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

4. Jenna

Samantha's party was planned and we went all out for her. We hired a DJ, had a party tent pitched in the yard in case of rain, and invited our families, her friends and her teammates.

Because Mark wouldn't answer any of our questions - all asked through our lawyer, we'd had to order Samantha a new leg since she didn't know at which point she'd lost it. The company was fantastic though. They'd put a rush on it and we'd had it much faster than if it had been newly ordered. Though we'd had to have her stump recast.

Sam was more open about what she'd endured with her mother's brother than when her birth father had taken her.

She had told us that the first few days were okay, in terms of her physical health, and that somehow he'd managed to get a hold of insulin, but if she thought how much her birth father had made her ration her insulin when she had access to it at all times, this was ten times worse.

"But I wasn't really hungry much because I felt so sick all the time. Especially towards the end," she'd said

I wasn't surprised. With high blood sugar and not enough to eat, she would have felt dizzy and nauseated most of the time. Lethargic as well. She said for the last couple weeks, before she'd had the chance to get help, she felt heavy, tired and disconnected from herself.

"Things were happening, I don't know, around me. I really didn't feel like I was connected to myself or anything that was happening. It was like I was participating in life through a gauze screen or something."

I hated that she'd been through what she'd been through, but the way she had bounced back from the abduction, it was truly a statement to how much she had grown.

The night of Samantha's party, she was wearing her new leg, had dressed nicely in pants and a blouse and was engaged, happy, smiling. Real, true smiles that reached her eyes. I watched her with her guests and her friends.

A testament to the type of person Samantha was, the gift table was overloaded with gifts from our family and from her friends. 

"Sam!" I heard Jill call out when she arrived with her parents and her brother Kyle.

"Jill!" She cried, making her way over to her friend. The two wrapped each other in a tight hug.

"I can't believe you're not going to be here for Senior Year!" Jill was saying to her. Sam looked sheepishly at her best friend. Jill and Sam had been close since Sam's first day of school all those years ago. They'd had only one big disagreement in their five years of friendship.

"I know. I wish I could be, but I need this," Sam said.

"I know. You're going to call me all the time though, right?"

"Dude!" Sam laughed. "Of course! Make sure your camera is working. I'm gonna be FaceTiming as much as I can! You have to keep me up to date on all the SCHS gossip!"

I smiled as I listened in.

All night, Samantha bounced from friend to friend to teammate to teammate. She was all smiles all night. It was so great to see.

Towards the end of the night, I saw Sam sitting alone on a pool lounger. Frowning, I went over to her and sat beside her.

"Hey there," I said, putting my arm around her. "Are you okay?"

She looked at me with tear filled eyes. Rubbing the tears away, she wrapped her arms around me.

"I feel like I made the wrong choice but I also feel like I really need this," she sniffled.

"Oh, baby," I said, tightening my arm around her. "I get that. It's completely up to you. If you want to stay home, that's okay."

"No. I need this. I need to go. Chris told me she saw Tristan the other day and he isn't remorseful at all. He's still bragging!"