Adopted by Superfruit *ANCIENTLY OLD*

Epilogue

I got out of Scott's car, standing about thirty feet away from the front doors of the prison. Nearly a year ago, my dad was put in prison. I wanted to visit him to see if he was fine. Sure, he caused me a lot of pain, but part of me still cared about him. "You going to be okay, Care?" Scott's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah. I'll be fine, Dad. If by some random happenstance I do get hurt, tell Amari I won't be going to her place tomorrow." Scott fondly rolled his eyes at me. "And that's the most important thing in the world, huh?" I nodded just to mock him. "I'm just going to visit my dad, okay? Nothing else." Scott just grinned.

"I know. I'm just giving you a hard time." Scott wrapped his arm around my slender shoulders as he walked me to the front door. "I know. See you soon, Dad." I waved back at Scott before he turned away to wait in the car until my visit was done. I found the front desk, where a middle-aged woman with graying black hair was typing something on her computer.

"Um, excuse me?" I tried getting her attention. She peered over to me behind her black-framed glasses. "Oh, what can I do for you, dear?" She asked me kindly. "Uh, I'd like to visit Marshall Ellstrom." I stated my business rather sheepishly. "Of course. Just wait a moment." She turned away and spoke into a walkie-talkie type device.

"We have a visitor for Marshall Ellstrom." She spoke into it rather coldly, compared to the tone she was using with me. "Now just walk over there, and sit in the chair across from where he is placed. First, I need you to sign this paper before you can continue." She handed me some sort of identification form and a pen.

I sat on the bench across the room, and started to fill it out. First, Full Name. Easy. I quickly jotted down Caroline Iris Hoying. I had my name changed about three months after Scott won the custody case because I asked. I didn't really feel like I was his daughter due to the fact I had a different last name than he did.

Then it asked for my date of birth, May 10th, 2001, my gender, female, any medical conditions I had, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, ethnicity, caucasian, and my relation. What should I have put? Friend? Daughter? Niece? I sighed, putting down biological daughter. I handed the paper back to the woman.

"Alright dear, you can go now." She waved me off, so I went to find my dad. He sat at the fifth one, being blocked off from my contact behind thick acrylic. He stared at me with an empty expression as I sat in the chair across from him, setting my arms on the wooden table. He picked up the phone thing attatched to the wooden divider to his left, and I did the same.

"Hey." He said first. "Hi." I said back, not having anything else to say. "Did you dye your hair?" My father finally said after a silent minute. "Uh, n-no. It's natural." My hair naturally darkened to a gorgeous shade of red in the past year. I was thankful to have a little seperating trait from my mother. Other than my hair, I was like her little clone.

"Oh. Well, it looks nice." He complimented me. I said nothing, just looking down at the table. "Caroline, I'm sorry. For everything. I should've just accepted you because you're the most wonderful daughter I could've asked for. But I didn't, and I sincerely apologize for that." One side of my mouth almost curled in a smile, but I forced it to be still.

"I'm not sure if I'm ready to forgive you yet, but I'm willing." I replied meekly. "I understand. What I put you and your mother through is truly unforgiveable. Next time you see her, can you tell her I love her?" I nodded. "Yeah, I will." Another bout of silence loomed over us again. "I changed my last name to Hoying." I informed him to break the silence.

"I thought you would. Caroline Iris Hoying... it has a nice ring to it. You never really seemed like an Ellstrom, anyway." I smiled awkwardly in reply. "I hope you had a good birthday." He brought up out of the blue. "I did. We were still on tour, and we happened to be in Japan at the time, so it was really great." I smiled to myself just remembering it.

"That's good." Yet again, another silence. "I think I'll go now..." My dad dipped his head. "Yeah. Goodbye, Caroline. I love you." I stood up, but before I left, I said, "I love you, too. Bye." I put the phone thing back on the rack, and started to leave. I looked back to see two police officers behind the window, basically breathing down my dad's neck.

I sighed, but continued on my way. I left the doors, and got back in the car. "How was it?" Scott questioned me immediately. "Better than I expected. A little awkward, but still." Scott patted my shoulder. "Well, as long as you're happy." I smiled back at him.

It wasn't until after Scott adopted me, that I learned something about life. Maybe it's not about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better.

~The End~