The Secret Admirer Next Door (Love Next Door Series Book 1) *Editing*

Chapter 19

A loud high pitched scream jolted Abe out of a dead sleep. I took him a moment to come to any kind of realization.

"Dad!" He heard Issac's pre-pubescent voice scream and the rustling of feet up the steps, "Dad!" He screamed again. Abe sat up just as a young Issac bolted in the door. Sweat shrouded his face as he braced himself on his knees to catch his breath. Abe shot up out of bed to rub his son's back. He was having another asthma attack. "Breathe. Son. Breathe." 

"D-d..." His eyes and his face were a deep shade of read.

He held his son to his chest starting a deep cadence of breathing. "Breathe." He urged.

"D-d-d..."

"Shh!" He stroked his son's long scruffy locks. He'd heard the neighbor girl call him "Shaggs." And for the first time he understood why. He wanted to laugh.

He felt his son's body relax and slowly pulled away. His his eyes were still wide with worry but the color returned to his skin. "What's wrong..."

"Somebody..." He breathed, "Somebody..."

"Say it slowly." He nodded. He'd developed a stutter after his mother died. He hoped that wasn't something permanent.

"They...gr-gr..."

"They grabbed Bubbles." He spit out.

It didn't register until remembered that what he'd called the neighbor girl. Melanie. Without a second thought he grabbed his pants, he'd lost time calming Issac down keeping him from having another asthma attack, so he didn't bother with shoes or even a shirt. He raced down the stairs and blew out the door and sure enough there was a white minivan and two ladies man handling the girls. The middle one was clinging to the door of the house, poor little Melanie was swinging her legs as a husky woman held her waits in a death lock.

"Hey!" He called out, getting the husky silver haired woman's attention, "What's going on here." He crossed his arms defensively. He wasn't prepared to fight a woman, but he wasn't about to let the girls get taken anywhere, especially with them screaming bloody murder. "What seems to be the problem?"

"This is state business, sir, I'm going to need you to step aside."

He looked down at the teary-eyed little girl biting the lady's thick arm.

"I can't do that." He said.

"Look the kids are being taken by the state, they are in an unfit environment."

"Unfit?"

"Where are their parents."

His heart sank. "I'll take responsibility for them."

Her eye soften. "What's your name?"

"Goodwin, Abram Goodwin, I live across the way." He pointed out his two story house across the street.

"That's noble of you Mr. Goodwin, but you need to take that up with the state."

He grit his teeth. "So your just going to take them."

"My hands are tied Mr. Goodwin."

"Mr. Abe, please don't let them take me. Please." Melanie screamed. It was a stab in his heart and he couldn't do anything to stop them.

"I'll straighten this out." He promise looking in the van, "Don't worry."

Even the little toddler was crying in her car seat, but what he said seemed to be enough to calm the older ones, though tears continued to stream from their eyes. This couldn't have been right. He looked back and noticed the one that they'd left, holding her knees on the door step. She was obviously over eighteen.