Page 25 of Never Alone
I looked at the glass in my hands. The water was almost gone. I wasn't going to be able to be at this counter for another hour.
"Okay," I said. "Thank you, Benjie."
"Anytime."
I drove to Miranda's office Tuesday morning with the radio off and the windows up.
Nicholas had probably already seen the clip. If he hadn't, he was going to. The first time I had hired a lawyer, he had found me in less than a week, and that was before the internet had handed him a video of my mouth on a man's mouth.
I had to file before he did. That was the only thing left in my head.
Whichever state filed first set the venue. Miranda had told me that the first time I sat in her office. She had also told me that family courts looked at a child's environment, and that a stable male presence in Noah's life would help us against a wealthy, articulate father with a credibility advantage. Last Wednesday, that had been an abstract.
I parked in the lot behind Miranda's building and sat in the car with my hands on the wheel for a beat.
Then I went in.
The receptionist showed me back. Miranda was already at her desk. I sat in the chair across from her.
"Tessa." She didn't waste a beat. "The video changes the math. Until Sunday, I would have told you we had a few weeks to be careful. Now, I don't think we have a few days. I want to file the petition as fast as I can put one together. I'll have a draft for you tomorrow night."
"Okay."
"Your husband is a lawyer. Once he sees the clip—and we should assume he has—he will file in his home state inside a day, maybe two. We have to be in front of him."
I had my hands folded in my lap. I was trying to keep them folded.
"For the petition, I need every piece of documentation we can get on Noah's residency. School enrollment. The pediatrician. The rent receipts. Anything that shows the two of you have been in this state for the last six months."
"Most of it was in the house."
She didn't look surprised. She had heard it on the phone on Monday.
"Then we go through the institutions. I'll have my office put in record requests this afternoon. Letterhead moves things faster than people realize. They'll send copies inside the week."
Something in my chest let go.
I had spent the past few nights since the fire trying to figure out how I was going to call the school, the doctor, and the bank in a voice steady enough that they would not put me on hold for a supervisor. I had not slept for any of it. Miranda picking it up was somebody else carrying it for an afternoon.
"Thank you."
"Send me anything you do still have. On your phone, in email, anywhere. I'll work with what's there and request the rest."
I nodded.
"There's a second filing I want to do at the same time." She wrote a small thing on her pad. "An emergency protective order. Ex parte."
"What does ex parte mean?"
"A judge can issue an order without notifying the other side first, if there's evidence of an immediate threat. The video. The customer recognizing you on Sunday. His history. We argue the threat. If the judge issues the order, you have it in your hand before he is served the petition. If the judge denies, we have made the record."
"Please."
"I'll include it with the filing."
She set the pen down. Folded her hands.
"Tessa. There's something I want to come back to. Last Wednesday, I told you that family courts respond to certain narratives. I told you that a stable partnership reads better in court than a single mother alone in a new city. I was talking about an abstract."
