Last Chance

Chapter 20:

The first week of April rolls around, the snow melts and it rains for the first time in months. Our lawyer has continued to keep us updated on Joel’s parents, who have said they will be taking me to court over the will, estate, and the children in the event of Joel’s death. They have made the last eleven years hell and they are also prepared to make the future ones the same. If they couldn’t get what they wanted from their son well he was alive they’d take everything from the person he loved afterward regardless of the damage it would cause to all parties involved.

The children didn’t even know them. I don’t know how they expected to get custody of the children considering what they’d done already. I didn’t know what punishment his mother was getting for false reporting, when I looked up the possible consequences it said you could get anywhere from a fine to five years and jail. I wish the circumstances didn’t permit me to wish the long jail sentence over the fine. I was pretty sure the children would also go back to the foster care system before being entrusted to someone else in our family, it didn’t sound like they wanted the children to begin with in the first place considering they tried to get them taken away from us. Maybe they were just doing it to punish me and make me feel bad or responsible for what happened to Joel regardless of my control over the situation.

Our lawyer ensured us their case was weak, especially since his mother had a criminal record and the standard sentence for false reporting with her circumstances which was: mental and/or physical abuse to a child and/or children, ten years old, with a people who have no criminal record. There was no physical evidence and no one could cohobate her story and there were no witnesses with their own stories or accusations, with what she stated, I and Joel could have been charged with felony child abuse, of which we would have spent anywhere from five to a life-sentence in jail. He said they were likely to get a psych evaluation to make sure she was in her right mind when she made the accusation and she would most likely get one of the longer sentences closer to five years.

They were also unlikely to receive the children considering how they had treated Joel, their biological child, both currently and in the past after finding out he was gay, despite him being considered the age of majority at the time of most of this. Despite being older, if she was willing to do this to him because he didn’t abide by societal norms what would she do to Ash since she dressed like a boy, went by Ash, usually a boy’s name, and her hairstyle choices?

We didn’t want Ash to be forced to do anything she didn’t want to, or have to hear what people like Hector say at school at home where you’re supposed to feel safe and loved for who and what you are.

The lawyer said if we wanted a no-contact order, he’d drawn one up and could make a simple call to one of his trusted judge friends, show the evidence of what they’d done, the false reporting and such and get it signed without much difficulty. As much as that would have made it easier, I wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable or sure that that was legal considering the judge’s bias and all that. The worse that was happening right now was the blocked phone calls and we could deal with that right now, if it got worse we’d discuss it again. Knowing them it might get worse.

We were getting many messages from people who had received invitations giving their thanks, a lot of students from Joel’s school were mainly sending them as they were excited about the event.

One day well Aimee was over at Kristen’s house and Ash was home, she looked away from the TV and asked, “Why does Joel’s mother not like you, Luka?”

I and Joel looked at her surprised. Where had she gotten this information?

“One of the kids in my class has an older brother at the middle school, they were talking about how ridiculous it was to bash your kid for who they were marrying when they’ve been together for eleven years and clearly know who they love,” she explained quickly.

“They don’t like it because I’m a guy and they think you can only love and share a bed with a woman if you are a man,” I explain in lenient terms.

“So, they think it’s wrong that you love each other?” she asks.

“Basically, yes,” Joel replies.

“Is it?” she asks.

“No, you can love whoever you want as long as no one is getting hurt. Joel and I love each other, it’s their opinion that it’s wrong,” I answer.

“Like Hector doesn’t like my clothes and hair?” she asks.

“Yes, that’s his opinion but it only has weight if you let it. We’d be miserable if we faked who we loved and weren’t true to ourselves, just like you don’t like it when people call you Ashley or wear dresses,” Joel replies quietly.

“Okay,” she replies going back to watching the TV.

“So, could I love a girl?” she then asks.

“You can love whoever you want,” Joel answers.

