Since I know most of you won't read the last chapter, which is very long and merely for myself, to process my failure, I decided to do this in a separate chapter.

HERE IS HOW I WOULD HAVE LET THE STORY END:

So, there was actually only one more chapter coming up. The very final chapter and climax of the story.

This chapter would be set during the opening night of Hamilton on Broadway. As you can imagine, this is a very important night for the characters. There is a lot of energy in the air; everybody is nervous and excited.

During the afterparty, Denise gets up the stage and performs a contemporary dance to Wait For It as a surprise for Lin. She has made this choreography together with Andy and the company performs the song. This shows how she has come to terms with her dancing background and everything that happened since. It also shows that she has found her place in the Hamilton family and she won't stop dancing anytime soon.

After the performance, she grabs the mic, dedicates this performance to Lin and Vanessa, and starts telling a story. She tells the audience how she's always pulled inside herself since her parents' death, and didn't let anybody in. She says how she believed that nobody would ever be able to replace her parents. Then she tells them how Lin and Vanessa changed her life. That they taught her to be herself again, and that it's okay to cry. That she is in a happier place now than she was when she met them. Thanks to them, she has found the guts to stand up against bullying and find the most beautiful girl in the world. Then she would apologise for not giving that love back, and making life with her very difficult.

I'm just going to write out the ending of her speech here, because it's easier. "I was afraid. Afraid of bonding with you, only to have to leave afterwards. I was afraid of letting go, of losing the ones I loved. That's why I didn't want to love people in first place. But most of all, I was afraid that you would remind me too much of my parents. You're a lot like them. Lin, did you know that my that was as obsessed with West Side Story as you are with Rent? He was just as geeky and always happy. And Vanessa, I'm sure you and mom would have been best friends. She was also the quiet one, and just as smart as you are. Lin and Vanessa, I didn't want to love you, but here we are. I've learned a that by fostering me, you're not replacing my parents. You're an addition to them. And that's why I dare to say this: you're my parents now. Mom and dad, te adoro. I love you."

Okay, so obviously Lin and Vanessa (and probably everyone else in the room) are completely in tears after this speech.

The party continues on, and later that night, they take Denise apart. They tell her that they also have a surprise for her, namely that they want to adopt her. Of course, Denise starts crying (She's a teenager. Hormones are horrible. We can't blame her.) and tells them that she would love that. But that's not all! Lin and Vanessa also offer her to legally change her name from Denisabella to Denise, because she hates her name so much. Denise decides not to do this, because her crazy name is one of the few things she still has left from her parents. This also shows how much Denise has grown, because she has learnt to treasure what she has instead of focusing on what's left behind.

The party continues, not only for Hamilton but also for the family within it. At the end of the night, they go home and Denise takes the two pictures off the top shelf and places them on her bureau. They are revealed to be a family picture of her and her parents and a picture of the Von Trapp family from when she was in The Sound of Music.

And they lived a happily every after. :)