Fortunate Son by E.A. Copen

Author:E.A. Copen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: E.A. Copen
Published: 2018-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

I WASN’T IN A BETTER mood when I went home, despite the news. Baron’s confession meant a deal worked out behind closed doors, one that would lessen his sentence. I didn’t like it, but at least he’d get something. Baron would do at least three years behind bars and spend the rest of his life as a registered sex offender. The sentence paled in comparison to what happened to Katie, but it was something. I knew she’d haunt him until the day he died. No law career for Baron Grahm, no spotless record for the senator’s son. I should’ve been happy, but something nagged at me.

Hunter and I ordered a pizza from the local pizzeria and sat on the sofa, eating in silence. He’d barely said two words to me since I’d gotten home. Maybe he could sense how tired I was.

Suddenly, he lowered his can of soda, looked at me and said, “What do I do when I go back to school on Monday?”

What he meant was, “What do I do about Chad?”

I knew what I wanted to say. The kid needed a taste of his own medicine. He needed disciplined. But if I told my ten-year-old son to beat up another ten-year-old, it’d make Hunter no better than Chad and I’d probably have some serious explaining to do to the school administration.

The school wasn’t going to do anything, and I couldn’t not send Hunter to school. I knew he couldn’t avoid the bully. That wasn’t how bullies worked. True bullies sought out their prey. They hunted it like a hawk hunted a field mouse.

Hunter couldn’t just ignore him. The absolute worst thing he could do was ignore the problem because it was likely the abuse would escalate. Chad would see my son as an easy target. Ignoring a bully only served to reinforce his negative behaviors. Argue all you want about sticks and stones, words could cut deeper than any blade on a young mind. Enough ten-year-olds had killed themselves across the nation due to bullying to prove that point hundreds of times over.

Somehow, Hunter had to show Chad that he wouldn’t be an easy target without becoming the monster he wanted to destroy. It was a delicate balance, and something I couldn’t do for him.

“You have to be better than Chad,” I said. “You know who you are. If he says something about you that’s not true, trying to goad you into a fight, you can’t take him up on that offer, Hunter.”

“So I’m just supposed to let him do whatever he wants to me?”

“No,” I snapped back, thinking of Katie. “If it comes to a fight, never throw the first punch, no matter what, but you make damn sure you throw the last one. Make it count. Don’t ever let him forget it.”

“But you said it was wrong to get into fights.” Hunter put his plate down on the sofa cushion and frowned at me.

I turned my attention back to the nightly news on the screen where they were covering the story of Baron’s arrest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.