Thanks to all who have read this story this far. Your encouragement has propelled me through some painful moments. This part has been the most difficult to write thus far, and as result I had to take a break from it and start on part 9 instead. Some of the plot twists here came to me spontaneously, and with this part and the next one, sometimes writing it felt like I was tearing the scabs off old wounds I'd forgotten I had. Life can be rough, but that's what makes it interesting.
I hope you all enjoy this part. The next one should be up in a few days.
It broke my heart to have to leave Ethan in the hospital overnight, but there was nothing we could do. Rose had truly thrown a wrench into things this time. But she didn't realize in the end she'd only made things worse for herself. When the hearing officer had granted us emergency custody after Rose was arrested, visitation by Rose was not mentioned. That meant we controlled her access to the kids, until the hearing for the permanent order. And that was a couple months away. The way I felt right now, I couldn't trust her around the kids. I was not inclined to grant that access.
Shavonda drove Brittany and me back to her house, where we spent the night. I was pretty upset about everything. No, I was livid. After we put Brittany to bed in the storage room we'd turned into a bedroom for the kids, she held me close trying to calm me. "It's going to work out. You'll see."
Once I calmed down, my mind started working. The gears turned and I devised a plan. I knew exactly what we were going to do. I ran it by Shavonda for her input.
"First thing we do," I said, "is to remove the kids from the place Rose works at. Obviously, they are not safe there. Next, we deny her visitation until the hearing."
"Don't do her like that," Shavonda said. I knew it pained her to say that. "She needs to see those kids. We should let her. But we do it in a way that we control her access. Removing the kids from her daycare is a good first step. We can find another place and send her the bill. After all, the courts said she pays for child care. They didn't say where that child care should be."
Shavonda had a point. Once again, she was thinking on her feet, taking my plan and improving on it. In the permanent hearing, it would probably work against us if we denied Rose all access to the kids. But if we controlled when and where she could see them, we could make sure that one of the family was always present when Rose was there. There would be no more unsupervised visits with the kids.
I called off work, yet again, so we could get arrange for different child care. We found a facility not too far from the Carson Street store. Shavonda could drop the Ethan off there, and visit him at lunch. She didn't normally take a lunch break while working, but she was going to start. Brittany would ride the school bus to kindergarten as usual, but she would be dropped off at the new daycare.
I also paid a visit to Brittany's school, armed with a copy of the court order. I told them that under NO circumstance was Rose to pick Brittany up, unless I said so. Shavonda and I were the only ones able to do that. Just to be on the safe side, we also set up a password anybody picking her up from school would have to give. The password: love knows no color. It would take several days for the change in bus routing for Brittany to take effect. Since Friday was the last day before Christmas break, Shavonda would have to pick Brittany up at school for the next couple of days.
We walked into Rose's facility, and kindly informed them that we were moving Brittany and Ethan out of their care. "That's because we can't trust you with our children's well-being. We are moving them somewhere they'll be safe," I told them icily. The woman in charge was upset and tried to talk us into leaving them there, but we were adamant. I also told them I was seriously considering calling my lawyer to sue them for negligence.
Rose smirked at us from her office on the way out. She had no idea what we'd just done. I wished we could have been there when they informed her the kids wouldn't be coming back.
Suddenly, Shavonda turned and started back towards Rose's office. "Swear to god I'ma smack the taste out that bitch's mouth. She gonna be spittin teeth fore I'm through with her."
"No," I hissed through clenched teeth, grabbing her by the arm. "There's cameras here. You wanna go to jail for assault? Who's gonna help me raise the kids right?" Reluctantly she followed me as I hustled her out of the building. Protecting your queen isn't easy. Sometimes, you have to protect her from herself.
Last stop was the hospital. Ethan was ready to come home, and the caseworker brought him to us. Ethan seemed to be afraid of me. Not good, I thought. The last thing I need right now is for my own child to be afraid. The caseworker was watching us carefully for signs we were abusing the kids. Ethan had never acted like this around me before.
Shavonda intuitively understood the situation. Ethan ran to her and held her tight, looking at me the whole time. "Shhhh," she said to Ethan. "Daddy's not mad at you. Nobody's mad at you. We love you. Nobody here is going to hurt you." Ethan calmed down, she picked him up, and handed him to me. The caseworker watched intently. I felt uneasy as I took hold of my son, but he was no longer afraid of me.
