Leave The City (Book 8 of Adopted by the Josephs)

23. Tyler

Friday morning I went to the courthouse. There was even more press this time because of Samantha getting sick and leaving by ambulance. Kravitz told me to ignore the shouted questions about Samantha, which I'd have done anyway.

On Friday morning, Josh was called as a witness to affirm ours and Samantha's character and that he'd seen both her growth with us and the fallout and aftermaths of both her abductions.

"Mr. Dun," Kravitz started. "What is your relationship to Samantha?"

"I'm Tyler's bandmate and friend. We've been friends for, gosh, years. Samantha calls me 'uncle' so I guess I'm sort of an honorary uncle."

"But you have no blood relation to her?" Kravitz asked.

"No. Ty and I are like brothers, but no. We aren't related by blood or marriage. Just years of friendship."

I smiled. That was the understatement of the century.

"When did you first meet Samantha?"

"Well, about five years ago, Tyler called me one evening when I was still living in California. He asked me to identify himself for who I initially thought was just a fan," Josh started. "But that first week was pretty, uh, busy for them and I couldn't get a straight answer out of Tyler about what was happening and why he wouldn't answer. So I flew to Columbus and showed up at their door on a Sunday morning. I met Samantha in their kitchen that morning."

"How would you describe Samantha's demeanour then?"

"She was wary. Skittish, nervous. Really quiet. She seemed to be afraid of, well, pretty much everything. She seemed most comfortable with Jenna, and then Ty. She took some time to warm up to me," he said.

"But she did, eventually?"

"She did," Josh smiled. "I wound up staying with them for a couple of months actually. I was helping them with Samantha, as she was learning that her... biological parent wasn't such a great guy and that a lot of what he'd told her wasn't true or just plain wrong. Then her... biological parent kidnapped her just as their adoption was finalized. I stayed with them for a week then, and then while Samantha recovered from her ordeal."

"How did she act?"

"She was terrified of everything. Especially men. She wouldn't stay in a room if Jenna or our friends who were visiting, if Sarah wasn't in the room. And even Sarah wasn't a guarantee."

"What did Samantha say about the time she was with her... abductor?"

"For three weeks, nothing," Josh said.

"Nothing?" Kravitz asked.

"She couldn't, or wouldn't, speak, for three weeks. She didn't start speaking until Christmas morning."

"Any idea why?"

"She had been traumatized, psychologically abused, berated and beaten."

"How do you know this? You said Samantha wasn't speaking."

"Well, for starters, I did see her in the hospital after we got her back. And second, she told us, once she started speaking again."

"Samantha has had some traumatic events throughout her life beyond her biological family. What do you know about those?"

"Sam's an amazingly resilient young woman, given what she's been through. Besides that first abduction, she had an accident where she fell off a bridge and sustained a head injury, a broken ankle at a basketball game. That sounds like something small, but shortly after she broke her ankle, she and Ty were in a pretty bad car accident. She spent a month in a coma and her entire right leg the same leg with the broken ankle, was mangled. Broken, she had a bunch of surgeries but in the end, circulation problems caused her to lose her leg just above the knee."