MANNY©

Chapter 53

Tyler stood there staring at the bodies of the fat man and a barely alive Gertrude. His breath was labored while he focused on them. Todd carefully walked up to his son and eased the gun from his grasp. He wiped it clean, turned on the safety, and hid it in the back pocket of his jeans. Edward noticed that the woman was still grasping for air was Gertrude. "E-Edward. Edward, h-h-help me. Please." She coughed and choked out. Edward looked down at her before looking at a lifeless Maddy and the scared child now tightly holding onto her. "What happened to you? What happened to Maddy?" He asked, stepping up closer before he watched Tyler move closer to stare at her.

"I got shot by the fat man." She struggled to say. "What happened to Maddy, Gertie?" Edward demanded from her while she coughed more. "It wasn't my fault. She hit me." Gertrude whined then choked and coughed again before continuing to speak. "I got angry for her hitting my face so I choked her." Edward's eyes went wide as he stared at his ex-wife.

"She ruined my beautiful face, Edward. She almost took off my head with a huge piece of wood." She cried as her breathing was shaky. Tyler was already beyond numb when he heard what the woman confessed. With a broken heart, he moved to the bed where the baby girl was protectively holding his unconscious daughter. He watched the child's eyes remain focused on him. Tyler tried to hold Maddy's body while being careful of the girl clinging so desperately to her.

"Maddy, wake up. Wake up, baby. It's daddy." He said to her in a hoarse tone of voice. Tyler began to cry as he kissed her forehead. Maddy struggled to open her eyes and cough, willing herself to wake up.  "Daddy?" She finally spoke in a soft, weak tone. "Maddy." Sunny spoke in a broken accent. Maddy glanced from her dad to Sunny while reaching out to hold her tiny hand.

 "Di-chun sabai dee, Sunny (I am fine, Sunny)." Maddy said before looking back at Tyler. "Daddy," Maddy said in a weak voice as tears filled her eyes. "This is my Sunny." She then looked back at the little girl to talk to her. "Sunny, this my phor(father). He's a good phor, Sunny." Tyler helped her sit up, causing her to look at Gertrude and the fat man both on the ground.

Gertrude was struggling to stay alive. "Daddy, the bookbag is under the pillow. She told him.  Todd grabbed the bookbag when Tyler started to speak in an eerie whisper. "Let's get you and Sunny out of here. Dad, why don't you and Avery take the girls out to the car." Todd picked up Maddy while Avery had a protective hold onto Sunny before leaving in hurry.

Edward stood beside Tyler, both men's faces were filled with disgust.  "Gertrude, I want you to know that I divorced you some time ago. You are no longer my wife. Goodbye." Edward told her, looking down at her before he glanced at Tyler. "Tyler, I know they let us handle everything once we found Maddy but I'm sure they're wondering what's taking so long. So, I'll keep the police busy until you finish." Edward said before turning to leave. 

"W-what! Edward, what are you talking about? Edward? Edward! Ed-." Gertrude began before a hand silenced her. Her eyes glanced over to see Tyler Sumner squatting down and his hand clamped over her mouth. She stared at his face seeing his emotions cast a dark cloud over his features. His blue eyes darkened to a shade of black. "You bitch." He said to her in a calm tone. "You have my daughter kidnapped because somewhere in that twisted brain of yours you couldn't accept my son. Your sorry ass son lost a great woman and two great kids." He made sure the last thing she saw was his hate for her. 

"When they became mine that meant they were MY family. They were off-limits to the likes of you.  When I found out what you did, I wanted to do to you what I did to your bitch ass son. But that nasty fuck over there beat me to it." He told her before a small smirk appeared upon his lips. "Don't worry, Gertie. I'll give you a special parting gift for trying to hurt my family and almost breaking me." He softly said to her before raising his other hand up. "Since you almost succeeded in taking my world from me, I am going to succeed in taking you from this world." He placed his free hand over her nose then proceeded to press down, making sure there was no way for her to breathe.

Tyler felt her struggle in a weak movement while he continues to talk to her. "I'm glad my baby got a good punch in. I don't want her to be a person who's violent, hateful, and vindictive. But when someone hurts those you love or tries to hurt you, then you do what you have to do. So do I." He said before she stopped struggling for good. Gertrude's heart stopped from a mixture of the bullets in her and the extra help from Tyler. He watched her eyes close one final time. Tyler let go and stood up to see Edward walked in with the suitcases that were filled with the eight million and four million, a private cleaning team, and a body bag.

Thanks to Todd's and Edward's deep connections and the money that the fat man and Gertrude brought with them, that place was coming down. They gave the money to those who helped them and thanked them for the quick service. Hours later, Edward, Todd, Avery, and Tyler safely had Maddy and Sunny with them aboard Edward's private plane. Maddy explained what she went through to when she met Sunny. 

 Even how she understood everything they said. She became sad when she talked about what she would hear the kids going through. Maddy told them how some dealt with what happened to them after. That some ended their lives or damaged themselves to where they were thrown out and left to die. It was why the blond man was so excited to get money from selling her. Gertie and the fat man didn't know that the blond man planned to take the money from them both and end up, setting them up for the fall. He was ready to take all the money and go somewhere far away.

 Edward and Todd made sure with their connections that all the red tape was cut through so Tyler and Rachael could smoothly adopt Sunny. It was taken care of without Rachael being there before they left the country. Edward gladly liquidated a huge portion of one of Gertrude's accounts later in trusts to the remaining children and to amnesty international. It was just the beginning of good fortune coming their way for letting Sunny leave legally. He was glad to get rid of the money since it was from Gertrude's trust fund anyway.

Maddy and Sunny were cleaned in the airplane bathroom and fed before they settled down to snuggle with Tyler. Everyone slept, except Tyler. He was afraid to close his eyes. Thinking that Maddy would be a dream. He sat and watched them both sleep on his lap, glad to be heading home with little girl Maddy and a brand new daughter.