The Reboot by B. E. Baker

Author:B. E. Baker [Baker, B. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Purple Puppy Publishing

15

Donna

When Aiden’s old enough to be making career decisions, I’m going to steer him away from being a lawyer. What a terrible job. Case in point: I’m calling Abby at eight forty-five on a Friday night.

I’d like to say that I’m an anomaly, but I feel like a lot of her friends call her with legal questions and emergencies. In fact, we’re only friends now because she has such a big heart that even after I was trying to screw her, she helped me with an emergency. . . late at night. Her husband’s a doctor, and I imagine they get a lot of late night medical calls as well. Between the two of them, it’s a wonder they’re willing to have any friends at all.

Just when I think I’m about to go to voicemail, she answers. “Hello?”

“Abby.” She can’t see me, but I cringe as I say her name.

“Is everything alright?”

“Not really,” I say.

“Please tell me that moron isn’t threatening to keep Aiden?” Only a stellar lawyer would be able to keep track, on top of managing her own busy life, of when my son is due to return home from California. “Gabe has the date of his return circled on the calendar and he’s made a little countdown chain with paper rings that gets shorter every day, so he has to come back Monday, or I’ll be getting an earful.”

I laugh, and for a split second, it’s not even forced. “Aww, Gabe. Have I mentioned how much I love him?”

“What’s going on, Donna?”

“Can he win if he sues for custody a year after the court assigned me as custodian?” I know we’ve talked about this before, and she helped me feel way better. I’m counting on her doing the same thing again.

“I mean, I’m not licensed in California, which is where I assume he’d try to bring the claim, but if I remember right from when I looked it up, their criterion were like, the age and health of the kid, emotional ties to parents, parental capacity, and maybe a history of abuse? There was one more element. . .I think it’s ties to the community, school, and home or something like that.”

Criterion? Ties? Capacity? “What does all of that mean?”

“To bring a claim at all, he’d need to show something significant had changed, and then he’d need a compelling reason to bring a suit in California again, after a judge transferred to Utah.”

“Like?”

“You losing your job, him getting a new one, evidence of the child failing to thrive, that kind of thing.”

The child psychiatrist or therapist or whatever is making more sense.

Aiden’s doing fine in school, thankfully, but he has said he misses his old school and friends on several occasions. Other than Gabe, he hasn’t made many new pals here. It’s partially my fault. I don’t really have time for many other friends, so I never take him to see anyone else.

“He used to be in soccer and basketball, and I haven’t done anything like that there.

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.