. She had to take care and protect herself. Every time she thought something good was happening, something ruined it". Tears continued to fall as Stef rocked her. "No one ever loved me after my mom died until I found Lena. Lena feels like home; you and Lena are my home. I don't want anyone to try to ruin that again. How do I know that they won't take me away and bring me somewhere even worse".

"My girl. I am so sorry you had to go through that. I wish Lena and I were there in your life much sooner. But I promise you that as long as we are here, no one is going to take you away from as again. You are our daughter now. We will always love and protect you. Ok? Always".

After that the two got ready for bed. They decided to let Lena sleep and instead Mariana was more than willing to take her place in her and Stef's bed.

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The next morning Lena woke up in a fog. She was slightly confused about her surroundings but quickly realized where she was as she began to full wake up. Looking around she didn't see Mariana and she began to believe that last night was all a dream and her heart sunk. Knowing that she didn't have anymore sick days to use at work, she made her way into her bedroom to get ready. She saw a figure tucked away under the blankets, and still half asleep she assumed that is was Stef.