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

35. Jenna

Sam was clearly not happy when she came home from school. The increased press at the end of the driveway thanks to the judge deciding to hear the case, didn't help her mood. When she came into the house, she kicked off her shoes and went straight upstairs, answering my question as to how her day was with a simple and terse 'fine'.

Tyler and I agreed to let her have a few moments to herself. She needed some time to decompress, maybe cry, if she felt she needed to. We were both frustrated by what was happening. And not because it was inconvenient to us, but because our poor daughter just couldn't seem to catch a break. She'd been through so much in her young life already, and here her so-called uncle was just piling more unnecessary stress on her.

After talking with Tyler a little, and hearing from him how her day had gone, I decided to check her glucose monitor. Noticing it was starting to trend low, I picked up Rosie and brought her upstairs to talk with Samantha and see how she was doing. I wasn't expecting her to be happy, but I wanted to try to gauge how she was doing.

I found her lying on her stomach on her bed, her head on her pillow. It didn't seem that she was crying. Just lying there. Her phone was beside her. When I knocked and poked my head in, she turned over onto her back and sat up as I sat on her bed. She took Rosie from me, as she was reaching for Sam anyway.

I talked with her for a while. She was definitely frustrated by what Mark was now putting her through. She admitted that she'd been calling him Uncle Mark by the end of the trip, but now, she seemed done with that. She said Brendon and Josh had been better uncles to her than her own actual uncle. I felt horrible that this was happening to her.

I mentioned her blood sugar was getting low and that she should probably come down for a snack. She also said she had some homework, so I took Rosie, she grabbed her school bag and we went downstairs.

She was pulling out her homework while I prepared a snack for her. Then she pulled out a stack of paperwork.

"You have homework, too, Mom," she grinned at me. I looked at the pile of booklets and forms.

"What's all this?" I asked.

"PE forms, contact forms, forms to fill in other forms, forms to request forms to fill out forms, forms for forms and forms about forms," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"It's the usual start of school forms. You know, religious observance days, PE forms, contact information, medical forms. All that fun stuff," she said.

I put a bowl of strawberries and yogurt in front of Sam, while I flipped through the forms. I grabbed a pen from her pen case, and started on my homework, while she worked on hers. From what I could see, she had a little bit of English - a short essay introducing herself - some math homework and what I think was social studies.

We both finished our respective homework around the same time. I handed Sam all the forms and a check for her PE kit and she put everything away and put her bag by the closet for tomorrow.

"How does the food compare in the cafeteria at the high school over the middle school?" I asked.

"It's pretty much the same, I think. A few more options and they have pop in the cafeteria as well, but otherwise, yeah. It's pretty much the same," she said. She was talking, so I knew she was already feeling better now.

Tyler came upstairs just then on his phone. Samantha and I pretended we weren't listening until we couldn't pretend we weren't listening anymore.

"Okay. Yep. Yeah. I understand. Okay. Thanks, we'll see you then," he said and hung up the phone.

"Who was that? Who are we seeing and when?" I asked.

"Mr. Greyson wants to meet you, Samantha. He wants you to come by the office tomorrow and discuss your case with you and us," Tyler said. Sam's face fell.

"Do I have to?"

"Sam, Mr. Greyson is on our side," Tyler said.

"I know. But if we go to the lawyer's office, then the press will follow, and then what?"

Tyler went over to Samantha and wrapped his arms around her.

"Sweetie pie," he said, resting his chin on the top of her head. "I wish I could say you won't have to deal with the press, but the fact is, the press caught wind of the story and they're interested. Until this all blows over, we are all going to have to deal with their intrusion into our lives. Mom and I, and John, will do our best to protect you, and keep them away from you as much as possible. We've already put in place that you're a minor and can't be approached. But that doesn't stop them from being able to approach us. I know this is frustrating, annoying and upsetting. I do."

Samantha sighed.

"When do we have to be there?"

"Four o'clock. He doesn't want to take you out of school if he doesn't have to," Tyler said.

"When would he 'have' to take me out of school?" Sam asked.

"If you're needed in court to testify. Otherwise, we're going to do our best to make this as minimally disruptive to you as we possibly can make a very disruptive situation."

"Thanks, Dad," Samantha said. "And you too, Mom. I know you're trying. I know this isn't your fault, all the press and stuff."

I smiled. Just a week ago, she was upset that us having to hire security for around the house and making sure she was safe getting to school, would cost so much and her usual thoughts started. But, she seemed resigned to the fact that this is our current reality.

Erin had been checking in with me pretty much every day since the story broke and Jill had been amazing with Samantha and taking it all in stride. Erin and Philip had also offered to let Samantha stay at their house whenever she wanted if it could get her away from the press, even for one night. Unfortunately, they followed her there and caused a ruckus outside their house that required the family to call the police and Tyler and John to have to go get Samantha and bring her home.

And the nightmares were back. They weren't as bad, and they weren't every night, but a couple of nights a week we could pretty much be certain we'd be woken up by a nightmare. It hurt me more that Samantha was having these nightmares again, and not at all that we were woken up by it. I hated seeing my daughter so frightened and then so exhausted the next day.