Fresh out of the orphanage

18| See you later

Alex's POV
We all were speechless, sitting in our chairs not wanting to cause a scene, just in case the judge changed his mind and made us get full custody.

But no.

The witnesses got up and began to leave while the judge gave us the most sarcastic sympathetic look before getting up and leaving.

We all had to face up to reality.

This was real.

And it was happening.

No one in particulars POV
They all got up and made there way down the stairs, shaken. Alexa holding Ed's hand and struggling to keep up with the stressed out adult. She could see he was on the verge of either crying or screaming right there in frustration, but he managed to bottle it up.
She had never seen him look this angry.

But Alex was a different story.

He looked in despair.

The usually, slightly dim-witted, bubbly brother looked puzzled and depressed at the same time. As if what had just happened hadn't properly sunk in, but had still hit him like a ton of bricks.

And don't get her started on Josh and Simon.

Both of them would usually be tickling her till she was blue in the face because she was getting their names wrong. But they all had guilt written all over their faces. Why? She did not know.

They left the court room and made their way outside until she heard a familiar voice calling behind her.

"Alexa!" The voice behind her shouted faintly.
As Alexa was about to turn around, Ed squeezed her hands gently.

"Alexa, don't turn, ignore him" Ed said, gently but firmly. She looked up at him and slowly nodded her head signalling she understood before turning to her brothers. The weakly smiled before she heard it again, and this time, her brothers began walking faster, praying they could get to the car in time.

"ALEXA!" This time it was much louder and although all her might was going into not turning around, that was soon broken when she felt her soft but large hand engulf her small shoulder.

"Wha-" Alexa started but was soon cut off by Ed.

"Leave. her. alone" Ed gritted, briskly walking, not even liking him in the faces. Ed then had enough and grabbed Alexa and lifted her up to make all of this go faster.

But just as they all reached the car, thief thoughts and threats were cut off when they heard their little sister speak.

"DADDY" she wailed which made everyone look at Alexa.

They're eyes softened at the distraught girl. If they did put her in the car without letting her talk to her dad, would they be able to live with the guilt?

If they had been ripped away from their dad who had previously taken care of them, they would be the same.

Ed sighed and reluctantly put the girl down. He still held her close, but didn't shove her in the car and drive away, no questions asked like he had intended.

Daniel looked down at his daughter before smiling weakly, hoping to see his daughters face light up, but everyone knew that would have been too good to be true. Instead she looked up at him with a blank expression, but behind that wall of a poker face, he knew there was a broken, scared girl.

"Look, you've got what you wanted, can't you just leave us in peace until your next contact?" An exasperated Josh said bluntly, sensing this was not going to be easy.

But what came out of Daniels mouth was not at all what they had expected.

"What I want!?" He half yelled, leaving the boys taken aback.
"Believe me, this is FAR from what I WANT" he continued.
"I want MY daughter back but considering that the judge thinks she is better with a bunch of strangers, this is as close to what I want as I'm going to get." He finished, realising he had just yelled.

"Well maybe if you hadn't been such a rubbish dad, she would still be with you!" Ed said, losing his patience, shoving Alexa in the car and ushering everyone to get in.

There was a painful silence until Daniel broke it.

"I'll see you later then"

Ed drive away and sighed when he was a safe distance from the court house.

Just as he thought all the confrontations had gone away-

"Don't call my dad rubbish" a seething voice from behind said.

Crap.