A normal family life (or is it?)

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A couple of days later, I found out that me slapping Stephanie has put an end to me adopting Skye. Apparently, if I can hit Stephanie, there's a chance I could do it to Skye in the future, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I'd never hit Skye, I wouldn't even dream of it. To say I was devastated is an understatement. Skye also has to live with Stephanie because I'm "unfit" to look after her, even though Stephanie hasn't bothered with Skye for the last four years of her life. She's doing this out of spite because knows for a fact she couldn't care less about Skye and I've been more of a Mum to her than Stephanie ever will be.

Today's the day we have to hand Skye over and she doesn't want to leave us but who can blame her? She's got to go and live with her because I couldn't keep my hands to myself.

"I don't want to go" Skye sobbed.

"I know babe I know, but you have to" I cried.

"No I don't want to go Mum, you can't make me!" She sniffed.

"You have to Skye, you can't stay here" Danny told her gently.

"Why did you have to hit her?!" Skye yelled angrily.

"I feel awful about it, but we'll get you back, trust me" I promised her.

"How? They won't let me live here cause no one trusts you!" She shouted at me.

"Right come on Skye" Stephanie told her.

"Shut up. You couldn't care less about me!" Skye screamed.

"Excuse me?" She replied.

"You've only done this out of spite. You're no Mum, she's more of a Mum than you and you hated that" Skye snapped.

"You've got to stay with me, you have no choice" Stephanie sighed, as she lead Skye away.

Back at Stephanie's house.

Skye was watching T.V in the living room and Stephanie went to see if she wanted some food.

"Skye, do you want some food?" Stephanie asked,

"No, I wanna go home" Skye grumbled.

"You are at home now. You'll be living here for the next ten years and then you can do what you like" She smiled.

"I don't think so" Skye smirked.

"I've got you back, all I need to do is split your Dad and that silly slag up, then I've got my family back" She laughed.

"I wouldn't count on it" Skye answered, as she ran upstairs.

"Why's that?" She asked, as she ran after Skye.

Skye went upstairs to phone her Dad, but Stephanie pulled the phone out of her hand.

"You are not ringing him!" Stephanie shouted at her.

"Why not? He's my Dad, I only want to talk to him!" Skye yelled in her face.

"You will talk to and see him as and when I let you. You won't be seeing Tulisa ever again though. I'm not having that daft cow's poison in your head Skye. I'm your Mum, not her!" Stephanie stated.

"She's my Mum. It's up to me whether I see her!" Skye answered.

"No, you're living here so you will do as I tell you!" Stephanie argued.

"You're only my "Mum" when it suits you!" Skye argued back.

"Yeah well, I wasn't thinking straight. As soon as your Dad and her split up, we're going away and she'll never see you again. You're my daughter, it's time you and her understood that. Now go back downstairs and I'll get you some tea" Stephanie told her.

"OK" She grumbled.

Skye went back downstairs but as soon as Stephanie's back was turned, she grabbed the phone and crept back upstairs. She rung Danny, who answered a few minutes later.

"Hello?" Danny answered.

"It's me, Skye" Skye replied

"Oh hiya Skye, you OK?" Danny asked her.

"No. Stephanie said she's got me back and all she needs to do is split you and Mum up, then she has her family back. I can't stay here forever, you need to get them to change their minds about the adoption." Skye explained.

"I'll see what I can do" Danny told her.

"OK bye Dad, love you. Tell Mum I love her too" Skye smiled.

Skye put the phone down, then grabbed her coat and sneaked out the back door. She's serious about not living here so it's time to show it...

It took a couple of hours before Stephanie actually realised Skye had vanished. She phoned Danny and asked if he'd seen her, but he didn't answer, I did.

"Have you seen Skye?" Stephanie asked.

"Why have you lost her already? I always knew you were a useless parent, you've only had her two hours!" I laughed.

"I'm not messing about, have you seen Skye or not?" She demanded.

"No I haven't" I snapped, putting the phone down.

"T?" Danny called over to me.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"We've got an eight year old visitor" Danny smiled.

"Skye, what are you doing here?" I asked her.

"I can't stay there, I don't want to!" Skye sobbed.

"You've got to do for now sweetheart, it won't be forever" I reassured her.

"I hate it there" She sniffed.

"I know you do babe, we hate having to send you there but listen to me, if the social services find out you're here, we can get into a lot of trouble with the police so I'm going to have to take you back to Stephanie's house" Danny explained.

"No I don't want to! I want to live here!" Skye yelled at us.

"Yeah, well at the minute, you can't!" I snapped at her.

"Yeah because you couldn't keep your hands to yourself!" She screamed.

"How many times do I have to say sorry for that?" I questioned.

"You can say it all you like. You'll never get to adopt me now" Skye mumbled.

"There must be a way I can still adopt her? She hasn't bothered with Skye, or us to even let us know where she's been staying for the last four years, then she turns up out the blue and turns everything upside down? There must surely be something we can do?" I asked Danny.

"I'll get onto it and see what we can do. I mean, normally if a step parent wants to adopt, you need both the child's birth parents' permission but I think if one of them doesn't see the child for a certain period of time, you don't need their permission to adopt them and you can do it with just the parent's permission who's looked after the child. That's just what I've read anyway" Danny explained.

"Right, well Skye needs to go back to her now anyway so you drop her off and then we'll talk about it later?" I suggested.

"OK, say bye to your Mum, Skye" Danny told her.

"Bye Mum" Skye grinned, hugging me tightly.

"Bye sweetheart" I sobbed.

I watched as Danny lead Skye down the garden path and into the car. I feel awful for putting Skye through all this but I have realised one thing; Skye sees me as her Mum and I'll always love her. I know I shouldn't have hit Stephanie but it was a spur of the moment thing but now we've lost Skye and we might never get her back.

About twenty minutes later, Danny had taken Skye back to Stephanie's and he was back home with me. We were talking about what we can do and we decided to do some research into adopting her without Stephanie's permission as I've been Skye's Mum for the last four years and she hasn't seen her at all during that period of time. We realised it is possible, but with the courts permission...