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

59. Samantha

Mom and Dad, Junie and Rosie are here! Mom looks amazing! Her belly is so big! Our brother is due in a couple of months. A brother! The little Prince is going to be so spoiled!

I woke up Saturday morning and smiled to myself. Curled up beside me was Rosie, who'd come into my room around midnight saying she wanted to sleep with me. Who am I to say no?

"Rosie Posey," I said, rubbing her arm to gently wake her up. "Wakey wakey! We're gonna have a lot of fun today but we have a long drive and we have to get moving!"

"Mmmmm," Rosie rolled over onto her back, so I tickled her tummy, which was just sticking out from her pyjamas, the shirt having bunched up a little.

"Noooo," Rosie whined sleepily. I tickled more and she started to giggle. "Sammmmmy. Noooooo."

She opened her eyes and I smiled at her.

"Hi Sammy!" She said in a more wakeful tone.

"Good morning, Rosie Posey," I said. "Time to wake up!"

"Okay," she said. "I hafta pee."

"Good thing I have a bathroom in my room," I smiled, grabbing my crutches and walking her to the bathroom. She did her thing, I did mine, we washed our hands and brushed our teeth. I quickly ran a brush through my hair, and told Rosie I'd do braids for her if she wanted. She seemed excited by the prospect and so we went back to my room and I sat on my bed while she leaned against me. I brushed her hair gently. It was so long!

"Rosie! Your hair is longer than Rapunzel's!" I joked.

"No it isn't. Rapunzel's hair goes longer than her bum. Mine isn't that long yet!" She giggled. I smiled at her.

"Well, I think it could be almost as long!" I said, laughing.

I separated the strands of hair and started twisting it into two braids on either side of her head. Rosie talked about her friends and play groups. She told me about Mom telling them about the baby.

"Are you excited for the new baby?" I asked her.

"Are you?" She asked.

"I am! A brother!" I said. She nodded enthusiastically.

It made me think back to when Mom and Dad told me - and everyone in the venue where Dad had been performing - about Mom being pregnant with Rosie. I'd still been unsure about where I fit in, whether I'd really be staying. Stanley still held sway over me then. And he was dead. I remember running off the stage and onto the bus. My first thought was to run through the gates, but I didn't know Buffalo well enough to have found anywhere I'd have felt safe. So I'd run to the bus, jumped into my bunk and closed the curtain. I'd tried to hold the curtain closed when Mom and Dad had come to talk with me, but forgot it opened both ways.

However, we talked and Mom and Dad assured me that I wasn't going anywhere. That they were adding to our family.  Not replacing me. It took a little while for me to feel confident that they really weren't getting rid of me, but I came around.

And then Dad had told everyone again when Mom was pregnant with Junie. We were at an awards show that time, I think.

With this baby, Dad and Mom had told everyone after Christmas. While I was still in the hospital. We'd taken a family photo where Dad had posted about me getting better (I was awake by then, and starting to get more mobile). He captioned it "Nothing like your daughter waking up from a coma on Christmas! Merry Christmas from the 6 of us!"

His fans went wild. Lots of comments came on his post saying they thought they noticed Mom was pregnant at Thanksgiving, but they were busy sitting at my bedside so people hadn't wanted to say anything because no one knew what was going to be my outcome. Dad's fans have been amazing about my accident. Or anything that's happened to me. They're always so sweet. I get comments on his and my own social media. But I have to be careful about who I accept as friends though. And that's kind of weird.