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He dropped the papers in his hand into my lap as he passed, then went to the bathroom and took the longest pee I’d ever heard someone take.
My bladder would’ve straight up burst…
My eyes took in the papers in my lap.
So, apparently, what I thought was Ellen being an adult about things was Ellen contacting a lawyer and suing Etienne. The papers were a notice of being served, being made aware that Ellen was officially suing Etienne for wrongful termination.
“What the hell is this?” I asked Etienne after he was done in the bathroom.
He collapsed onto the bed beside me and said, “She’s suing me.”
“I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?” I blinked rapidly, wondering if it was my tired eyes that were playing tricks on my ears.
Etienne repeated what he’d just said. “Ellen is suing me for wrongful termination, pain and suffering during her employ, and reparations for leaving her old job for this new one which she’d established tenure.”
“You can’t establish tenure as an office assistant at a vet’s office,” I squeaked, coming up in bed on an elbow and staring blankly at Etienne, the papers he’d dropped in my lap practically getting squished between us.
“Well, she’s trying it,” he grumbled, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and flopping back onto it like he was already tired.
But since it was only eight in the morning on a Sunday… he shouldn’t be tired yet. At least, that was what I was telling myself.
“Where did that even come from?” I asked in surprise, jerking my chin toward his stack of papers.
Before he could answer, the doorbell rang again.
He got up, stomping his way out of his bedroom and into the living room.
I followed, glad that I’d gone to bed in one of his long t-shirts, and stood behind a pillar as I watched him open the front door.
There, standing there like she owned the place, was a police officer.
She said, “Is Matilda Deveraux here?”
I came out from behind the pillar and watched as her eyes took me in. I could tell she found me lacking.
“Yes?” I asked.
She held out a stack of papers and said, “You’ve been served.”
My mouth fell open as I took in said papers that’d practically been shoved into my hands.
“Well,” Etienne said as he slammed the door on the woman. “Looks like we’ve both been served on a Sunday morning. What are yours for?”
I ripped open the legal envelope and scanned the documents.
“Pain and suffering…” I shook my head. “My family. Stepmother and stepbrothers are suing me for…” I read off all the things that they thought they could get out of it.
Then started to laugh. “This is fun.”
“This is a joke,” he grumbled. “I have a lawyer on retainer in Louisiana. I’ll give him a call and see who he suggests we use here. I don’t see this as going very far. Neither one of them has a legal leg to stand on when it comes to this.”
He jerked his own papers at my papers.
I sighed and tossed them to the counter as he went to the bedroom to get his phone.
I started the coffee and began making French toast as he talked on the phone with his lawyer.
The lawyer had some pretty colorful things to say, then recommended another lawyer closer to us that could get it taken care of quickly and efficiently.
Which was what led us to a video conference with a lady named Birdie VanDerBeek. She was actually practicing in our town, and though we could’ve driven, she’d explained that she preferred initial meetings be over Zoom.
“So we don’t waste each other’s time,” she sat back, looking very un-lawyerlike. “What do you have for me today?”
I held up the papers that I’d just faxed using a fax machine that looked to be set back in the olden times.
“You got the papers?” I asked.
“Yes.” She held them up.
“We’re both being sued,” I said. “One, we’d like to make sure that we’re not going to lose the battle against either of them, since they’re both bogus. Two, we’d like to see if a strongly worded letter will get them to drop it.”
“On your served papers,” Birdie leaned forward. Her black t-shirt that said, “Eat a Dick” on it bunched as she moved. “I think that a strongly worded letter won’t work. This is a big-time lawyer these are coming from. You’re going to need more than a letter. But I can handle that. As for Etienne’s, I’m just going to say that Ellen likely downloaded these documents and filed them herself with the court. It’s obvious that she’s kind of confused on what she’s looking for when doing this. But I believe a strongly worded letter, giving her the understanding that we’ll countersue, will do it. She’s probably just hoping that you’ll settle and be done with it.”
