[soft acoustic music]
ALICIA (VOICEOVER): My name is Alicia.
And I'm 29 years old.
A new call came in.
Uh-huh?
Between 8:00 and 10:00 on Monday.
So make sure you put it on the board, and the date,
so we don't forget it.
(SLURRING) My family owns a successful plumbing business.
My parents work their asses off.
They built their business from the ground up.
I want to call Quincy Street when you're on your way there.
She's always been good with people.
She's smart. She's street smart.
She knows how to talk to people.
She does it really, really well.
I want Alicia as my business partner, my eyes, my ears,
so I can retire with my wife one day, because that's
the type of person that she is.
She knows how to run a plumbing business when she's straight.
Do you want coffee?
Because I'm gonna make coffee.
No thank you.
ALICIA: I need coffee.
I am 100% a heroin addict.
My number two drug of choice is Xanax.
GINA: Alicia gets her money by stealing from her family.
Anything that got left around gets taken.
If my parents don't give me money to buy drugs,
I have to go and I have to boost, which is steal.
And that was just from one store today.
It's so painful to watch Alicia in this, this condition,
just deteriorating.
This is not fun for me.
This is not what I want my life to be anymore.
I want to be a normal person.
We pictured Alicia's future much
differently for her than this.
That's for sure.
[happy acoustic music]
I was 16 when Alicia was born.
And, you know, she was cute and she was funny.
Her actual father wasn't around.
And it was very difficult to be left there alone
with the newborn, but she was a very
smart from the very beginning.
JOE: I met Gina and Alicia when Alicia was nine months old,
and we just hit it off.
From that moment on, we never looked back.
I have nothing but respect for him,
for the way he treats Alicia.
He's a better father to her than most
real fathers are to their kids.
ALICIA: I wouldn't even call him a stepdad.
I called Joe my dad.
He is my dad and the other guy is just a sperm donor.
DANNY: Her biological father wasn't
a good person whatsoever, in no shape, way, or form.
As a child I had a very, very good upbringing.
I had very loving parents.
JOE: We had Alicia in dance, gymnastics.
She excelled in karate.
She won trophies, she won competitions.
She excelled at whatever she did.
I remember Alicia handing out flyers
in front of our local supermarket just
to help me build my business.
When she was 10, I would take her on jobs with me.
That's how Alicia really took interest
in the plumbing business.
GINA: Oh, she's always been good with people.
She's smart. She's friendly.
She's interested.
It was a gift that she had, but Alicia
always struggled in school.
By the time she got to middle school, she was behind.
When she was about 15 years old, things started to change.
We thought that she was just kind
of going through something.
She moved her room into the basement for herself.
She stopped sitting at the dinner table.
I thought it was like just normal teenage stuff, you know?
But then I found out what the hell is going on here.
As a child, my grandmother had always tried to reconnect
me with my biological father.
Behind our backs, my mother would tell Alicia
that he's been looking for her or trying
to get in touch with her.
So I went and I met with him at 16,
and I gave him a chance to be a part of my life.
I think she was trying to hurt Joe because Joe was trying so
hard to have a different kind of life for us,
and that was never done for her.
So I think she was-- she was a little bit resentful
and was just trying to pull the rug out from under him,
and this is the result.
I think she's a selfish person.
I really do.
It was very, very hurtful.
We felt very disrespected.
She always tried to bring him into my life.
I did not introduce Alicia to her biological father
without Gina and Joe knowing.
The only times she saw him, they knew.
As far as sneaking her to see him-- never, not even once did
I do that.
Never.
I try and look at it from my grandmother's side,
and at this point, I've just come to the conclusion
that my grandmother is not a nice person.
I think, when Alicia met her father, it confused her.
She had a picture of what a father really is, which is Joe,
and her biological father was far from it.
And I think it threw her off track.
When I first started hanging out with my father at 16,
he was kind of like playing that cool friend role.
He was letting me and my friends come hang out,
let us have the place all to ourselves.
When Alicia got to high school,
she started hanging out with kids that weren't so great.
She was cutting out of school.
She was getting picked up.
She was getting into all kinds of trouble.
He turned out to be a really nice guy.
We were in love.
And this guy, he introduced me to cocaine.
When I first started using, it wasn't a problem.
It wasn't addiction.
It was just a once in a while fun thing.
When she decided to drop out, we were upset.
But we weren't that upset because she had
already had another interests.
She went right to the family business,
so she was taking care of her future.
