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“Everyone is fine. No one was hurt in the home, and she only got a few bruises. She was taken to the hospital to get checked out and got a clean bill of health. Her criminal lawyer and family lawyer reached out to me this morning to speak about the cases. Her criminal lawyer is working with the DA to get Miss. Hemming into a plea deal for rehab and community service. I advised her lawyer that I would be requiring her to attend parenting courses and prove that she has six months of sobriety under her belt before I would entertain a custody hearing from her.”
“Where does this leave our case?” Alvin asked.
“I will be awarding your client sole custody for the child in question and closing the hearing. If there comes a time when Miss. Hemming is able to provide proof of her sobriety, then she can petition the court for visitation rights or custody of your son. That is something that can be determined at a later date.”
Massive relief flooded my body. It was over. Everything with Christian was over, at least for now. Maybe I would have to go through this again when Ellis is sober, but by that point, there might be a chance that her and I can work something out outside of the court so we didn’t have to go through all of this again. I was hoping this would be a massive eye-opening experience for Ellis, and she would take rehab seriously and focus on getting better. If she was getting healthy and sober, that meant Christian could see her, and I wanted that for him desperately.
“When will it be official?” Alvin asked.
“By tomorrow morning it will be filed with the courts. I will get the paperwork completed today and start the processing part. I do not know what is going to happen with her legal case; that will be up to the DA and judge assigned to her case. For now, this battle is at least over.”
“Thank you so much. I truly appreciate everything you have done,” I said with a kind smile. I knew he was just doing his job, but I still appreciated it. Other judges may have delayed the proceedings to see if the other party got their life together first. I was very grateful to not be left in limbo for an unknown number of months.
“It’s my job. I wish you and your son all the best, and hopefully, I never have to see you again,” he said with a kind smile.
“I hope so as well,” I said as we all rose.
I shook the judge’s hand before Alvin did, and we both made our way out of his chambers. We didn’t speak until we were outside. The second I walked outside of the court house I took a deep breath in, and instantly, relief was washing over me.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” I said.
“It’s a good thing. I know the circumstances around it aren’t the best, but this is a great thing for you and Christian. And this just might be the wake-up call that Ellis needs to get her life back on track.”
“I hope so. Now we just need to worry about Jeremy.”
“That one will be more complicated, but I am confident we can make it happen.”
“Jasmine went to speak with Adam one-on-one; she might have been successful.”
Alvin scoffed a little, and I knew he seriously doubted it. I didn’t blame him. If Adam was anything like his father, he was going to be out for blood. I highly doubt anything Jasmine said was going to be able to change Adam’s mind, but maybe we will pull out another miracle.
“It can’t make anything worse,” I said with a small shrug. At this point, all of our nukes had been released. All we could do was try and prevent any of their nukes to hit us.
“Let me know. For now, I will await the official paperwork for the custody order and keep it on file. Hopefully, this will be the last time you have to go through custody for Christian.”
“I hope so,” I agreed. I held my hand out as I spoke, “Thanks for everything.”
He took it with an easy smile, “It’s no problem. I’ll talk to you soon.”
I gave a nod, and we both headed off in our own direction. I needed to go and pick up the boys and check in with Jasmine. Hopefully, she would be back soon, and we could discuss our days.
It was a couple of hours after I had returned home with the boys when the front door opened, and Jasmine walked through it. She looked drained, and I was taking that as a bad sign.
“Hey,” I said as I went over and gave her a quick kiss.
“Hey, where’s the boys?” she asked as she took her coat off.
“They are playing in Christian’s room. Come sit down; tell me what happened.”
I guided her over to the couch, and we both sat down. I placed my hand on her knee and allowed her to collect herself before she spoke.
“Well, that didn’t go how I expected it to. He was very hurt. He asked if I was telling the truth. I guess he figured it was some type of game that we were playing. I told him the truth, and it was hard for him to take. He did agree though to relinquish his parental rights.”
“He did?” I was shocked, completely blown away. I would have figured that was the last thing he would have done.
“We had a heart-to-heart moment, and he expressed that he did love Jeremy. But knowing the truth, he didn’t know if he could continue to love him the same. Or look at him without feeling angry and resentment towards him. He has agreed to walk away for Jeremy’s best interests.”
“And you believe he’ll follow through?”
