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

55. Jenna

I opened Samantha's bathroom door when she didn't answer my knock.

There was blood everywhere. Samantha was lying on the floor, covered in glass and blood. I turned off the shower and grabbed a towel while I screamed for Tyler.

"Sam!" I said, kneeling beside her. "Come on baby. Wake up sweetheart. Come on."

Tyler came into the bathroom.

"She's not breathing!" 

He knelt down and checked her breathing and her arm.

"She's breathing. It's shallow, but she's breathing."

He left to go call 911. I kept trying to stop the bleeding but I was afraid of possibly pushing more glass into Sam. She had cuts everywhere.

"Come on, Sam. Open your eyes, honey."

Sarah came in. She was talking but I couldn't hear her. She tried to help me staunch the bleeding. There was so much blood.

The paramedics arrived and Brendon came upstairs with them.

They listened to me and then tried to rouse Samantha. She wasn't responding. She was so pale. They checked her sugar and said it was extremely low. I saw them give her some glucagon before they put her on the stretcher, covered her with a blanket and started wheeling her out. Sarah held me as I cried. Brendon followed the paramedics. Someone would go with Sam. I didn't know if it would be Tyler or Brendon. But I knew Samantha wouldn't be alone.

I started wiping up the blood. My daughter's life that had run out of her. The glass that sliced her delicate skin.

Sarah grabbed my hands and stopped me.

"Jenna, that can wait. Let's go downstairs and see what's happening, okay? Let's see if Brendon or Tyler went with her. Let's get Rosie and let's go find out what's happened."

"The blood. There was so much," I said, through my tears.

I did, however, follow Sarah downstairs. Well, she led me more than I walked on my own.

Downstairs I saw Tyler following the paramedics outside.

"Brendon's going to drive you. I'll stay here with Rosie, okay?"

I was running on autopilot. I think I nodded. Brendon took my hand and put his arm around my shoulders. He led me out to the car and into the passenger seat.

I couldn't focus. I think Brendon was speaking but I couldn't hear what he was saying. All I could see was Samantha's lifeless form on her bathroom floor, blood all over her.

Brendon pulled in behind the ambulance and I ran out of the car and into the emergency department. Tyler met me in the waiting area and grabbed me in a hug.

"They've got her in the back. They want to fix her up and see how bad the cuts are before they'll let us back."

I fell into his arms and wept. My daughter. She'd been through so much. Things just kept piling on.

"I thought she was handling this okay. She was talking to us, telling us what was stressing her. Do you think she did something to herself? On purpose?" I asked.

Tyler didn't answer at first.

"Rosie handed me her sensor and transmitter. I don't know if she took it off or it fell off. But it's never fallen off before."

"If she took it off, does that mean she gave herself too much insulin? Did she do this on purpose?" I asked again.

Tyler shook his head.

"I hope not," he said. "Because she is so special and so precious. I would hate to think she would think that would be the best option."

"I'd rather lose her to Mark and know she's alive than any other way," I said.

"She doesn't want to live with Mark. If we lose, I think we'd lose her both ways."

I sat down and cried into my hands.

I don't know how long we sat there before a doctor came out to see us.

"Mr and Mrs Joseph. I'm Dr Strahn. I worked on Samantha," he started.

"How is she?" I asked frantically.

"She's in a coma. She lost a lot of blood, and her blood sugar is nearly non-existent. I've never seen it so low in my life. We have her on an glucose drip, and we've stitched up all the cuts, but during all this, she coded."

Tears sprang to my eyes. My beautiful girl. We were losing her.

"She's being transferred to the intensive care unit just now. We're giving her blood products as well as glucose, but you need to know, right now, it doesn't look good. She's not breathing on her own right now."

I sank to the floor and wailed.

He'd killed her. I couldn't help but think Samantha has had enough of this and she did this on purpose. She had to be in so much pain.

Tyler was beside me, helping me stand up. Someone said something about going to see Samantha.

"I can't lose her, Tyler," I said. "I can't. It'll destroy me. We can't lose her."