And she said she loved that.
JOE: She could run my business one day.
When Alicia's completely sober, in a right frame of mind,
that girl could take on the world.
The signs that things were starting to go bad,
I hadn't seen right away.
By the time I knew something was really wrong, it was bad.
Money started disappearing.
I thought I was being careless.
The jewelry, she was taking a little bit at a time
so it wasn't that noticeable.
Alicia sold every piece of jewelry I ever bought my wife,
even her engagement ring.
And then I finally realized that she
was a full blown drug addict.
When I first knew for sure that Alicia was using heroin
is because she OD'd on the street.
I drove over there and then I saw her in the ambulance.
And they were trying to bring her back to wake her up.
At that moment, I think I just wanted to cry for her.
Things got really bad when we had
to throw her and the boyfriend out of the condo.
They were in there squatting.
They weren't paying any of the bills.
And then it was just one horrible thing after another.
Then she went from person to person's house
or sleeping in the street.
Every now and then, she'd call us,
tell us she was cold and hungry.
Joe would go find her wherever she was.
He'd bring her home.
And then it was the same pattern over and over.
And not too long ago, Alicia ended up getting
high with a very young girl.
And the girl, during the night, OD'd.
And when Alicia woke up in the morning,
she was cold and dead, covered in her own vomit
right next to Alicia.
You would think that, you know, that would have been
a wake up call, but it wasn't.
Alicia is supposed to be working.
She's supposed to be answering the phones
and handling all the outbound things
and everything like that.
And instead, when she is here, she's at the desk
doing nothing, and I'm left doing her job plus mine.
Since Joe didn't leave me money, I need money.
I need some sort of income.
So I don't know if you need to call Joe
or if you're allowed to write your own personal check
from your account, but I need money somehow.
I cannot go into stores to go shoplifting sick,
because that's the first person they spot.
And where's the money from yesterday?
You had $25 this morning.
- I spent it. - On what?
ALICIA: I bought--
I bought breakfast.
I bought Xanax.
OK.
ALICIA: Well, what'd you want me to do?
GINA: Well, then call Joe. I don't know what to tell you.
I'm not gonna call him and start arguing with him.
He says yes to you.
Call him, please.
I know how to manipulate her.
I know what to say to her to get to her heart and to, you know,
make her feel guilty.
Alicia needs money.
She wants a personal check to go to the check cashing place.
Can you hold on?
[office phone ringing]
JOE: Hey.
Hello.
JOE: We're here because we're concerned.
OK.
And we haven't been doing a good job.
We brought Mr. VanVonderen here to help us.
Hello. JEFF VANVONDEREN: Hi.
Hi.
Come sit down a minute.
Alicia, I'm here today to get back my amazing daughter.
You were always a smart and understanding little kid,
but things are different now because the secrets you are
keeping are now killing you.
And that great big sister is gone.
I don't see you anymore.
And I feel heartbroken, and I miss you.
And I want her back.
So, Alicia, please take this help now.
Is that it?
Everybody's done?
I was set up and lied to and then brought into a place where
everybody jumps on me and says, you have to go right now,
this minute.
There's a treatment center in Texas.
It's gorgeous.
Oh, I wouldn't actually recommend going to a place
that I wouldn't like to be at myself,
and it's really a great place.
Mm-hmm.
OK, do we need to read more letters?
No.
JEFF VANVONDEREN: So is that a yes?
Yes.
Thank you.
ALICIA: I feel great about life.
I can't remember the last time that I woke up in the morning
thanking God to be alive, and I'm really, really happy
and excited about it.
I love it here at BRC.
It's become a second home for me.
I'm learning a lot, not only about my addiction,
but I'm learning life skills.
It's helped me in a big way.
You made it.
Oh, my god.
I'm so happy.
I missed you so much.
I feel like I haven't seen them in 12 years
because I've been using.
And that's not having a relationship with my parents.
And I love your bangs.
Do you like them?
I said, I look just like my mom as soon as I cut them.
Oh, I'm so glad you're here.
GINA: When I got out of the car and I saw her face
and her real smile, her cheeks were all plumped up
and they were--
it was like looking at her when she was a little girl.
I'm really, really happy, like really happy,
and I didn't think that I could be.
I wake up every morning happy to be alive,
and I never thought that I would.
I'm so grateful that you guys never,
ever turned your back on me.
I love you so much.
Thank you.
[MUSIC - THE DAVENPORTS, "FIVE STEPS"]