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

29. Tyler

I wasn't sure how Samantha would handle the news of what Mark is doing. I expected her to be upset, obviously. I wasn't sure if she'd try to rationalize it.

But she went straight to hatred. She said she hated Mark and wished she'd never gone to England in the first place. I reminded her that she'd had a good time and she shouldn't let this ruin the good memories of her trip.

And she cried when we told her. She cried so hard and my heart just broke for her. She must have felt so betrayed by Mark.

She clung to me as if she thought she'd be ripped away at any moment. She cried off and on and her breath was hitching. I didn't have any words to make any of this better other than to tell her we'd fight this as hard as possible. We could probably get the media on our side, too.

I rubbed Samantha's back as she cried. I held her close so she knew we weren't letting her go so easily.

Eventually, her breathing evened out, and she felt a bit heavier against me. I looked down and she'd fallen asleep.

"Should we take her up to bed?" Jenna asked.

"No. Not yet," I said. "I'm kinda enjoying the snuggle. And I don't want to let her go."

Jenna smiled at me, picked up a blanket off the other couch and covered us both. Then she grabbed another blanket for herself and leaned up against Samantha and I.

The three of us sat like that for a while. Jenna fell asleep first.

With my free hand, I pulled out my phone and texted Josh.

"Hey, what's up?" He replied.

"Not much," I said.

"You ok?" He asked.

"No."

"Talk to me. What's wrong?"

"Mark is suing for custody of Samantha."

The three dots indicating he was replying kept showing up and disappearing.

Finally his response came through.

"I have no words. Well, I do. I have lots of them. But they might make your phone explode. Have you told Sam?"

"Yeah."

"How'd she take it?"

I so desperately wanted to joke and say she was thrilled by the idea of moving to England, but I couldn't.

"She's pissed. At Mark. She doesn't want to talk to him. She's been crying and just fell asleep on me. I can't lose her Josh."

"Have you spoken to a lawyer?"

"Yes. He's good. He thinks there's a good chance the case won't even get heard since the adoption was over a year ago. But we still have to prepare."

"Well, yeah. I guess so. You know Debby and I will help you in any way we can. You should probably tell B and Zack. Maybe Pete, too?"

"I probably will. Just not today. I'm exhausted. I just needed to talk to you," I texted.

"I appreciate it, man. How are you holding up? You cool?"

"Frosty. I'm more worried about how this is going to impact Sam."

"Yeah. She's been through enough. This was so avoidable. He's really an ass to throw this on you all."

"Yeah. Even Sam put 2 and 2 together with that extra week.  We think it was for them to try to convince her to stay of her own volition."

"She loves you guys way too much. And she still barely knows them, all things considered."

"I know," I said. "I'm going to try and get some sleep. I currently have Sam sleeping on me, and Jenna leaning on her. So I'm sort of stuck here."

I sent a smilie emoji.

"Stay cool," Josh replied.

I sent a thumbs up and put my phone down.

Would we need to recruit our friends? Would we need character witnesses? Do I need to get in touch with Samantha's social workers? Would I need Gillingham?!  I thought of sending an email to Jake, but thought better of it and decided to call him in the morning. When I could hopefully concentrate more.

I looked down at my sleeping daughter again. She was frowning. I missed the smiles. I had a feeling the nightmares would be coming back.  I hated the nightmares. Not because we were woken up, but because they took such a toll on Samantha. She didn't sleep well, obviously. She fell back into some of her negative thinking and lost some of that confidence that she'd worked so hard for.

I rubbed her back lightly and watched as her frown dissipated a little. It didn't go away completely, but it did soften.

I found myself dozing off, as my head fell back against the top of the couch cushions.

I was awoken by a scream.