Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 51

Tyler's POV

After dinner, we walked along the Venice Beach boardwalk. Samantha was smiling and looked awed by everything she was seeing.  She'd never been outside of Ohio, so this was fun to watch her looking around and taking in all the new sights and sounds. 

A little while later, Jenna noticed Samantha was getting tired, and admitted she was, too. 

We got back in the cars, and drove back to Sarah and Brendon's. Samantha fell asleep in the car on the ride home, so I carried her upstairs. Jenna and I agreed that we would let her just sleep, we'd check her sugar later, as we usually do, and I took off her shoes while Jenna got her long acting insulin and she gave Samantha her shot while I tucked her into bed. I kissed her on the forehead and told her to have a good sleep. She was such a sweet girl, and I was so happy we were giving her a new life now. 

Once we'd tucked Samantha in, Jenna and I went downstairs where Sarah had made some coffee and brought out some desserts.  The six of us sat around the dining room table, drinking coffee and chatting. 

"She's doing so much better than when we last saw her," Sarah said. 

"She really is," I said. "Once we took her to see Stanley's grave, she really seemed to change. She became more confident, more secure. The nightmares stopped. She started making more friends, and just seems like a completely different kid."

"What about that letter?" Brendon asked. "The one from the guy who actually took her. What did she do about that?"

"She decided to write him a letter, believe it or not. She told him she didn't hate him, but basically that she can't forgive him yet, and she's not sure she can meet him face-to-face, but that she doesn't hate him. She's such an amazing and resilient kid," I said. 

"She sure is," Sarah said, smiling. "She's really growing. And she's really healing, I think. Is she still seeing the therapist?"

"She is," I said. "She goes once every two weeks, and he's really helped her get past what happened in November, and deal with the death of Stanley and the will."

"Hey, yeah. What happened with that? Samantha told me she was worried about it, but she never said what the outcome was after that," Sarah asked. 

"He left her everything," I said. 

"What do you mean he left her everything?" Zack asked. 

"His entire estate. Plus their old house."

"You have got to be kidding," Brendon said. "He must not have had much left then. Or he's put some ridiculous stipulations on it."

"You'd think, but no.  His estate was worth 1.5 million dollars plus the proceeds of the sale of the house.  He gave her 25% at the reading, 50% is held in trust until she's 18 and then the last 25% is held until she's 25. The sale of the house has been put into trust for her as well, but we added it to the money she'll be able to access at 18."

"That is absolutely unbelievable!" Kala said. "What stipulations did he put on the money? What about caregivers?"

"Nothing. He relinquished his rights, which he'd already lost anyway, and asked she be put up for adoption, which we'd already finalized. The 25% she got at the reading was supposed to be used for whoever was raising her to use to help pay for the costs of raising her, and we decided to put the money in a high interest account that she can access with a limit on her bank card. That money is hers."

"Your thirteen-year-old has access to a quarter of a million dollars?" Brendon asked. 

"A very limited access, but yes."

Just then, an alarm sounded on my phone and Jenna's.

"What the hell was that?" Zack asked. 

I checked my phone and saw an alert from Samantha's continuous glucose monitor that her blood sugar was dropping. It was already reading 52. 

"That's Samantha's glucose monitor.  She wears it on her arm, or stomach, and we get an alert when she goes too high or too low. No matter where she is. We can also check her levels without having to poke her finger. If you'll excuse me, she's going low, so I'm going to go wake her up and treat that low.  I'll be back in about 15 minutes," I said. 

I jogged up the stairs and went into Samantha's room.  Her forehead was slick with sweat. A definite sign she was low.  I grabbed the glucose tablets from where I'd but them in the bathroom, and sat on Samantha's bed, shaking her to wake her up. 

She didn't wake at first.  She was hard to rouse, which means I got here just in time. Any longer, if it had fallen any lower, she could have gone into a diabetic coma. 

"Samantha, come on sweetheart, wake up," I said shaking her.  She grumbled at me and rolled over onto her side.

"Samantha, your blood sugar is low, come on. Wake up sweetheart.  Let's get that treated, okay?"

She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. 

"What?" she complained. 

"Your sugar is low. Let's go. Sit up. Eat these," I said, holding out four tablets. 

"I'm not hungry," she said. 

"I'm sure you're not hungry, but you need to treat your low," I had to keep reiterating why I was waking her up, because low sugar could cause confusion, and besides that, she was tired from travelling. 

"I'm not low, you're low," she said.

"That doesn't even make any sense.  Come on, sweetheart. Sit up and eat these."

Samantha looked at me straight in the eyes. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked 

"Have you not heard me for the last few minutes?"

"What?"

"Your sugar is low. You're confused. I got an alarm," I said. Just then my alarm went off again.

"Oh," she said. "My phone didn't go off."

"Where is it?" I asked. 

"I don't know. Um... My pocket?" she felt in her pocket and pulled out her phone. It was dead. 

"Well, let's get this plugged in, and here - eat these," I said, handing her the glucose tabs. She took them and started chewing on them. 

"Can I have a glass of water, please?" she asked, through a mouth full of pressed sugar. 

I got up and got her a glass of water from the bathroom.  I sat with her for a few minutes while she finished her tablets and water. 

"All good?" I asked. 

"Yup," she said, settling back under the blanket. I kissed her on the forehead again and said I'd keep an eye on her monitor. 

"Call me if you have any problems.  Remember, Mom and I are sleeping right across the hall."

"Okay, Dad," she smiled, turning back over. I'm pretty sure she fell asleep almost right away. 

I went back downstairs and joined the rest of the adults. 

"Everything good?" Jenna asked. "That took you a while."

"Everything's fine," I said. "She was a little confused. I think between traveling and her low, it's not unexpected. But, she came out of it, and she took her glucose tablets, and some water, and is now happily off in dreamland."

"Great," Jenna smiled. 

We sat and chatted a little longer before jet lag got the best of us, and Jenna and I headed to bed. I took one more look at Samantha's levels and saw they were back up in normal range. I smiled as I crawled into bed with my wife, confident Samantha was fine.