Janet's POV
It's been a few days since Michael and Ocean came over and none of us have spoken to them since. I know I haven't been the greatest of mothers and I've made some mistakes, But Michael and Ocean aren't petfect either. They've made way worst mistakes than me and out of everybody I thought they would understand the most, but it's like they don't even care about anybody but themselves. I trusted them with Mikey and they promised me they were only taking him for a little while to help me, but instead they betrayed me and adopted him behind my back and apart of me feels like they've been planning this for a long time.
I've spent a whole year believing my son was dead and that it was my fault and instead of giving him back to me and letting me be a mother to him, they've just taken him away from me all over again and I'll never forgive them for that.
My dad's been trying to help me and spoken with Jackie about it because he's a lawer and he told us that we can take this to a judge and try and have the adoption reversed, but he said that it's unlikey that the judge would agree because Mikey is in a stable home with two parents that are able to care for him and it's unlikey they'll be forced to take Mikey from a home he's always known and hand him over to a 15 year old who can't even suport herself.
I understand that social services want Mikey in a stable home and on paper Michael and Ocean do look like the better parents and I understand them forming a bond with him, but Mikey isn't their son he's mine and I've already lost the first year of his life and I'm not going to let them or anybody else take him from me again and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get him back and when I do I'm never gonna let anybody take him from me again and I'll never let anything to him or this baby.
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Ocean's POV
"You always knew that it wasn't going to be easy and I told you this from the start. Just like I told you that you and Michael should have spoken to the rest of the family first" My dad says, over the phone.
"But we didn't do it to be malicious. We thought we were doing the right thing and everybody even wanted us to adopt him in the begining. Even Janet did and it's like they've all forgotten we're the ones that have been raising Mikey all this time, not them. They didn't even want Janet when they found out she was pregnant and just left me and Michael to deal with everything"
"I know. And they never should have put you two in that position. It's hard enough raising one child, let alone three and dropping a pregnant teenager on you both was wrong of them. Your barley adults yourselves"
"You think we were wrong for what we did?"
"I don't think you were wrong, but I think you were both misguided and you should have spoken to someone before doing something so drastic. Not telling people what's going on and hiding things from people only makes things worst in the long run. Look what happend when you had Duncan. Not once did either of you tell anybody what was going on. Sure you were scared and we didn't act the way we should have... me especially, but when you don't tell people what's going on and then just drop something on people like you two always do then your not gonna get a good reaction and it's just gonna hurt people"
"And I get that, but what are we supposed to do now? They all hate us and want us to give him back, but we can't. It's not that easy"
"Nothing in life is easy and you should know that by now, but as for giving him back. That's a choice you and Michael have to decide yourselves. Nobody can force you to do anything. You know what's best for Mikey and you need to do what's best him, just like you do with your own kids" he says softly and I don't say anything.
"Why don't you and Michael fly over and stay here for awhile with the kids? Sounds like the two of you need a break" he suggests. "We can't. Janet's trial will be starting soon and we're witesses so we can't leave. Plus we have work and stuff"
"Then why don't you give me your address and we'll come and see you and we can help you out"
"I'm sorry, I can't" I mumble and he sighs slightly. "If your still not ready to tell me, that's fine. I'm not gonna push you, but just remember your all welcome here anytime and you can call me anytime day or night. I miss you" he says softly. "I miss you too" I smile, slightly.
Me and Michael have been talking with my dad alot since our visit and me and him have started getting close again, but we still haven't told him where we live. It's not that I don't want to see him, but we're still scared about my aunt Sherri finding out where we are and telling my mom. Only a few people from Indiana know where we moved to and we'd rather keep it that way. Not just for Michael and I, but mainly for our kids.
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Michael's POV
I'm in the kitchen eating my breakfast and Ray comes in with some mail. "More bills?" I chuckle, taking them from him. "Do you guys ever get anything else?" He chuckles back. "There's um... there was some small packages and stuff for Janet"
"It's probably from those game and movie sites she signed up for. They send her stuff from time to time"
"Maybe you could take them over for her"
"I doubt she'll wanna see me" I mutter. "But it'll give you a chance to talk to her. It's been a few days now. You need to talk to her. You can't just go over there drop a bomb on them like that, then not speak to them again"
"They haven't tried to talk to us either" I point "Are you suprised?" He raises and eyebrow and I open my mouth to say something then decide otherwise.
"Because you know I'm right" he smirks slightly and Ocean walks in. "What are you two gossping about?" She smiles, walking over and pecks my lips. "Nothing much" I shrug. "Michael's gonna go drop off some mail for Janet and talk to her while he's there" Ray cuts in. "I never said that" I frown. "I have to go to work soon. We can go on my lunch break though" Ocean suggests and I shake my head. "It's fine. I have to drive past their house on the way to work. Did you manage to get hold of your dad?" I ask changing the topic. "Yeah, their all doing good and Isabella's starting daycare next week. He still keeps asking us to visit him and I explained we couldn't because of Janet's trial"
"We can go after the trial if you want? Veah's always asking about Issabella" I smile slightly and she nods. "I'm gonna have to get ready for work" she says, looking at the time. "Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?"
