The divorce had been a brutal life sucking process for me. Ava and I had been in love, or at least I thought we were. We met the summer after we both graduated highschool. She was from a middle class family and I was on the lower end of the income scale, my family was somewhere bouncing back and forth between food stamps and living paycheck to paycheck. It was the best a single mother could do for her family, which included lonely old me.
Luck seemingly shined my direction when in a horrifying way just one week after I graduated. I met Ava who was a graduate from a school across town. With us both being freshly 18 and in our prime we jumped into the world of sex and did not look back. We had a great 2 weeks together, the sex was amazing for two recent virgins who did not really know anything else. Just like that, the honeymoon phase ended and we both knew it was over.
I prepared for the worst breakup but life had an even worse plan for my life. My mother who was my only person in this world was lost in a senseless alcohol fueled high speed chase. My world was crashing around me. Ava out of some sense of kindness that I would never see again, stuck with me, likely. I think it was out of pity. As the months of investigations and findings and court dates carried on Ava and I did eventually agree to break up.
On the very next day after the breakup some newspaper published an article that, looking back now made sense. This article was likely the driver in Ava and I getting back together. The article showed a slew of evidence about how the police department was at fault and a cover up had happened for the same reason. That combined with the new information that the driver at fault was now named and happened to be pretty much the wealthiest man in the city.
So Ava reached out and we made up, I wish I knew her intentions at the time but you love for her was blind. The court and bureaucracy of the legal system placed my settlement in a trust and I was allowed barely any to live off of. Ava wound up pregnant and hounded me weekly for marriage until I finally asked her for marriage. After the marriage our sex life slowed way down and she shifted had shifted from hounding me about marriage to nagging me about the trust. Our marriage lasted until our daughter was 5 and the trust became available.
That brings us to the divorce. She used every nasty move in the book to slander me. Alleged abuse, which was not true, infidelity, which was also not true, you name it she alleged it. I lost the entire trust to support her and my daughter. Don't get me wrong, I know I had obligations for my daughter, but I had never supported her more then the increasing debt we accrued each month due to her lavish lifestyle.
I did find out after the divorce that she had been dating a family law lawyer and had been for about two years unknown to me. He as not the lawyer she used, but he did give her a lot of unsavory guidance. The way I found out about her infidelity from a mutual friend who did not like me, but wanted to rub it in my face. So the whole divorce was guaranteed to be one sided based on her legal council and her boyfriends connections to the court.
What hurt the most was the custody arrangement. I had next to no visitation and even when I did it was limited and supervised because of the allegations she made up. Ava always cancelled last minute and within two years she used that against me as well and I lost all rights. I tired to reach out to Ava to work something out but I got hit with a restraining order.
My lawyer, if you could call him that documented everything, collected my payment and moved on to newer clients. With no money or options I debated many options for my next steps including ones not involving me altogether. I decided to just forget the world and hope that in the future my daughter would come looking and I could build a relationship when she was an adult, that is if she was not poisoned by her mother to think I was the anti-Christ.
So that is when I got a plot of land in a neighboring county that had 2 shipping containers on it and no neighbors as far as I could see. It was a super simple life, being 25 years old divorced man, this life was not where most young men my age would settle down to. I liked it though for me and for the quiet.
I had power installed, but planned to live off the grid as much as possible. I worked some laborer jobs for some contractors, picking and choosing the contractors with skills I needed for my plumbing, electrical, horticulture, carpentry etc. I refitted one storage container to a livable mini house and used the other one for storage.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately in the end, some rich guy bought the plot of land next to me right after I moved in and built a summer house. That construction job is was where I developed some of my useful skills and I was happy the house would be unoccupied most of the year. About two years into my new life I noticed a woman move in at a odd time of the year. She did come down and introduce herself as Mandy. Over the course of 3 months I learned that she was a recovering alcoholic and her uncle was letting her stay there as long as she was sober. That is what she told me initially, we became better friends, but not close. I later found out it was her sugar daddy and his wife was not happy about this set up.
She was not all that attractive but to each their own. She was recently divorced and her ex still had custody of their only child. Two months later she found out she was sick and she had her now 18 year old son move in with her. I never saw her after he moved in but I did see that she must have passed based on an ambulance I saw at the house and how it had no urgency to leave after arrival. It really was none of my business and that is why I wanted to live here, no drama.
A week later I had gone to town for some supplies and driving my truck home I saw the sheriff leaving the house where she had lived. I knew he was leaving that house and had not come out to mine because he had my number and when I rounded the last turn it was clear what had happened. The sheriff was an asshole and I knew that already but what I saw made my blood boil. The boy had been evicted and was standing by the mailbox on his phone, no doubt looking for information about his predicament. He had been evicted this late in the day and not even offered a ride to town, not that there was much there for him anyways. All of his mom's items and his were in a few boxes next to him and the mailbox.
I pulled up to talk to the boy. He was about my size, so a little on the smaller size. He had longer blonde hair that was maybe 3 inches long in total. I had never met him, but I asked him about it, "Hi. Are you Mandy's son?"
He nodded and I knew I should offer my condolences, "Sorry about your loss man, I knew your mom very little, but she seemed nice."
He said, "Well, thank you sir. Do you think I could place these boxes inside of your fence line while I go to town and see about what I need to do here. I don't want the owner to come and throw it in the trash or burn it."
I asked, "So the owner had you evicted after you mom passed huh?"
He replied, "Yes, I mean she did not really live here. I just need to figure this out though."
I got out and said, "I am Clint. What is your name anyways?"
He stuck his hand out to shake my hand, "Chris, it is nice to meet you Clint."
We shook hands and he seemed like a good kid so I offered him some help. I said, "Tell you what Chris, I will let you keep your things in my storage shed, I don't have much but there is room there. That way you do not have to worry about it tonight. As far as figuring something out, there is not even a motel in town, no taxi or bus station. I don't think you will be able to figure much out today. Why don't you come to my place, again, it is not much, but it is clean and I got a cot if you want to sleep on it tonight."
Chris's eyes lit up, "Really Sir? You would let me stay the night?"
I liked his enthusiasm, "Chris, it is not much, but it will put you in a better place until you figure out your plan. Come on, help me load these boxes in the truck."
After we got the boxes in the shed I showed Chris the cot and I made us a small meal.
