His Princess, Without Him [Book 2]

#38 Trying to hold on

Niall's P.O.V.

"I'm sorry to tell you but I highly believe this will be the last time we will be calling about this. There is not much more to do at this point" John's voice echoed through my ears and all I wanted to do was cry, but I was empty... There were no tears left to cry anymore. 

Emma found her voice before I did, which was probably a bit safer anyway. Maybe if I did start talking my tears would follow soon after. 

"So... that's it John" she whispered and I could see tears burning in her eyes. She was heartbroken for a daughter who was never truly hers.. But she loved her nonetheless as if she were her own. 
"Are you sure we can't do something else to change their minds. Anything." she almost begged him 

"Guys.." John started to chuckle and I was about to lose my shit. He knew how important this was to me, but to him this was a joke? How on earth did this happen?

"I think there has been a major missunderstanding" he started but I was already zoning out. Ready to end the call and curl into my sad little ball of dispare.

"It will be the last time because you won. You have her back mate." He started chearing and all I could do was stare at the phone and to Emma and back at the phone.

"She.. she's coming back" I whispered, too scared to have heard this all wrong, or to wake up to a new nightmare. This one would be worse than the one in which she kept calling for me because this one gave me hope before crushing me mercilessly.

"You will have her back by friday afternoon. One of the terms was that she will at least finish her year at her new school and that she will make the transfer to you by the weekend so it won't be too much change at once. There are some more terms but nothing unreasonable I made sure of it."

John kept talking about all of the paperwork that had to be signed tomorrow and how the transfer of Lauren would go, form picking her up from school, to informing all of her teachers and such. 
I was only listening to half of it, not letting go of the feeling inside of me, which was pure and utter joy and bliss. 

I was her father again, she would be my baby and we would all be a family, nothing could ever tear us appart and we had proven it once again. All of my hard work had paid off, finally. 

After twenty more minutes John got off the phone and Emma kissed me, almost letting the both of us fall off the couch we were still on but neither one of us even cared anymore.

"You did it babe.. You actually did it" she whispered against my lips and I couldn't stop myself from hugging her as tightly as I could without hurting her. 
"We did it princess. Without you I would have had no chance of even surviving without her for so long" 
I kissed her face and felt the wetness from both our tears but I couldn't care less. We had our daughter back, she would be near me again for the remainder of her life and I would make sure she loved every minute of it.

"We should call your parents Niall, they will be thrilled to hear of this, I'm sure." Emma handed me my phone again and I took it, thoughts running through my mind on how I would share this news with them.
The boys had to know too, she was their niece after all and in a way they all saw her as a daughter in the way they would do anything for her.

I called both of my parents, then Greg and then the lads. All but Harry answered almost immediately. So much for only being one call away like he promised this afternoon.

Every single one was over the moon with the news, but still a little sceptical since this wasn't my first call like this.
My mom and dad would try to book a flight here for the weekend but wouldn't make any promisses yet. Greg and Denise had a family weekend which they already said yes to so they wouldn't be able to make it and the lads would try to get their plans for friday evening reschedualed so they couls be there for us.