Sacred New Beginnings

Chapter 18 - You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home

April 30th 2016

Taylor had everyone she could get out looking for Bella and everyone else promised to keep an eye out, but by the time it starts to get dark they have to give up. The singer is terrified and incredibly upset so when they get back to the apartment, Karlie calls the police to report Bella missing and within a half hour security are escorting two female detectives from the 99th precinct upstairs to gather as much information about Bella as they can.

"Miss Swift?" Taylor looks up from her focus on the hardwood floor as she hears the voice and she stands to greet them. "I'm detective Santiago and this is detective Diaz, we need to ask you a few questions about your Foster daughter." The singer nods as she gives them a sad smile, motioning for them to sit, "thank you for coming out so late, we wanted to try and find Isabella ourselves first."

Karlie sits by her best friend's side, she's been through so much lately and the model doesn't know if Taylor could handle losing Bella too. "To start off with I need to ask you to describe Isabella so that we can issue a missing person's report," Taylor nods as the gentler of the two gives her a comforting smile, "she's around 5'3 and 115lbs with long brown hair and brown eyes and she's six months pregnant so we need her home safe." Taylor can't stop her tears, she loves Bella more than anything and she needs her little girl to come home.

The detectives nod, "Ma'am, would there have been any reason for Isabella to run away from home?" The singer sighs, "she might have overheard an argument I had with my... with Adam earlier on today. I recently had a miscarriage and he blamed it on Bella and claimed that she causes me too much stress and that's why it happened." Taylor feels sick just repeating those words and Karlie squeezes her hand tight, "but that's not true, Bella is the light of my life. She was in an abusive foster home when we met and I fostered her four months ago and she has always been happy here, but she's vulnerable and she's been through a lot and Adam didn't like sharing my attention."

Taylor drops her head and both detectives can see how worried and heartbroken she is about this whole situation, and Taylor can't help blaming herself. If she hadn't forced herself to try and make things work with Adam she could've saved them all this pain and hassle. "We know this is hard, ma'am, but we need a picture of Bella for the missing person's," Detective Diaz speaks up for the first time and Karlie squeezes Taylor's hand, "I'll find one." The singer nods and squeezes her hand back before letting go and Karlie leaves the room.

Fiddling with her sleeves, Taylor takes a deep breath and looks up to the two detectives in front of her, "Bella has been through so much and I couldn't live with myself if she gets hurt because of someone I brought into her life. Please, bring my girl home." She's trying to stop her tears, picking at the chipped nail polish on her fingers. "We have officers out looking for her right now, ma'am, we will bring your daughter home safe," the younger looking of the two gives her a calm smile.

All Taylor can do is pray that they're right. She needs Bella to come home, she needs to know that her little girl is safe.

---

Bella doesn't know what she was thinking by walking away from Taylor's apartment - she just had to get away from there because she couldn't breathe. She was just so overwhelmed by the fear that all of this could've been her fault and she needed a minute to breathe. Now she knows Taylor is going to be mad at her for leaving and not telling her, she's going to be so upset.

"I'm sorry, baby boy, I'm so sorry I dragged you into all of this," she sighs as she holds a hand to her stomach, it's dark and it's getting late. She knows she should just go home, but she's not used to this part of the city and she wasn't really paying attention when she was walking, so now she has no idea where she is.