Jamie was getting calls from his mother left and right, as if she could still change his mind after months, he’d left whatever box she’d tried to fit him and he wasn’t going to attempt to squeeze himself back into it for her sake.

They still thought they both had chances but they were royally mistaken. Their last chances had officially come and gone. This was their new reality where we didn’t even pick up the phone and hear from us. The only method of communication was through our lawyer and they missed out on not only their kids’ lives, but their grandchildren's and nieces’ lives, too.

They missed out on pivotal moments that most parents who have been proud to see their children go through, graduation, marriage, and raising children and were left with a hole neither we nor they could fill unless they changed their ways, and even if they did at this point, I wasn’t sure Joel or I would trust that they really had changed their tune after everything. I was not to blame in any event really except in their own version, which was a real tragedy.

They could have so much but they sacrificed trying to get what they wanted. It was like the Method of Tenacity by the philosopher, C.S Peirce encompassed their lives. No matter what I, Joel or Jamie did they continued to say homosexuality was wrong. No matter what changed in the world, the legalization of gay marriage, the pride parades, the legalization of letting gay couples adopt, and adding it to the public school curriculum, all of it to them amounted to nothing. All that mattered was what they were taught in church and their Christian school system, even though one of the things they taught you there was free will.

All of it was impacting Jamie and Sam, we’d seen a little less of Sam over the past month, I think Jamie was doubting his choice so I decided to talk to him one evening.

Joel was in the kitchen helping the girls with their homework, I went upstairs and knocked on his bedroom door.

“Yes?” he called quietly.

I opened the door, his head was bowed over a textbook he seemed to be attempting to study.

“I wanted to talk to you,” I start sitting on the edge of his bed.

“About?” he asked seeming a little annoyed.

“Sam, hasn’t been around in a while, are you guys okay?” I ask.

“We’re both busy with classes and applying for college or university,” he reasoned looking back at the textbook.

“That doesn’t mean he just disappears. We haven’t seen him in at least two weeks,” I reason. “Come on, Jamie.”

“My mother showed up at the school,” he said quietly. “Or at least that’s what he told me.”

“What did she do?” I asked.

There wasn’t much she could legally or physically do at this point without getting in trouble. I thought Jamie’s father, who was the more reasonable of the two was keeping tabs on her, she must have done it well he was at work.

“Threaten him with r**e charges,” he replies.

“There are no grounds for them, you like him, don’t you?” I reply.

“Not against me. Against Kaper,” he replies.

“Your brother? What does he have to do with this?” I question.

“He told me my mother said if he continued to be involved with me that Kaper would go to the police with those accusations,” he replied shrugging.

“There’s still no grounds or proof. Has he ever even met Kaper?” I question.

“We all go to the same school, just being around him could give him some basis. He’s trying to protect me,” he continues.

“How is she supposed to know whether or not you’re still involved?” I ask.

“Kaper’s her spy,” he answers.

These people, I swear to god, just when you thought you’d cut them off they snuck back in and latched on.

“That’s blackmail. Are they really this stupid or do they truly believe they’ll be able to get someone on their side?” I mutter.

“I miss Sam,” Jamie says quietly.

“Get him back, if Kaper tries to take him to court we’ll get our lawyer involved, this is ridiculous,” I continue.

“All this is ridiculous, but they’re still doing it,” he comments.

“There’s a point that it crosses ridiculous and becomes blackmailing and abuse,” I counter.

“I don’t want to risk him going to jail,” he replies.

“He won’t go to jail, I promise you. There’s no proof, the most the police can do is interview him, they would have to record it because he’s under eighteen, otherwise, anything he said would be inadmissible in court, and since all they have is Kaper’s word, the case would most likely be thrown out way before it got in front of a judge,” I continue to explain and reason.

Since Joel’s parents had attempted to do everything to get me out of his life via the legal system, I’d learned a lot concerning the law from our lawyer.

“He turns eighteen in June,” he explains.

