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He nodded, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll just get you guys some water real quick.”
Mr. Wittaker waited a beat as Coop filled a pair of glasses then set them on the table.
“Give me a yell when you’re done,” he said, then headed out of the kitchen. A part of me wished he didn’t have to go, and at the same time, I couldn’t risk him getting sucked into this. I doubted Mom would fight. I missed him as soon as he was gone.
She didn’t care about what I was doing now, right?
“Excellent. I have two briefs here for you to see. I’ll leave copies for you to read, but I want to go over them with you now so you understand what I’m doing, and if you want any changes made, we can tackle those right up front.”
A chill raced over my skin, apprehension and something else. This was something I needed to do, and at the same time, it felt incredibly disloyal to my mother. She wasn’t an evil person. She wasn’t even truly bad, she was just…
“Okay.”
“We’ll start with this one.” Mr. Wittaker flipped the folder open and turned it around to face me. “I will be filing this, with your approval, and at the same time, we will be serving your mother, Ms. Curtis, with the notification.”
I sucked against my lower lip, then stopped immediately. The cut there had mostly healed, but it still pulled and stung.
“Legal age of majority in Texas is eighteen, pretty standard. You can become automatically emancipated if you marry or if you join the military. However, in Texas, you still need a parent’s permission to marry before eighteen, so this won’t help you.”
My heart did a little skip jump at the marriage comment.
Mr. Wittaker gave me a sympathetic smile.
“Since that’s not an option or your expressed desire, we go for a declaration of emancipation in court. Once this is filed and your mother is notified, we’ll petition the court for a swift date for a hearing. In order to address the specific considerations that a judge will want to know, I’ve listed many of the things we discussed in my office here.” He flipped the page to an itemized list.
My mouth went dry at the first line indicating neglect. I disliked that word intensely. Taking a sip of the water, I tried to keep my hand from shaking. Not that I was having much luck. My gut churned, too.
“First, we indicate a pattern of neglect on the part of your mother and the number of hours, days, and weeks you’ve been self-managing. This helps us on two levels, it establishes that you would not be hampered, but in fact, you would be better off without her presence, and also that you are capable of managing yourself.” He ticked down to the next on the list. “You have stable living arrangements now, but it’s my understanding the lease here is in your mother’s name?”
“Yeah.”
“But she has moved out?”
I nodded. He tapped a line on the paper.
“This is her new legal address?”
“As far as I know. I haven’t been there, and she’s in Europe, somewhere at the moment.”
Mr. Wittaker frowned briefly, then picked up his phone and made a couple of notes.
“All right, I’ll make sure to note that, because notification has to be served. But her absence can be factored into neglect. When were you notified of her trip?”
“Technically, I haven’t been notified. Found out when the guys tried to track her down when I was in the hospital.”
While I couldn’t pinpoint it, his expression shifted subtly from professional to disapproving. “I hate to ask this, but can you get me a copy of your hospital records? I’ll need your authorization to get them.”
“I’m a minor still, right?”
“True, but you can request them and then give them to me. Legally, they do have to give them to you.”
I sighed. “Okay. I’ll call today.”
“Good, if you want to have them fax it to my office or email it…” He slid the card over to me. “You can always have them sent to you, and then you can forward them on.”
At my nod, he continued, “The rest of this lists if you’re financially self-sufficient. With your rent paid up through the end of May, you just need to be able to cover your utilities. The income statements you gave me show that you can. There’s also your work history, these both play in your favor. The scholarship you won and the internship option you’ve been given are both positives toward post-high school. Largely, we just need to show you can handle all of this ahead of your eighteenth birthday, which is in April, correct?”
I nodded again. It seemed a really long way away.
