Mistaken: The Lost Heiress

{Adelynn’s POV} Today was the day, it was finally here. I have dealt with my parent’s abuse until now, but today, I’m 18. I no longer have to stay with them, I can be free to live my own life. I’ve been dreaming of this day ever since I could remember. I stayed up until midnight, then I began executing my plan. Step one, pack up my little bag of clothes, my toothbrush, hairbrush, and the phone that I saved up and bought myself. Step two, wait for my parents to fall asleep that way I can sneak out. Step three was to get on my bicycle and finally escape this prison, but plans don’t always go how we expect them to. I put my backpack on my back, and crept out of my room making it to the front door of our apartment building. We were on the third floor, so I had to quickly run down the stairs. Sadly, as I reached the first step I felt a large, sweaty hand grab my wrist. “Where do you think you’re going?” My father slurred, he was drunk, then again he’s always drunk. “I..I..” I stammered, unable to string together a coherent sentence, or any sentence at all. “Who said that you could go anywhere?” His grip tightened around my wrist, I felt the bone begin to snap. “We raise you all these years, and the moment you turn 18 you think you can just leave? You’re ours! You aren’t going anywhere!” He began to pull me back towards the door. “No! I’m leaving! I hate you! You’re the worst father anyone could ever ask for!” I cried, clawing his arm until he let go. He turned, smacking me across the face. He sneered at me, as I fell to the ground. “You ungrateful b****! You wanna leave so bad, fine..” he said, before grabbing me by my collar. “You can leave in a body bag!” His breath was hot and heavy on my face as he threw me down the brick stairs of our apartment building. I remember hitting the first part of the stairs, the sickening crack my bones made, and the pain. Then all I remember is darkness, and silence. When I woke up, monitors were beeping loudly beside me. I felt a cold sensation in my arm, and pain overtook every other feeling I had. “Mmm..” I whimpered as I moved carefully from my place. “Doctor, she’s waking up!” A woman yelled, I heard footsteps running out of my room, then a few sets of footsteps running back in. “Hey there sweetie.. it’s okay, just hang on a second and we’ll get this right out..” A woman said softly, I felt a pulling in my throat, and I sat straight up, coughing and hacking. I opened my eyes, I could see two nurses, and a female doctor standing in front of me. My heart rate began to beep faster on the monitor as I took short deep breaths. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, calm down!” One of the nurses said, she walked over and began rubbing my back softly. I slowed my breathing down, and finally the beeping began to slow as well. “There we go..” the doctor said, walking over to me and pulling out her stethoscope. She held it to my chest, then my back as I breathed. “Alright, your lungs are clear, and your heart rate is back down to normal. So, how are you feeling?” She asked softly. “Thirsty..” I choked out, my throat sore, and dry. Thankfully, one of the nurses handed me a bottle water before they both left the room, leaving me and the doctor alone. I took a big drink of my water, and set it down on the table beside my bed. “I.. I don’t understand how I got here?” “You were brought in on an ambulance, apparently your neighbor found you at the bottom of the stairs, you must have fallen.” She said, checking over me. I tried to wrack my brain for what happened. “My parents..” I softly began. “Have they come to see me?” “Well, the people who raised you did show up. You needed a blood transfusion, your mother tried to donate but she wasn’t a match. Your father had alcohol in his system so he couldn’t donate, though we did test his blood.” She said, her voice sounding a bit off. “I..” she sighed heavily, her breath dragging on for what seemed like forever. “I’m so sorry to tell you this. Those people, they aren’t your parents. We alerted the authorities, as is standard protocol. The couple that raised you, they seemed confused, said that she did give birth and brought you home from the hospital. We’re getting the records from the hospital where you were born, and seeing if there were any other babies born around that time that you may have been switched with.” My ears were ringing, Millicent and James weren’t my parents? They raised me, if that’s what you want to call the years of torment that I had to endure. I could hear beeping once again getting louder, and nurses running back in frantically. I heard muffled voices, they were saying something, but I couldn’t understand. Until finally, my hearing began to come back, little by little. “Can you hear me? Are you okay? You have to breathe Adelynn!” The nurse was yelling right beside me. I took in a deep breath, and let out 18 years of grief, and pain. I cried, a horrible, broken sob escaping me. The nurse held me as I cried, and tried to comfort me. “Just because they aren’t your birth parents doesn’t mean they aren’t your parents if you want them to be.” The doctor said softly. I shook my head softly, and the nurse moved away from me. “I want them arrested!” I cried. “James and Millicent abused me, James was the one who threw me down the stairs!” I choked back a sob. The doctor looked taken aback, before nodding and turning, leaving me in my room with the two nurses. I cried, a sorrowful cry, and let out all of the pain and suffering I had to endure all of these years.