The London Paradigm (book 4 of Adopted by the Josephs)

28. Samantha

Mom and I drove home chatting about my visit and figuring out back to school shopping. School started in a week and I knew I needed stuff.

"You're Tyler Joseph's daughter. You could probably wear a burlap sac and be cool," Mom smiled. I laughed.

We got home and I hopped out of the car.

"I'm going to take a shower and put on PJs," I said.

"Okay. Then I think your dad wants to talk to you," Mom said.

"Why?" I asked. Was I in trouble?

I tried to think why Dad needed to talk to me. I decided better to get it over with than prolong the inevitable.

I showered quickly, did my hair, put on pyjamas and slippers and went downstairs. Dad was in the living room with Mom. He had his head in his hands and some papers on the table in front of him.

Mom was rubbing his back.

"I don't know what to do," Dad said. "We can't lose her."

Lose her? Who? Me?  Did some test result come saying I was dying or something?!

I ran down the rest of the stairs. Dad heard me and turned around.

"There's my girl!" He said. "Come give me a hug."

I went over and gave him a hug. He pulled me over so that I was pretty much sitting on him.

"Do you have any idea how much we love you?" He asked me.

"I have some idea," I said.

"And do you remember us telling you you're ours forever and we're never going to send you anywhere?"

"Yeeees..." suddenly worried he was going to tell me they're sending me away or something.

"And you know Mom and I will fight tooth and nail for you, right?"

"Yeah.  Dad? What's the matter?  Am I dying or something?"

"What? No!" Dad said. Pulling me closer and hugging me tighter again.

"Then what? Because the other thing I'm thinking is you are sending me away somewhere."

"No!  Definitely not. But we do have to talk about something that, well, I'm not sure how you're going to take this. I don't want to upset you."

"Well, I'm already upset, since I have no idea what you're going on about."

Dad pointed at the papers and Mom handed them to him.

"I hate to tell you this because I know how you feel about Mark and Carol and the kids," Dad said. "Especially after your visit there."

"Okay..."

"Well, Mark has decided to sue us for custody of you," Dad said, showing me the papers. It was a lot of legalese and I couldn't really make sense of it.

"Why?" I asked, tears forming in my eyes. "He said he didn't want to disrupt my life!  Why is he doing this?"

Dad pulled me tighter again.

"I don't know, baby," he cooed.  "I don't know. I'm sorry. And we've already hired a lawyer who's going to fight with us. And we're going to fight this so hard. Our lawyer, Mr. Greyson, thinks we have a good chance because your adoption was finalized over a year ago. The courts may choose not to hear it. But, we have to prepare for it."

I couldn't stop the tears rolling down my face.

"Do you, do you think that's why they wanted me to stay an extra week? Or pushed that school so hard?"

"I don't know, kiddo," Dad said. "But considering he told you one thing and us another, I think so."

I buried my face in Dad's shoulder and let loose. How could Uncle Mark. No. Just Mark, do this?

Dad hugged me and rubbed my back while I cried. He kept saying 'it's going to be okay,' but he didn't really know that.

Mom came over and put her arm around me, too.

"We're going to fight, baby," she said. "Tooth and nail. With everything we have."

"How could he do this? He promised he didn't want to disrupt my life! I hate him! I wish I'd never went to England!"

"Now, now. You had a good time otherwise. Don't let it ruin what was a great summer trip."

"I don't ever want to speak to him again!" I said.

"That's fair and that's your right," Dad said.

I stayed clinging to my parents as if Mark was in the house already trying to pry me away from them.

I was still crying on and off and Dad was still holding me and rubbing my back.

I felt so betrayed. The one person who could tell me about my mom and her family was now trying to take me away from the only family that had ever loved me. Well, besides mom when she was alive.

My breath kept coming in hitches as I tried to control my crying. But it hurt so much that Mark was doing this to us.

I stayed, wrapped in Dad's arms, until I fell asleep.