Worst Summer Ever... (Book 7 of Adopted by Jenna and Tyler Joseph)

24. Jenna

Home Sweet Homecoming!

COLUMBUS, OH - The comings and goings at the Columbus airport are generally not very newsworthy. Planes land, more often than not, safely.

But today, one flight held some very precious cargo for some Ohioans.

Samantha Joseph, the adopted daughter of singer and local celebrity Tyler Joseph, returned home after a six week ordeal during which she had been abducted by her maternal uncle, Mark Solman, her birth mother's brother with whom Samantha had forged a relationship when he learned of Samantha's existence following a trip to the US three years ago.

As the only living member of Samantha's biological family, her adoptive parents encouraged her to get to know her uncle and his family, the Joseph family even travelled to England where Solman and his family were living.

On June 17, of this year, Solman abducted his niece.  Sources state that Solman, who had launched an unsuccessful bid to sue the Josephs for custody of his niece, had become obsessed with gaining custody of his niece. He hadn't known his sister had been killed ten years ago now, and hadn't known he had a niece. Solman had been estranged from his sister following her marriage to disgraced local lawyer, the late Stanley Dietz.

Samantha spent six weeks in captivity with Solman before police were alerted to the girl's location. Sources say it was Samantha herself who called the front desk at the motel where the teen was eventually located, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

At the time of her abduction, Samantha was 17, and still legally a minor. Solman now faces charges of abduction or a minor, unlawful confinement as well as charges of crossing state lines for the purposes of trafficking. He is currently being held in a Lincoln jail.

Samantha, on the other hand, has returned home after several days in a Lincoln hospital where she was recovering from her abduction. The teen is a type one diabetic and it has been reported that her blood sugars were not well controlled at the time of her being found by police. She spent time in hospital getting her blood sugar under control and fighting an infection.

She returned today, in the company of her parents and was rushed out of the airport terminal to, presumably, the family home, which the author is certain, Samantha is eager to return to.

Welcome home, Samantha! And happy belated birthday. We hope you're able to find time to celebrate with your family!

➰➰

Press was ten times worse when we landed in Ohio. Thankfully, Tyler and his management had anticipated this and had set up a security escort to help us get out of the airport. We had a car waiting for us already and we were able to whisk Samantha through the airport and out to the car without too much attention.

Although the press tried to get in and ask us about the time she was missing we stuck to our comment of 'No Comment'

Samantha clung to us as we made our way through the terminal and visibly relaxed as we drove away from the airport. She leaned her head on my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around her.

"You know," I said. "This kind of reminds me of when you were younger and we went up to Masonville with Marie. You wouldn't leave my side then either."

"You make me feel safe," Samantha said. "Even when I didn't act like I liked you very much."

I knew she was referring to when we'd had to hospitalize her for her depression and guilt after the shooting. She'd admitted she needed the help when she finally had gotten the help. But she'd been so angry that I'd had to do it while Tyler was away. One of the things she'd always worried about was that we were going to send her away because we found caring for her too difficult.

It hadn't been the difficulty that had caused me to have her hospitalized. It was that she was in so much pain and had internalized so much that she'd retreated further and further into her guilt and pain and depression that I couldn't reach her anymore. Doc had been the one to show me we'd been at a crisis point then.

But here we were, mere months since her last tragic occurrence and she hadn't retreated into herself. After the assault, she'd been catatonic. Maybe she would have been after this, too, if she hadn't spent the first few days sedated.

Whatever the reason, I had my daughter home again. And she was doing okay. She had a session with Doc booked, at the house, for tomorrow and tonight it was just going to be us, Tyler's parents, his siblings and Josh and Debby. We'd see if Samantha even wanted a birthday party anymore. We wanted to celebrate her stepping into adulthood but in light of her abduction, we didn't know if she'd even want to celebrate anymore.

When we pulled up to the house, Sam's eyes filled with tears. I hugged her tight.

"I thought I might never see this place again," she said, sobbing. "I was so scared. I don't think Mark planned on actually killing me, but I got so sick, I didn't think I'd ever get to come home."

Tyler pulled her out of the car and wrapped his arms around her. I got out of the car as well and wrapped my arms around my eldest daughter and my husband.

"Sammy!" I heard screamed from the door, and then a blonde streak came tearing down the walkway to the driveway. Rosie stopped just short of knocking Samantha over but wrapped her arms around Sam's leg. "You home!"

"Hey, RosieRo!" Samantha smiled. "I missed you so much! Thank you for the phone call and the pictures."

"I have lots of pictures for you!" Rosie said. Josh and Debby came running out, with Junie in Josh's arms.

"String Bean!" Josh exclaimed as the two of them, Josh and Debby, engulfed her in a group hug.

"Sama!" Junie added her two cents.

Samantha was crying, but even we could see that it was tears of happiness.

Our daughter was home. And the relief we all felt was palpable.

Once our reunion was done in the driveway, Tyler and I led our family into the house.

We were complete again.