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

54. Tyler

We drove home from the courthouse after Doc's testimony.

"It was hard hearing that again," Jenna said to me.

"I know. But Doc made it clear she's still better off with us."

"Tyler, we can't lose her," Jenna said to me. "I wouldn't be able to handle it. She's our daughter. The only thing we didn't do is give birth to her. But since she lost her mom, she's had no one to raise her.  I feel like we've raised her. She's grown so much with us."

I took my wife's hand as I drove.

"We aren't going to lose her. His lawyer is a disaster."

When we got home, Samantha was sitting in the kitchen doing homework and eating yoghurt. Sarah and Brendon were entertaining Rosie. Or Rosie was entertaining them.

"How'd it go?" Brendon asked. I shrugged.

"His lawyer is a disaster. The judge is already frustrated with her."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"I hope so," I said. I went into the kitchen and took a strawberry off the plate on the counter.

"What're you working on?" I asked Samantha, giving her a hug and a kiss.

"Social studies. Guess what we're doing."

"What?"

"Current events," she grimaced. "Guess whose name comes up again and again?"

"Um, Justin Bieber," I said.

"Actually yes, but less frequently than mine."

"How's that been?"

Samantha shrugged.

"I suppose it could be worse. But mostly people are curious. And a lot of 'where do you want to live?' And stuff like that. It's a bit tedious.

How did today go?"

"If Mark's lawyer keeps up her antics, this could be over sooner than later. The judge is getting crusty with her."

"Why? What happened?"

"She's not that great a lawyer, I don't think. Shes treating this like a criminal case and trying to rile us up and treat us like hostile witnesses. The judge ended her questioning your mom because she was so bad at it."

"That's good, right?  For us?"

"It could be. It certainly isn't hurting us.  But it's the weekend, thankfully, and once you're done your homework, we can hit the court if you want."

"Sure. I'm almost done," she said.

I smiled and watched as she finished her homework and her yoghurt, went upstairs to change. Brendon came into the kitchen.

"She's handling this pretty well, I think. For Sam."

"She is. We've been open and honest with her. She was really stressed at the beginning and was getting sick.  Not eating, not sleeping, stomach in knots. She was trying not to worry us, which worried us more. She lost so much weight. The press has been hard on her. In that their presence has been hard."

"Well, she seems okay now. Ish."

"For Samantha, she's doing great. Really. We've made sure we keep everything in the open. Even when we're scared or worried. It's helped all of us."

Samantha came bounding down the stairs just then.

"What's helped all of us?"

"Talking about what's going on," I said. "Uncle Brendon was saying you seem to be doing pretty well with all this."

"Oh. Yeah. Mom and Dad and I talk every night before bed about it and how we're feeling. Even if we're scared.  It definitely helps.  Come play basketball with us!"

"I'll come watch," Brendon said.

The three of us went outside and Samantha and I played for about an hour.

"I'm gonna go shower," Samantha said when we were done. She went upstairs. I did too, so I could take a shower. The kid puts me through my paces.

I got out of the shower and got into clean clothes. I could still hear Samantha's shower running. I frowned. She didn't usually take long showers.

Downstairs, I asked Jenna to go check on Sam. I
didn't want to intrude on my teenager showering but my gut was telling me something wasn't right. I started looking for my phone.

"Tyler!!" Jenna screamed from upstairs. I ran up the stairs two at a time.

"What?!" I asked running into Samantha's room.

There was blood everywhere. So much blood. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I noticed Samantha's shower door had shattered.

"Tyler! She's not breathing!"

I dropped beside Samantha and listened. Her breathing was shallow. Barely perceptible. I grabbed her wrist and felt for a pulse. I could see she hadn't intentionally cut herself. But there were shards of glass in her arm.

"She's breathing, Jenna. It's shallow but she's breathing. And her heart is beating.  Did you check her sugar?"

"I don't have a signal," she said.

"Shit. Not this again okay. I'm going to call an ambulance. You get her covered up with towels, okay?"

I ran downstairs and found my phone in the kitchen. I dialled 911 while Brendon and Sarah looked on. I related everything to the dispatcher then sat, hard, on the floor.

"Tyler, what happened? What's on your pants?" 

"Samantha's had an accident. I don't know what happened but she's unconscious. She fell through her shower door. She's bleeding everywhere."

Sarah ran upstairs. I could hear the ambulance and Brendon ran to open the gate.

He stood at the door and let the paramedics in. He followed them upstairs. Rosie toddled over to me.

"SaSa Dada," she said, holding out a small grey something in a plastic holder. It was Samantha's transmitter and sensor for her glucose monitor. Had she taken it off?