“He has every right to be scared,” Jamie defended me.
Jackson raised his hands in defense. “Of course he does. Look, I’m sorry for overhearing your conversation but, do you want me to sit in on this talk? If you don’t want me here that’s fine, Craig, but from a cop’s perspective what I heard made me nervous.”
I glanced at Jamie. He knew Jackson much better than I did. Jamie nodded softly. “He’s an annoying asshole but a good cop.” He sounded begrudging, but I could see they were friends, and he was probably teasing.
Jackson fake-swooned. “Jamie just called me a good cop.”
It lightened the mood a little, and yeah, there was something in Jackson I thought I could trust. I didn’t want to involve thecops, but he was the friend of a friend, and maybe he could give me kind of legal advice.
“Sure, you can sit in, I guess.” I sighed. “But Leon hasn’t done anything illegal.”
“I’m not sure that’s true,” Jackson said, sitting on the end of the slide, shoulders slouched, elbows on knees, and giving me a kind smile. “Can you start at the beginning again?”
This talk suddenly felt very different. Did I want to discuss this with a cop? Leon had never threatened me with physical harm. Never hit me. What did Jackson think he could add to this nightmare? Jamie hugged me a little tighter. The tale of Craig and Leon began again. From our meeting at a legal fund benefit for the homeless of LA to our whirlwind romance to my moving in with him a mere three months after we’d met. Leon was charming, rich, so damn smart, stylish. Everything I felt I wasn’t. I wanted to absorb his confidence by osmosis or something, I guess. To this day I can’t put my finger on why I’d allowed myself to be so easily manipulated.
I touched on how things at home, once he had me in his space, began to shift from Leon being the kind man to being the critical lover over the course of several months. It had been a slow progression. I’d barely noticed it, but the longer I was with him, the lower my self-confidence sank. Claudia saw it, though, and she made it known that she didn’t like Leon or his treatment of her brother to anyone who would listen. And several dozen who didn’t want to listen but had been forced to.
“And maybe that is on me? Maybe because I think of myself as less, I allowed him to make me feel that way.”
“No!” Jamie defended, “That’s bullshit.”
Jackson said little as the flow of memories increased from a trickling stream to a torrential dousing that could sweep a small town off the side of a mountain. All the nitpicking, the slights,the public humiliations all gushed out of me. Two years of being belittled had finally worn me down.
“Then one night, it all came to a head. He was late for dinner with one of his clients. I had a hockey game. He came unglued, called me a moron for putting a stupid game before his needs, and stormed out after taking a swing at Bruno napping on our bed.”
“He hit your dog?”
“He missed, but that one backhanded attempt was it for me, because if he could pick on something as helpless as a tiny dog…”
I leaned into Jamie, who tightened his hold as he muttered several choice curses.
I continued, “I’d been called a moron or retarded or a dimwit my whole life but that night… I don’t know. He’d called me far worse over our time together, but him lifting a hand to a tiny dog who loved us both unconditionally… that I wasn’t going to stand for. I packed up Bruno and my clothes, and I left Leon. My coach at the time was unhappy with me calling up and saying I had a family crisis, but he gave me a few days off to get things organized. When I got back to Michigan, my folks were surprised to see me, I’d never told them about the shit with Leon or what he’d done to Bruno. I was too ashamed. I bunked with my sister, who knew the reality of things, and when I returned to New York, I left Bruno with Claudia. I assumed after she moved, Leon had lost track of her. I prayed he had, but he’s obviously found her.”
Jackson sighed hard, muttering something about the internet. “It’s not hard to track someone down if you’re diligent. He’s a lawyer, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then his firm probably has a private investigator on staff. Easy enough to follow you when you went home for the summer. He might have had that info months ago and sat on it until heneeded it,” Jackson said, his brow furrowed as he spoke. “You said you kept all the texts he’s sent you?”
“Yeah, I have them in a folder. It’s stupid…”
“No, not at all. They’re evidence.”
“Look, I know I don’t have all the facts here, but to me, this sounds like a case of cyberstalking.”
“But he’s not following me around or anything,” I argued.
“He doesn’t have to. Cyberstalking is a pattern of behavior unwanted by the victim, that leaves the person being stalked feeling afraid or in danger. The messages and the texts don’t have to be direct threats to you or your loved ones, or your dog, but if any of it makes you feel scared in any manner, then it’s a case of cyberstalking. For a man who seems to think he’s so damn smart, it seems he should know better. Sometimes, the smartest folks are the dumbest when it comes to common sense. No slight intended, Jamie.”
“None taken,” Jamie said. “I wholly agree. Some of the most intelligent people I know are thick as shit when it comes to common sense.”
I sat there dumbfounded.
“Thing is… he is clever, and a lawyer, and he’s said that he would take me to court for Bruno. That he has the ownership papers and that no judge would rule in my favor. I can’t let him have Bruno. He’s not a dog person. Hell, he’s not a people person! He only wants the dog as a bargaining chip and to drive a stake into my heart, as if all the slights and name-callings over our relationship hadn’t hurt me bad enough.”
“We willnotlet him get his hands on Bruno. Surely there must be some legal recourse,” Jamie stated, his arms tight around me.
“Are the papers really in his name?” Jackson asked.