"Ethan," I asked, "Why would you be afraid of me? Have I ever hit you?"
"No." he replied. I left it at that not wanting to traumatize him further. We could explore why he was afraid later, preferably in one of those counseling sessions child welfare was having us attend. But I'd made my point. The caseworker could see that Ethan was terrified of something, or someone, but it wasn't me.
"Were you able to check the surveillance from the preschool?" I asked the case worker.
"Yes," she replied. "It showed Ethan walking into the school with Ms. Jenkins in the morning. It also showed your ex-wife leaving in the afternoon, with Ethan crying in her arms. He wasn't walking then."
"Mr. Waite," she continued, "It seems obvious to me Ethan is afraid of something. HE seemed afraid of you until Ms. Jenkins told him you weren't mad and still loved him. But after that he's fine with you. That tells me you didn't hurt him. We still need you to go to counseling so the child psychologist can observe your interactions with Ethan, and Ms. Jenkins you should probably attend as well. That is all a formality. If he observes what I've just seen, you will be fine." She turned to Shavonda. "Ma'am, it is obvious that you and this child adore each other. I wish you all the best of luck. Oh. And just so you know, we're going to be investigating that daycare, and trying to figure out who got Ethan to lie about what happened. That's probably who he is afraid of."
With that, she left the room. We were free to take my son home.
On the way, we took him to a toy store and let him pick out what he wanted. He chose a remote-controlled Jeep. In blue. Just like mine.
Once home, we took Ethan's pants off and looked at the bruises. They were on the left side of both his legs, just above the knees. Angry purple bruises, round in shape, like a donut, with uninjured skin in the middle. Whatever it was a mystery. But it looked like it had hit with enough force to knock him to the ground. Whatever happened there, Rose knew what it was. My decision was easy. She'd have no access to the kids until I was sure she posed no threat. Shavonda put up no protest this time. She knew how protective I was of mine. She'd better, she was now one of them.
Shavonda had decided to have a Christmas party for her employees at her house, after work one evening. Everybody came. We all sat around the living room, 3 of us on the couch, the rest on chairs borrowed from the kitchen. Shavonda left the room and returned with a stack of envelopes. "I want to thank you all for coming here tonight," she said. "We've had a very good year, we doubled our size. Sales at the Carson Street store are taking off better than I had expected, which means I hope to break even on the store sometime next year. We hired 3 new employees, Nykole, Ebony and Andre. Thanks guys for coming aboard, and if I haven't told you before, welcome. We couldn't have opened the second store without you."
She handed out the envelopes, one to each employee. "To show my appreciation for all the hard work you've put in, I've given each of you a bonus. Hopefully this will help out a bit. Merry Christmas."
She still held one envelope. "This last one is for somebody who has been indispensable to me this past year. He helped me prepare the Carson Street store for the grand opening, he helped out with the festivals last summer, he built our little Christmas village at the new store. Last, but not least, he has taken over some of the menial tasks on the weekend, leaving the rest of us to concentrate on things that increase our profits. Through all of this, he has refused to take a paycheck. Jason, this is for you." Smiling she handed me the final envelope. Inside was a check for $1000.
"Shavonda," I said. "I can't take this. It's too much."
"I insist," she said. "It's a lot less than another employee would have cost, and you've done so much for me in other ways as well. It's the least I could do." If I was going to have to take her money, I knew exactly where it was going. The money would go a long way towards paying off her engagement ring.
We all gathered in the kitchen where the pizzas Shavonda had ordered sat on the kitchen table. Everybody ate pizza and Christmas cookies she'd baked the night before. I know, I got to lick the spoon. Or one of them anyway. Shavonda had three spoons so the kids didn't feel left out. Having work the next day, I turned in before the party ended. I felt Shavonda crawl into bed later on, and snuggled up in her warmth.
As she'd told me she would earlier, one day Shavonda bought some brightly colored beads and put them in Brittany's hair. She looked so cute with strings of beads in her hair, but odd at the same time. You usually don't see pale white children with blonde hair wearing beads.
Christmas came too soon. We had set up a Christmas tree at Shavonda's house but not at mine. We were spending most of our time over there anyway, so it seemed appropriate. Christmas eve, after the kids were asleep, we set out the presents. Given all that had happened, and the unforeseen expenses, the gifts were a little thin around the tree. I felt bad about it but that was life. Some years were prosperous, some were not. For me, the past few months were not prosperous.
