Adopted by Phan

Chapter 87

Dan's P.O.V.

I was going through the stack of paper on my desk, my brows furrowed and my head resting on one of my hands. Most of the writing on the paper was rubbish but there were a few things that stood out, including a few names I recognised including Javen White, now with a death date beside his name.

I was looking at some paper with Jay's ancestry, looking for anything that I could see that might be useful. Looking at her direct family tree I saw her father and mother, followed by her and her brother. Looking further back, I saw that everyone in her family had a death date beside their name except for her brother, mother, and Jay herself.

I knew that there was no one left in her family other than two people, her brother and mother, but it was still worrisome. Her brother and mother might turn up some day and her mother might try and claim custody of her, legally or not, and it scared me. I didn't want to lose her again.

"Phil! Can you come here for a sec!?" I had just noticed something at the bottom of one of the pages, involving her brother. I heard footsteps clattering behind me and Phil appeared in the doorway, flicking his hands to get rid of the water he had on them.

"Yeah?" I turned.

"Come here." I pointed at the paragraph and watched as his eyes scanned it, widening as he went.

Benjamin Jack White (relationship to Jay Tori White- Brother) was placed in foster care in New Zealand at aged 12. He was adopted by a family of {one female, aged 40, three males, aged 46, 13 and 10} and after 3 years moved to, Little Rock, Arkansas where they settled in well.

Benjamin is doing well in school and is interested in sports, mostly football. He has not expressed any desire to find his family again, although was informed of the death of his biological father and did not seem upset. He had no message for the remainder of his family.

Phil nodded.

"We don't need to worry about him then." I shook my head, having just finished re-reading the paragraph.

"I don't think Jay wants to see him either, she said she didn't like him much and he probably bullied her when they were little." Phil squeezed my shoulder, leaning his head on it after crouching down. I was still only half way through a stack of paper that Officer Briny had given us, all of it information on Jay.

"Is there anything on her mother?"

"Nothing much so far, I've seen her age and name somewhere in here but nothing else of real interest. Most of it's stuff about her dad's death, the funeral and stuff which no one really cared about." It was true, no one had really been to his funeral or anything, with no family left and having spent years in prison, there was no one who cared about him.

"Do you want to keep going or take a break? You've been reading for hours." I sighed, standing up. I had been reading for hours, since Jay had gone to school that morning over 4 hours ago. I had been looking for something of interest, something that would be useful to us.

I followed Phil down the stairs, collapsing onto the couch practically on top of him and closed my eyes. I mostly wanted to sleep, which I did with no problem.

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"Dan? Wake up sweetheart." I shifted, feeling Phil's light hand on my shoulder and his breath on the back of my neck. I could feel his warmth from behind me, curled around my back and his head resting right behind my own.

"Whyyyyyy..." I was still tired, refusing to open my eyes.

"Cause Jay's about to get home and I've found something you might like to see." With that I opened my eyes, looking right up at Phil. He had his brow furrowed and piece of paper in his hand, on that looked like the millions of other piece from the pile I had been reading from earlier.

"What is it?" I was wide awake now, attempting to read the text through the back of the paper.

"It's- it's about her mother. I went through the rest of the pile while you asleep." I sat up further, swinging my legs around to the side of the couch and taking the paper from Phil.

Mary Jo Ann White was released from prison in 2016 after serving 4 years for child abuse. She did not attempt to find or contact her ex-husband and will be on probation until 2020, unable to move residence unless a dire situation comes around and unable to leave the country.

She had expressed interest in finding both her children, currently in foster care, but she has had all of her parental rights removed and will not be able to take back or even visit either of her children if they do not want it.

I sighed in relief, nodding as I finished reading it.

"Oh thank god, we won't go through all of that again..." Phil leaned onto my shoulder, squeezing my hand, also sighing happily. Neither of us wanted to go through all of that again and now we knew it wouldn't happen, with Jay's mum not having any hold at all over her.

"Wait what's the time?" Phil looked down at his phone, still in his lap.

"Just past 3, Jay'll be home in a few minutes. I just wanted to talk to you quickly, about what happene- no, part of what happened." I nodded, confused. "Jay's phone."

"Oh! I had no idea what you were talking about, she lost it, didn't she." Phil nodded.

"Yeah, Officer Briny said it was destroyed before Jay was found by her father probably, so we might have to get her a new one, we haven't really thought about it." It was true that we hadn't, it had slipped our mind in all of the panic of the past 2 or 3 months and it hadn't seem very important as Jay could use Skype to contact us over her computer if need be.

"It's under insurance isn't it?" Phil shook his head.

"Well it is, but it being broken by kidnappers isn't covered unfortunately." He was being extremely sarcastic, sounding a little bit pissed off.

"It's okay, we'll get another soon, don't worry." He smiled, leaning down to capture my lips in a tender kiss. I looked right up into his sky blue eyes and smiled right back, leaning down a little so our foreheads were touching and our eyes closed. I could feel his hand resting right on my heart and I could hear his heartbeat in the silence, my arm on his shoulder.

"I love you bear, so, so god damn much." Phil murmured underneath his breath.

"I love you too lion." Even with my eyes closed I could see Phil's dopey grin, a cheeky smile on his face.

"You haven't called me that one in a while bear." One of his hand brushed my hair from my face and I leaned into his touch.

"I figured I'd bring it back." I was smiling too, just wanting to sit there forever.

"Okay then bear."