The Truth About My Baby Girl (ON HOLD)

The Letter

It had been 3 years, 357 days, 12 hours and 17 minutes since that agonizing moment.

3 years, 357 days, 12 hours and 17 minutes since her Mum had told her that her beautiful baby girl was dead. At first she thought she had misheard, that surely it couldn't be true. It took her Mum coming to the side of her bed, holding her hand and repeating those words 4-5 times for the fact she wasn't going to be a Mum for the second time.

Leela. She's gone, she didn't make it.

Those seven simple words that meant so much. The first time she found out she was pregnant 14 years ago, she was still in school, her boyfriend Cameron had just been arrested for armed robbery and her Mum was furious. Yet, being the determined, brave girl she was, she had already decided that she was keeping her baby and she was going to be the best Mum she could be. Her baby was the only thing she had of Cam, aside from a bunch of photos of them together on her phone. However, her mum was stubborn and always got exactly what she wanted, at the time what she wanted happened to be Leela's unborn baby.

(Flashback)

"I have spoken with your Dad and you have two options if you want to have this baby. One: you give it up for adoption. Or two: your Dad and I raise the baby as our own, we provide for it and you go to school, university and get a job and no-one ever finds out the truth, not Cameron, not the baby, nobody. I will give you some time to think everything through and then you can let me know what you have decided, if you don't like either option, then I'll take you to get it terminated and we will forget all about this... You have until the end of the week." Her Mum had told her, she couldn't believe her Mum, sure she was only 14 herself but her Mum couldn't seriously expect her to kill her baby, she would rather die herself than kill her baby, even giving it away, she couldn't think about it. Her baby waking up every day, growing up with some other people telling him/her that they're he/she's Mummy and Daddy. She looked up at her Mum as she walked away and did the only thing she could to be a part in her baby's life. "Mum...I'll do it. I'll let you and Dad raise the baby. But I do have a couple of conditions. I get to pick the name, you tell me anything that happens in its life and I get to see her whenever I want. Please..." She had made that deal to be a part of her baby's life, knowing her Mum and Dad would take good care of her precious baby. "Okay. You're doing the right thing." That was all her Mum had uttered before making her way out of the front door.

Her first child turned out to be a gorgeous little girl that she named Peri Jade Lomax. Her second child didn't even get an hour. Nine months waiting to meet her baby girl and she didn't even live for an hour, the doctors didn't even allow her to hold the baby before whisking her away and telling her that her beautiful baby girl was dead.

Leela's P.O.V

It's now January 2015, seven months since I told Peri that I am her real Mum and she met her real Dad. It has also been seven months since my Mum and Dad died in a car crash on their way to get Peri, my sister Tegan and her now two year old daughter Rose, to take them to live in New Zealand.

"Mum, can I go round to Tom's for a bit?" Mum. I loved it when she called me that. After hearing my baby girl call someone else Mum every day since she learned to talk, I couldn't help but feel instantly happier every time I heard her address me as her Mum. "Mum?"

"Sorry, yeah, of course just be back before lunch okay?"

"Ok thanks Mum. See you later" She replied hugging me before running out of the house.

Ten minutes later and I am bored out of my mind, Peri's at Tom's, Cameron's at work, Texan's shopping with Rose and Ste's god knows where with John Paul. I swear since they got married, I haven't seen him for more than a couple of hours a week, when he comes for more clothes or to bring Leah and Lucas round for a bit.

I go upstairs to take a shower only to realize there's no conditioner left, and for the first time since they died, I cross the hall to Mum and Dad's room to see if Mum left any in there. There isn't any on her drawers or on her desk, so I begin to look through the drawers. After looking for a few minutes, being the impatient person I am, I start to close the drawer to move on to the next one when I see an envelope with my name scrawled across the front. I free it from the drawer and pull the paper out of the envelope and begin to read:

Leela,

I am so, so sorry for the things I have done. But please believe me when I say that I never meant to cause you any pain through my actions. I will never forgive myself for the things I have done and the way I have acted towards you since that day when you came home and told me you were pregnant with Peri. But I need you to know that I fully regret my actions when you told me about your second pregnancy with little Emma Grace, when you were 23. At the time I was under a lot of pressure and I was in a bad place. I know you're probably going to hate me forever, and honestly, I don't blame you in the slightest for it. But you need to know that Emma is alive and is living in foster care on the other side of Chester. Her address is 18 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD. I can only apologize a certain number of times. But I am truly sorry.

All My Love Mum xxx

My baby is alive and I am going to find her and bring her home. And I am going to do it as soon as possible.