Jodee

Chapter 37 - Police Station

The next couple of weeks passed in a blur for me.

It was filled with random school work that once seemed so important, just didn't seem to matter to me anymore. My brothers constantly asked me questions and asked if I was okay — checking to see if I still wanted to testify. I guess I would do the same.

They were home a lot more, making sure I was okay because I did realistically get one of the worst news of my entire life. But they were also gone a lot, called away suddenly by numerous calls or meetings, most of them with my lawyer, Richard Stepehns.

It was weird to think that I had a lawyer. I wanted to think of him as my brother's lawyer. But Mr. Stepehns is a child custody lawyer, and Ace isn't a child anymore. He hadn't been his entire life.

I've tried to distract myself by focusing more on school or trying to hang out with my friends afterschool — Caleb and Ace seemed pretty happy about that part. But every time I think that I've forgotten about my father for only a moment he comes back to haunt me.

My entire life I've been running from Tobias Chambers. It was hard when I was living in Massachusetts with him and it was even harder when Ace and I had just moved to California. It was like I thought every second I was going to turn around and he would be there, like Ace and I did even move and I dreamt it all. But as time moved on and my old life in Massachusetts seemed like an eternity away my mind started to forget about Tobias. And I was happy that way.

Why did he have to come back?

Part of me blames myself for my father coming back, I mean I am the one he's trying to take custody of. But the other part of me knows that my father will do anything to get back at Ace, including going after me. I would never blame my brother, though, none of this is his fault. But throughout my fourteen years of life somewhere in the back of my head my brain is always trying to put all the blame on me.

I blamed myself for my brother not having a childhood because he had to take care of me, even now he doesn't really have an adult life because he's stuck being a parent to me. I mean, at 25 most people are married or have a serious partner, Ace never got that. Or Caleb, really. It was all because of me.

Most of the time I can shove that part of my brain away, into a dark corner of my head where it'll never resurface, but when things get tough, it all comes back. Like a bruise that you think has gone away, but all it takes is your clumsy self running into a wall for it to remind you, it isn't gone yet. A thorn in your side that never leaves.

My father is like my thorn in a way.

He's in my brothers's side too. Mr. Stephens said that Tobais's lawyers were attempting to make the trial come up super fast, in the hopes that we'll be blindsided and not have a compelling case. That means that Ace and Caleb have been spending a lot of time talking to Mr. Stephens so they are prepared. I guess being a workaholic works in their favor this time. In order to proceed to an in person court, however, I need to give my statement which has to be set up with a willing social worker and scheduled time at the police station to speak.

Today was that day.

It was about twelve thirty and our appointment was at one. The one plus side was that I was allowed to skip the entire school day for this. But that also came with downsides — I had spent the entire day freaking out about what was to come.

I knew that one of my brothers would be with me so that was good and I knew that my father would not be there which is a huge relief. And I also knew that this would be a simple conversation about my life and the social worker wouldn't be against me like what it would be like if I testified in court and my fathers lawyer got a go at me. I tried to convince myself that it would be okay, but I still worried.