"I'll be fine, don't worry. I'll call you as soon as I'm done"
"Ok, I'll go get ready for work then" she mutters then pecks my lips and leaves.
"Why don't you want her to go with you?" Ray asks, Once Ocean is upstairs. "She's gonna need to speak to Janet eventually too"
"Because right now, she's stressed out enough and I don't want her going round there if there's gonna be another argument... which there will be"
"She seems ok to me" he shrugs "Trust me, she's not" I mutter "She's started stratching at her arm again and she only does that when she's really stressed out"
"So that's why she's been covering up her arms latley?" He asks and I nod. "At the time, she doesn't even realise she's doing it. She just goes completley blank and yesturday she cut herself really bad. That's why I don't want her going over there. Because it's just gonna make it worse for her"
"Has she been taking her meds?" He asks and I nod. "Everyday and we brought it up in our therapy session and she thinks it's because of the stress of Janet being back and wanting Mikey back"
"Is there anything I can do to help her?"
"Just don't say anything to her about it, unless she brings it up and try not to stress her out"
"Maybe she should go spend some time with her dad" he suggest. "If she's that stressed then it might do her some good to get away for awhile and it'll be a nice vacation for your kids"
"We can't. Janet's trial starts next week"
"Then why not just let her go? Your both just gonna say the same thing anyway so why not let her go? She clearly wants to"
"Because she's a witness too and us saying the same thing is what's gonna help Janet and help get Chad locked away for good and even if she wasn't a witness. She's stressed enough already and her flying alone for 8 hours with four kids, one of which is teething, isn't gonna help"
"I'll go with her the" he suggest "No you won't" I frown "And like I said. We can't go because we're both witnesses. I told her we'd go after the trial and we will. So untill then, don't be stressing her out"
"But...."
"I'm gonna go get ready for work. I'll talk to you later" I cut him off and leave the room before he can say anything else.
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Joseph's POV
"What did he say?" Kathrine asks, as soon as I get off the phone. "Same thing all the other lawyers I spoke to said" I sigh, heavily. "Jackie did say that it's unlikey a judge will make them hand him over"
"I know. To be honest I thought Jackie was just siding with Michael and Ocean, but everybody we spoke to has said the same thing as Jackie"
"Why would you think he'd side with Michael and Ocean?" She frowns confused. "I don't know... Why would they adopt a child and not bother to tell us?" I say that last part sarcastically. "So what happens now? Do we go ahead and try anyway? Because they all said it's unlikey, but they didn't say it was impossible. There's still a chance" She says hopefull. "Of course we'll still go ahead with it. I don't care if Michael's my son or not, he can't just go around doing whatever he wants and taking babies that don't belong to him. If him and Ocean want another baby so bad then they can make their own damn baby. They've made enough of them already so it's not like they don't know how too"
"Maybe we can try and talk to them. All the lawyers have said if we fight them in court, it's unlikey we'd win, but if they hand him over willingly then they can"
"If they were gonna hand him over willingly then they would have done that by now and wouldn't have gone behind our backs and adopted him would they?" I frown. "Do you really think their gonna hand him over just because we ask them nicely" I say sarcastically.
We continue talking and there's a knock at the front door.
"What the fuck do you want!?" We hear Janet snap and I sigh heavily, rolling my eyes, not bothering to ask who it is.
"Shouldn't you be at work?" I frown, as Michael walks into the living room. "Yeah, I just came to drop some post off for Janet and I wanted to..."
"I'm suprised you didn't steal that too" Janet scoffs, snatching the mail from his hand and throws it on the sofa. "Janet, just hear him out" Kathrine cuts in.
"It's fine. I didn't come here to argue. I..."
"Then why did you!? Because unless you came here to give me back MY child then I don't wanna hear it" Janet snaps at him. "We didn't do anything of this to spite you. You were gone for a year and..."
"Not by choice"
"We didn't know that at the time though did we? And before you left you didn't even want him and..."
"I was overwhelmed and going through alot of shit when I said those things and I DID want him back! But you'd already fostered him without even telling me!"
"You never told us that! And..."
"Why don't you just let him finish talking?" I cut in "Why? So he can lie some more!? And..."
"You never once told us you wanted him back! And it's not like we just took him from you and didn't give you a chance! We gave you chances time after time!" Michael snaps at her "And when we fostered him we did it to help you so you could get back on track. Chad messing with the papers you got wasn't our fault! We tried talking to you that night when we told you we fostered him, but you walked out and didn't say anything about wanting him back and even then we tried to get you to see him as much as possible and encourage you to spend time with him, but you didn't! The last two times you DID bother to come see him, you turned up drunk and almost dropped him and even then we tried to help you and let you take him out for the day and he came back with his face smashed up and he had a seizer and ended up in hostpital! and..."
"But that wasn't my..."
