When I miss you

All the nurses loved her, the doctor asked what her mother would like to do with her; what else could she say? She was handcuffed to the bed, she was an inmate after all; a repeat offender and a permanent resident of the Haven Correctional Institute. Did she have a choice to begin with? Could she decide where her daughter should grow, who her friends would be, and what life she would live? What future could she promise? A life of hustle and strife? She wasn't even sure her lawyer could come through, he promised to keep fighting but who was she kidding? These things never go as planned, she braced herself for the fate she knew she had signed up for when she joined her gang.

The blame was hers to begin with; if she had only been wise and smart but who would have thought this would be her fate? Did she not have amazing parents and a family that absolutely adored her? Could she not have enjoyed this while she had, while it lasted? What was running through her mind when she said yes to Keith, she knew his reputation and everyone had said "Keith is bad news" but she wouldn't listen. Keith was all so charming and he had her wrapped around his little finger, she was practically living under his spell; it must have been because Shelly should not have fallen off like she did.

Shelly was a bright young woman growing up, everyone felt she would be the diamond of her home, her parents and everyone knew she was meant to be someone great and amazing and everything they did showed her she was no ordinary child. She had no siblings, Shelly never knew what it was like to share, she never knew what it was like to care for another, she was always by herself, pretty much kept to herself, in her very own world. She would shy away from friends and pretend to study but Shelly was anything but shy, she just couldn't bring herself to say hi, or make the first move.

She enjoyed her company, she had the toys, she had everything she ever wanted but that was never enough. Shelly knew there was a void, she felt it and her parents knew it but how could they tell her she had no siblings because they could never have kids and that she was adopted? How could they shatter her world with such news, when she felt like she was the center of their world and nothing could ever separate her from her family? What if she knew that she was adopted and that, her biological mother had given her up because she fell into the wrong company and lost her way? How could they tell her, that her mother was closer than she could ever imagine? This secret would die with them, they reasoned, and, rightly so, she was theirs as much as they were hers and nothing could change that, nothing ever would.

Her life was perfect, or so she thought. She never saw her parents fight, they seemed so in love, like nothing could ever separate them. A picture-perfect life, she was the envy of her friends and everyone wished they could just play Shelly for just a day, and maybe, they could. In the face of everything she thought was hers, Shelly knew there was something she could never have; a real family. It was not until the visit from her aunt that it hit her, what if she was really adopted? What if she didn't belong to the family she had grown to love and cherish?