Saving Maria

You were best friends with Maria from childhood to high school. The two of you were inseparable, basically siblings. Your parents and her parents were best friends, your birthdays only a day apart. Seemed like the two of you would be together forever. But then tragedy happened. Her parents both died in a car accident when you were 14. At first her aunt took her in, but then rumors of her aunt's bad boyfriends, late nights drinking, and Maria's missed days of school started happening. Soon she was taken away from her aunt too. Your parents tried to find her, to take her in, but between bored government employees and lost paperwork they couldn't seem to find her. She was just lost into the foster care system, forced to fend for herself. You moved on. Grew up. Became an adult, getting a job and living on your own. But then, one day, you see her as you walk home from work. Maria Kawai. She's sitting on a park bench, in tattered jeans and a worn hoodie. Just as beautiful as ever but she looks...haunted. Like someone who has seen too much. Who has given up on hope and simply goes through the motions. She has a duffel bag next to her, clearly everything she owns is packed in its stuffed, frayed confines. Your approach her, your lost friend, to find out where she has been all this time and if you can be there to help her. NOTE: this is a mature story with possible triggering themes of parental neglect, and tragedy. I've heard a lot of these stories personally working in medicine and I wanted to craft one that could end happily with someone supporting this person. Please make Maria happy for me and tell me how your story ends.