Chapter 13 - The Seattle Arrival
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Seattle was gray and raining.
David met me at the airport.
He looked older. Thinner.
He hugged me awkwardly.
“Thanks for coming.”
“You called.”
We drove to a cheap motel near the airport. He couldn't afford anything else; his accounts were completely locked down.
We sat in the dimly lit room.
“Tell me everything,” I said.
He laid out the timeline.
Sarah’s increasing control over the finances.
The isolation from his friends.
The subtle gaslighting.
“I thought it was just stress from her job,” David admitted, running a hand through his hair. “She’s a partner. She works eighty-hour weeks.”
“Control isn't stress. It’s a strategy.”
I asked him about the kids. Emma and Leo. Five and three.
“She filed an emergency custody order. Claimed I had a substance abuse problem.”
“Do you?”
“I drink a beer on the weekends, Dad. I haven't touched anything harder since college.”
“We need to prove that. Immediately.”
“How?”
“Drug test. Tomorrow morning. We get it on record.”
I pulled out a notepad.
“Then we need a lawyer. A shark. Not a mediator.”
David looked overwhelmed.
“I don't have any money.”
“I do.”
He looked down.
“I shouldn't have called you.”
“Why?”
“We haven't spoken in years. I shut you out.”
“You did.”
“And you’re just... here.”
“You’re my son.”
I looked at him.
“I failed to see the signs with Audrey until it was almost too late. I won't make that mistake twice.”
David’s head snapped up.
“Audrey? What happened to Audrey?”
He didn't know.
May you like
He had been so completely isolated that he hadn't heard about the trial. About Julian.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “Right now, we focus on the kids.”