"And even THEN we tried to protect you when the social worker turned up! and we almost lost our kids because of that! and then you disapeared for a year and...."
"Because I thought he was dead!" Janet yells back at Michael. "Can you to please stop screaming at each other" Kathrine cuts in "What do you expect me to do!? He stole my kid and..."
"I didn't steal any..."
"Michael" I cut in and he turnd to me. "I get why you did it, but you can't just keep him from Janet. She's Mikey's mother and just like you she's fucked up and, God knows how many times you and Ocean fucked up and you can't just take Mikey away from Janet. She's his mother" I say calmly. "We're not saying she can't see him or..."
"See him!?" Janet snaps. "He's MY fucking son! And I'm getting him back and...."
"No your not. I'm sorry, but we can't do that" Michael cuts her after and Janet charges at him, but Kathrine manages to grab her before she can hit him.
"Maybe it's best if you leave" I suggest. "But I..."
"Michael, you need to leave now. Your not helping anything" I cut him off again and he sighs slightly and turns to leave.
"And don't bother coming back! Or showing up at my trial either!" Janet snaps. "He needs to be there. He's your wittness" I turn to her. "Not anymore! I don't want him anywhere near me!" She snaps the turns to Michael.
"I don't need you or want you! And that goes for your cunt of a wife too!"
"Janet!" Kathrine gasps "Well, fuck you too then!" Michael snaps and storms out of the house and I turn my attention back to Janet. "Janet, I get your pissed, but you needed Michael and Ocean to stand wittness for you"
"Oh so now your on his side? I thought you said you'd help me get Mikey back?"
"And I will, but whether we like it or not we needed Michael and Ocean for your trial and..."
Before I can finish, she walks off, upstairs and I hear her bedroom door close.
"Now what are we suposed to do?" Kathrine sighs. "I don't know, but we needed them at the trial"
"Needed? Of course they'll still be there. Michael would let Janet down"
"She's just screamed at him not to show up and called his wife a cunt. You really think he's gonna bother showing up to help her?"
"Well if you hadn't kicked him out then we could have spoken to him and..."
"I didn't kick him out" I cut her off. "I told him to leave because I'm not gonna get through to him if Janet's screaming and hitting at him. You heard me trying to talk to him. Maybe it's best if we keep Michael and Ocean away from the house from now on"
"You can't just disown him! He's our son! And can you really blame her for being angry?"
"I didn't say disown him and of course not I understamd she's pissed, but you asked me to talk to him, but I can't do that with Janet screaming and hitting him. So it's best if we just keep them seprate and I'll go over and try and speak to Michael tomorrow. I don't wanna have to take sides or be stuck in the middle anymore than you do, but until we can get this dealt with, we keep them seprate.
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Janet's POV
I'm lying on my bed and there's a light knock on the door and mother opens the door slightly
"Is it ok to come in?" Mother asks softly and I nod, sitting up. "Are you ok now?"
"No... why does dad always have to side with Michael?"
"He's not siding with him" she says softly and walks over and sits on the edge of the bed. "Your fathers just as upset with Michael and Ocean as we all are, but you attacking him and screaming isn't helping anybody and it's not good for the baby. You can't be going around hitting people like that when your pregnant"
"I just want my son back" I mutter and she wraps her arms around me "I know you do sweetie and we're doing everything we can, I promise, but right now you need to be concentrating on your baby and your trial. Leave the other stuff to your father and I" she says soflty and I don't say anything.
"Why don't you come downstairs? You don't want to be stuck in your room all day"
"I'm fine. I just wanna stay up here for awhile"
"Ok, well I'll give you some space" she smiles, getting up to leave then turns back to me. "Oh, I almost forgot" she says handing me the post, Michael brought over.
"I forgot all about that" I mutter, taking it from her. "Did you order something?"
"No, it's just some sites I signed up to. They send DVDs and games sometimes"
"Well then I guess that's your day sorted" she chuckles slightly, making me do the same. "You get some rest and I'll bring you up somthing to eat" she smiles and kisses my forehead and leaves, closing the door behind her.
I start opening up my mail and it's the usual newsletters and some movie's, but as get to the last one, I notice it doesn't have the same logo as the others and is in a plain brown envelope instead of the usual white that they always send their post in.
I open it up and something falls out of the envelope onto my floor. I kneel down to pick it up and I'm confused when I see it's a simcard. I put it on my dresser and go back to the letter that came with it.
Janet
I just want to tell you that I'm truly sorry for the thing's I've put you through this past year. I never meant to hurt you and I never wanted to put you in the position I put you in. I was forced to do those things by other people who were around me, I swear to you, I never wanted to do the thing's I did to you. I've loved you since the day I saw you and I still do. Just thinking about you is keeping me going in this jail. I miss you with all my heart and I love you more than anything.
I know sending you this could get me in alot of trouble if they found out, but I'm prepared to take that risk for you because I love you so much. I enclosed a sim card with this letter and at 10am tomorrow, I will be able to call you as I'll be alone in my cell. Please pick up. I love you.
Chad xxxx