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The day I showed up to court for the preliminary hearing, I thought I stood a very good chance because I’m the one who has been in the child’s life since birth. The state had no rights to my kin.
But I didn’t know that there was something else waiting for me there. Not only was Diedre’s bitch of a sister there, but they were now claiming that my grandson was of no relation to me and, therefore, I wasn’t even in the running for custody.
None of it made any sense. They were saying that Dan wasn’t the baby’s father. That Diedre had lied the whole time and that she had to have known the baby wasn’t his because she was already two months along when she met my son.
We were told the baby was premature by Diedre. I sat there and listened as my world was tipped upside down, disbelieving that this was really happening to me. There was no one there for me, and all the lawyer would say was that there was nothing more we could do.
I’d spent all of my money on him, and now he was telling me that it was all in vain. I had no rights, none. Just like that, a child I had known and raised for so many years was just being taken from me. The last connection I had to my son was being ripped away from me, and they were telling me I had no rights.
As if that’s not bad enough, everything my son had left in this world had gone to his ex-wife. It makes no sense; they were divorced for so long, and yet, because he never changed anything, it was all going to her. His other life insurance policy that I knew nothing about, whatever was in his investment file, even the new house he’d bought after the divorce.
He'd made her her power of attorney when I’d thought all along that it was me. He’d even lied to me about his finances and was saving or investing his money while I was supporting him in the last couple of years, but what was worse was that video someone had sent of Dan ranting and raving about his I’d screwed up his life.
In the video, it was obvious that he had been drinking, but those words cut deep, especially since they were the last I would ever hear from my son. He blamed me and not Amanda for everything that went wrong in his life.
He thinks without my interference, they would’ve been able to work things out. It was hard to hear that right in the middle of the court battle; I was fighting for his son. But now he doesn’t have a son, and I don’t have a grandson.
I sat outside the courtroom because I couldn’t take another step. My phone rang, and I answered it in a daze. “You stupid bitch, what did you do now?”
“What’re you talking about?” The world must be ending for my husband to call me.
“There are people here with the sheriff’s deputies to take possession of the house. You sold the fucking house?”
“I didn’t, that’s a mistake.”
“A mistake? I have the papers right here in front of me.”
“It’s got to be a scam. The sheriff doesn’t move you out of your house when it’s been sold.”
“We were supposed to move out almost a month ago. Do you know what my parents are going to say when they hear about this?”
“No, you can’t tell them.” He hung up the phone, and I found the strength to get up and go.
He couldn't tell his parents about this; I know them. This would be the end of the road for me. They might not have cared about their son’s happiness when they forced him to marry me, but they cared about their money and their legacy.
They were already blaming me for Dan’s murder because someone had told them everything, from the pregnancy to my part in running off his wife. I’d forgotten how much they’d liked her. They were some of the ones who claimed that she was good for my son and how much she had done for him when they were younger.
It’s true she’d gotten my son to do his homework and pay attention to his studies, but so what? I was his mother; I was the most important woman in his life, not her.
I rushed home to find a mess. There were marshals and moving trucks all in the driveway, and my husband was on his phone. How had it come to this? How had everything I’d done in my life come to this?
I was almost seventy years old, and I had nothing left. No family no real friends, and now the last thing I had to hold onto in my old age had been stolen from me. I felt tired and alone as I watched my husband leave as soon as I arrived. Two guesses where he was going.
* * *
DIEDRE
* * *
“Jessica, what are you doing here?”
“Hello Diedre, long time no see.”
“How did you find me?”
“I didn’t, actually. The McCalls found me.”
“Who?”