This didn’t change much other than making it easier to abuse the recording and taking him on his word if he did say something that did seem incriminating or showed it without context. Evidence wasn’t just going to magically appear after Sam turned eighteen, but if the judge or others decide that he can somehow be charged, maybe using falsified evidence or other evidence that could be interpreted wrongly, the charges could be much more severe and not expunged from his records as he was adult and no longer a minor.

“There’s still no evidence,” I try to reason knowing their actions have caused me to doubt myself in the past.

“I don’t want him to end up in jail for me,” he continues getting irritated.

Most people would be willing to go to jail for the people they loved, in theory, some wouldn’t actually do and technically, it wouldn’t be for Jamie but for Kaper.

“I going to talk to our lawyer, maybe we’ll warn the authorities so they know to be reasonably suspicious if he does file a report in the future,” I try to reassure him.

“His life could be destroyed for something like that. It would be harder for him to get a job, find a place to live, have kids,” Jamie goes on.

He’d thought this through before Sam and he terminated their relationship, they did it for each other. But this wasn’t about Sam, personally, Charlotte would probably do this to any guy Jamie tried to date, if they all felt threatened he couldn’t date any guy, right? Or at least that was her logic. But that didn’t change how Jamie felt or who he was, if anything it should have angered him. But like Joel maybe he saw it as hopeless to fight with them anymore considering this and what had happened to us.

“This isn’t about Sam most likely, they’ll do it to anyone you get involved with, like how they tried to get the children taken away from me and Joel. They’ll do anything to stop you which at this point, for us, includes hurting Joel in the process, if we listened to them, Joel wouldn’t be alive right now. He wouldn’t have gotten chemo or surgery, he wouldn’t be here. They have always chosen their beliefs over everything, even when their own child is being hurt and suffering from things he has no control over. It most likely will never change because that’s who they are but we can’t be expected to live by their rules for that reason as it just causes further damage to ourselves in the future and makes our lives miserable. That’s why Joel and I do what we believe is right for us in every situation rather than have their say impact what we do all the time, it may seem like we’re rebelling all the time, but we’re really not, we’re just living our lives and doing what makes us happy, alright?” I explain.

He nods quietly.

If Jamie and Sam were going to break up it would be better done on their own terms than by dictation of someone else’s.

“Anything else we need to talk about?” I ask.

“No, thank you, Luka,” he says looking up at me as I stand up. “For everything.”

I smiled at him, “You’re welcome, I’ll leave you to your homework. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he replied.

I leave the room and go back downstairs to see how the girls and Joel are faring with their homework.

“How’s it going?” I ask them.

“Fine,” Joel replies watching each of the girls fill out their math homework which is mainly complicated multiplication. “Is Jamie okay?”

I look at the girls and Joel gets the hint and stands up. We move into the living room.

“What happened?” he inquired.

“Charlotte threatened Sam,” I start.

“Threatened how?” he asks.

“She threatened to have Kaper report him for s****l assault. Which they have no grounds to do. I told him we’d talk to the lawyer and maybe warn the authorities,” I explain.

Joel nods slowly, I can tell he’s angry.

“I told him, they most likely will do this regardless of the guy he is with so he should think about it more before completely breaking it off with Sam,” I continue.

“Okay,” he replies and he walked out into the misty rain and mild coldness on the back porch. I watched him from the hallway between the kitchen and the living room.

If Joel and I had never fought for each other he would be dead and gone. That showed how much they valued him, to begin with. They weren’t willing to do everything to make sure they got as much time with him as they could. They weren’t willing to waste any more money on him than necessary, they’d bought Charlotte a house well we had to save up, living in university housing and an apartment until three years ago when we finally had enough for a down payment. They allowed her to live at home much longer, technically, Joel got fed up and left but they were kind of pushing for it, too.

I realized how different they treated their children when they followed their ideals. You could see it with Kaper and Jamie, too. Kaper got a home, and a higher education, Jamie got kicked out and his dreams were killed.

Maybe they never should have been given any chances, to begin with.