Chapter 6 - DANIEL FILES FIRST
Four days after the barbecue, a process server came to my bakery.
Divorce petition.
Daniel filed.
I read it in my office with flour on my shirt.
Petitioner alleges marital breakdown following escalating conflict.
Fine.
Then:
Respondent has recently demonstrated volatile behavior toward petitioner’s minor child.
My stomach tightened.
Examples:
Unwanted physical contact.
Attempts to undermine child’s relationship with father.
Intrusion into confidential custody records.
Emotional confrontation regarding biological mother.
Barbecue incident resulting in minor child feeling threatened.
No claim I hit Ava.
No claim I shoved her.
Careful.
Then Daniel requested temporary exclusive possession of the house because:
Ava requires continuity in her established residence.
The house was his premarital property.
Legally, his request was not absurd.
Emotionally, I felt erased.
My attorney, Natalie Shaw, read everything.
“Did you touch Ava at the barbecue?”
“With a lemonade pitcher. Accident.”
“Witnesses?”
“Thirty people.”
“Great.”
“Not great.”
“Legally useful.”
She continued.
“Any prior physical conflict with Ava?”
I told her both incidents.
She wrote.
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Have you ever disciplined her physically?”
“No.”
“Threatened?”
“No.”
“Yelled?”
“Yes.”
“How often?”
“I’m her stepmother. Enough.”
Natalie almost smiled.
Then:
“You copied Daniel’s custody records?”
“Public court records.”
“Good.”
“Flash drive?”
“Files from our shared computer and shared home-security backup.”
“Did you bypass passwords?”
“No.”
“Did you impersonate him?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Then she looked at me.
“Are you trying to get custody of Ava?”
The question hurt.
“I’m not her legal parent.”
“Correct.”
“I want her safe.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
I thought.
“No.”
Truth.
I had no right to turn my love for Ava into a custody claim simply because Daniel disappointed me.
I could testify.
Provide information.
Support her.
But Ava had two legal parents.
One complicated father.
One complicated mother.
May you like
I was something else.
That grief would become its own chapter.
