Chapter 167
Family Meeting
Sedona’s POV
I told them on a Sunday.
Sunday felt right because everyone was home on Sundays. My mother made breakfast that took an hour and a half because she cooked the way she did everything, thoroughly, and by the time we were all sitting around the table, everyone was feeling well rested and enjoying the quiet rhythm of the day.
I waited until the food was done and the coffee was poured and everyone was in their chairs.
Then I said: “I need to talk to you all about something p>
My mother looked up. My father set down his coffee. Cameron, who had been looking at his phone, put it face down on the table, which was his version of full attention.
“Okay,” my father said.
I’d prepared what I was going to say.
“I’ve been working on something,” I said. “For about two weeks. I haven’t said anything because I needed to understand it myself first.” I looked around the table. “I want to try to get custody of Nick p>
The room was quiet for a moment.
“Tell us where you are with it,” my father said. He said it calmly, which was what I’d needed him to say, the practical question rather than the emotional one.
So I told them.
The research I’d done. The call to Hendricks and Park, the conversation with Janet, the framework she’d given me-not impossible, complicated, multi-jurisdictional. The changed circumstances argument. The documentation I’d been building: call records, the card Nick had sent, Frank’s medical summary showing the treatment trajectory. What I knew and what I didn’t know yet.
Cameron was very still while I talked. That was his thinking posture.
r
My mother had her hands around her coffee cup and was looking at the table with the expression she had when she was feeling something large and managing it.
My father listened with his eyes on me the whole time, the way he listened when something mattered.
When I finished, I said: “I’m not asking any of you to fix it. I’ve already spoken to a paralegal. I’m meeting with the attorney next week to start the formal process.” I paused. “I’m telling you because you’re my family and you should know. And because I need you to know there’s going to be a process and it’s going to take time and it might be hard p>
“Chicago,” Cameron said. It wasn’t a question. He’d landed on the jurisdictional piece immediately.
“Probably,” I said. “The original documents were filed there. The first hearing will likely be there p>
2
Family Mesleny
“Then we go to Chicago,” my mother said simply.
Jennifer,” my father said.
“If there’s a chance we can see Nick,” she said, looking at him, “we go to Chicago p>
My father looked at her for a moment. Then he nodded once. “We go to Chicago,” he agreed.
I looked at my brother.
Cameron was still doing the still thing. I could see him working through it, the lawyer question and the jurisdiction question and the Logan question, all of it being sorted into its relevant categories.
“There’s something else,” I said.
“Tell me,” Cameron said.
I told him about Logan.
Claim
The garden at the party-which he already knew about, but I went through it again properly, the full version, the way Logan had come through the side gate he’d known about from watching the house. The footage Lucian had taken.
And then mum spoke up: ” your dad and I met him in a grocery store p>
We looked at our parents.
My mother set down her coffee cup. “He approached me in the produce section,” she said, in the voice she used for facts she’d rather not be stating. “He introduced himself. He wanted to talk about Sedona p>
“He put his hand on your arm?” Cameron said.
“He wasn’t aggressive,” my mother said carefully. “He was-desperate. There’s a difference. But yes, he reached for my hand. Your father arrived p>
Cameron looked at my father.
“I told him to leave,” my father said. “He left p>
“You didn’t tell me,” Cameron said. He wasn’t angry at them. The anger was pointed somewhere else entirely and they all knew it.
“I didn’t want to upset Sedona while she was still in treatment,” my mother said.
“When was this?” I asked.
“The day before you were given approval to leave the hospital.
That was about a month ago. She’d been carrying it for that long and managing the timing of when to share it to avoid upsetting me.
“He’s been driving past the house,” I said. He’s been watching. I have seen him twice but he drove right past. I didn’t say anything because I thought I was wrong but I wasn’t p>
Cameron pushed back his chair, not in a dramatic way as he seemed to need more space that he currently
23
Family Meely-
had.
“We’re calling the police,” he said.
“Cameron p>
Clem
“No.” He looked at me directly. “This is not a gray area, Sedona. He’s been in Seattle for over two months. He showed up at our party through a gate he knew about from watching the house. He grabbed your arm. He approached Mum in a grocery store.” He paused. “He’s stalking you. That’s what this is. And unless we document it officially, he will keep doing it p>
“I know,” I said.
“Then you know we need to report it p>
“I know,” I said again. “That’s why I’m telling you now. Because you’re right and I’ve been-I’ve been avoiding it because it makes things more complicated with the custody case, because Logan being formally charged with anything changes the dynamics in ways I’m still figuring out p>
“It changes them in your favor,” Cameron said, with the flat certainty of someone who’d been thinking about this since the party. “A documented history of stalking and harassment of the mother of his child. That’s evidence that goes to the question of the child’s best interests, Sedona. That’s not complication. That’s your case getting stronger p>
I looked at him.
He was right. I’d known he was right.
“Okay,” I said.
He looked at me. “Okay p>
“Okay,” I said. “We call the police. We file a report. We document everything-the party, the grocery store, whatever Reeve’s information shows about him driving past the house.” I paused. “And Lucian has the footage from the garden p>
Cameron’s expression shifted slightly. “Lucian has footage p>
“He filmed it from an upstairs window,” I said. “Logan grabbing my arm. Dante stepping in. Logan swinging.” I paused. “Lucian had his phone out before the second grab. He saved it in two places p>
Cameron looked at the ceiling briefly, taking a deep breath as he dealt with the feeling that piece of information brought as well.
“I’ll call him,” he said. “This morning. We need that footage for the report p>
“He’ll send it,” I said. “I already asked him to keep it p>
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Florence
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.