I was never so happy to be safe and sound in the arms of a familiar face. I was damn near crying like a baby because of the awesome feeling of calm.

  "I knew you wouldn't give up!" I said ecstatic as I hugged her around the waist.

  "Are you kidding me? I was on the trail from the moment they pulled off!" Regan said with a smile.

That kinda struck a cord with me because she was all alone and I never saw her make a call to anyone when everything went down. How was it even possible for her to find me? Where was her car? There's no way in hell she was parked in front of the station that whole time. Was it? She could tell from the look on my face that I was trying to figure everything out.

  "I was wearing a wire kid." She giggled.

  "Oh! Well that makes sense." I said to her before hugging her again.

It was a joyous moment but after a few seconds it was just that. A moment. The sound of the safety clicking took the joy out of our moment. I let Regan go and was face to face...or should I say.....face to gun to face with psycho Susie. Who is psycho Susie you ask? Well enter stage left Melissa Hughes and her delusional fantasy of being my birth mother. Let's give her a round of applause! HA! SIKE! I wouldn't give that bald headed bitch a cold! Regan didn't waste a second to push me behind her back for protection in the event this crazy cow with a sew in pixie cut tried something funny.

  "You are not taking my child away from me!" She shouted at Regan as she kept the gun raised and her finger on the trigger.

Regan shook her head and slowly raised her hands in the air.

  "Melissa listen to me. You don't want to do this. You're a smart woman and I want to help you. You've been put into a bad situation because Dwayne gave you a bad plan that he thought would get you your sister's little girl back to you."

  "NO! Not my sister! Mine! My! Child!" She screamed.

  "Melissa. Your sister Maya trusted you. She died believing that you didn't take her baby girl away from her. I bet she came to you about Dwayne didn't she?"

Melissa's anger changed to confusion as Regan began to bring up the grim details about the man she was screwing.

  "Dwayne is not who you think he is. He raped your sister."

  "No." She whispered to herself.

  "Sweetie yes he did. He raped her and she tried to come to you about it. But Dwayne wouldn't let her."

  "You're a liar. He wouldn't.....she could have-"

  "I can't lie about something he admitted to Melissa. He raped her and when she tried to come to you he chased her to her death. Maya needed her sister. She needed you and you weren't there for her. But Maya was always there for you even when you had your miscarriage. She was there for you."

Melissa's face was streaming with tears and she started to slowly lower the gun at her side.

  "My sister told me that she would give me a baby. We had planned everything. But then she got pregnant with her own! She got selfish! And she snatched my dreams of ever being a mother away from me! So I took my chance and snatched her dream away from her! I inflicted the same pain on her the same way she did me! Am I proud of it? No. Carlyn is my child! I deserved to have her! Not my sister!"

I couldn't stop crying behind Regan as she talked about what she did to my mom and what had transpired after my abduction. It was hard to hear all of that and know that Dwayne raping my mom actually happened. What's even more troublesome was that he was about to do the same thing....to me.

  "Melissa Maya loved you. She cherished your and the bond that you had! She talked about being with you and spending time with you everyday Melissa! She died with a broken heart and afraid but she knew she trusted you and believed in your innocence. You would do all of this to hurt the one person that loved you unconditionally?"

  "IM SORRY!" She shouted as loud as she could as she began to cry even harder.

  "You should have apologized while she was alive. It's not gonna make much of a difference now. Maya....Maya is gone. And she's never coming back. Now tell me.....was all of this worth it! Was all of this....worth spending the rest of your life....in jail?"

Just then Melissa snapped.

  "IM GONNA KILL YOU BITCH!" She screamed pointing the gun at us.

Just when she was about to pull the trigger my instincts took over and I jumped out in front of Regan.

  "MOM NO!"

The room went silent. Melissa couldn't believe what I said. Hell I couldn't believe what I said. I just called this bitch....my mom! Just saying it out loud again almost made me throw up in my mouth! Uugggg!

  "Wh-what did you say?" She stammered out dropping the gun down slowly once again.

I had to now come up with a story so convincing that it would score me an oscar nod. Maybe even a daytime Emmy. Grab your tissues and bonbons bitches and move over The Young and the Restless! Carlyn Nelson is coming to clean house!

  "Mama....let her go." I said as I tried to muster up a few tears.

  "Carly? What are you doing?" Regan asked.

  "Shut up! Leave my daughter alone!" Melissa snapped.

  "Mom it's alright! Don't....don't worry about her. She's not important. I'm.....I'm here now so....let's just...go home. Yeah! Let's go home and be a family. That's what you want right! Me and you to be together? Right?"

My lifetime acting although lame as it was worked like a charm. Melissa believed me and dropped the gun on the floor after putting the safety on and extended her hand to me. Just when I went to reach a swarm of police came busting through the door subduing Melissa and reading her the Miranda rights. Another couple of cops cuffed and carried Dwayne out to an ambulance to get checked out for the knot on the back of his head then to jail. I looked at Regan and smiled and she smiled back.

  "I can't believe you." She giggled.

  "What?" I asked.

  "You called her-"

  "DONT! Say it......uggggh I think I'm gonna puke."

Regan laughed as we went out side and were met with a black car.

  "Who shows up to a crime scene in a fancy car?" I asked looking at the car as if a celebrity was inside.

Well there was a celebrity inside. A reinforced heel wearing high pitched squealing celebrity. The door swung open and out popped my dad. Boy was I happy to see him. When his eyes fell on me I couldn't tell if he was mad or happy to see me.  We walked towards each other and we were silent at first. I think he was pissed. When that eyebrow goes up and he cuts that side eye at me that always means I'm probably never seeing the outside of Paisley Park's gates ever again. I dropped my head to break eye contact before giving him my explanation.

  "Daddy I- I'm sorry. There's just so much about what happened before my adoption that I didn't know and you wouldn't tell me. I was tired of being treated like you were trying to hide my past life from me! I wanted to help them get caught so I can live my life with you and Joey. I wasn't trying to-"

  "Carlyn!" He said interrupting me and scaring me out of my skin.

  "Skipper? Before you chew her head off just....hear her out." Regan said coming to my defense.

My dad just shook his head and raise a hand to her.

  "I heard enough. I'm just glad you're ok. Now....I believe you owe me something."

  "Dad I said I was sorry I-"

  "I know that but you never gave me a hug and my I love you." He said with a smile.

He smile was so big and bright it made me happy to see him happy. I crashed into him and Higgs him tighter than I did at Christmas.

  "I love you dad." I said to him while listening to the sound of his heartbeat.

  "I love you too kid." He replied and kissed me three times on my forehead.

This was all I thought about when I was tied up in that chair. We didn't leave the scene but I was already at home.