Stephanie Nova could worry like nobody else alive. She worried every morning as she sent her daughter off to kindergarten that today would be the day Jeremiah came to snatch her out of school. She knew which cars belonged to which parent, and her heart skipped a beat whenever someone drove something new. She lay in bed each night, safe in the arms of her beloved, only to slide out of his embrace to double check door and window locks, her ears peaked at a sudden gust of wind or the howl of a wild fox.
She worried that they'd run into a legal snag in the default process, in the mountains of paperwork and red tape, and that the case would fail to close. Or some lost relative would intervene to declare her a liar, to fight for Willow on Jeremiah's behalf. Stephanie had never met his relatives before, they could have been anyone. She waited for the day that Jeremiah finally showed up to one of his hearing dates—to be handcuffed and dealt with, of course—but only after he'd get to hurl a few nasty words her way. She waited for the phone call to announce that they'd found him, dead or alive, and not knowing which announcement she'd prefer.
She worried that they'd run into a legal snag in the default process, in the mountains of paperwork and red tape, and that the case would fail to close. Or some lost relative would intervene to declare her a liar, to fight for Willow on Jeremiah's behalf. Stephanie had never met his relatives before, they could have been anyone. She waited for the day that Jeremiah finally showed up to one of his hearing dates—to be handcuffed and dealt with, of course—but only after he'd get to hurl a few nasty words her way. She waited for the phone call to announce that they'd found him, dead or alive, and not knowing which announcement she'd prefer.
But instead of her fears being realized, one day in February, her lawyer called her with only good news. "Congratulations, Stephanie. It's done. Officially, finally. You're divorced. There's nothing more you need to do right now. Like we talked about, we'll go ahead with terminating Jeremiah's parental rights in another case. That should happen some time this spring. Do you have any questions?"
"Is it really true?"
"One hundred percent. Congrats! I'll be in touch with your next appointment date."
And that was how, seven years later, Stephanie Nova finally rid herself of the biggest mistake she would ever make.
For the record, kids, don't ever marry a guy you hardly know in a ski lodge in Canada on college spring break.
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author's notes: I do have more story planned for Jeremiah, eventually. But as it stands, he is still hiding out and has not tried to make contact with Stephanie. And most importantly, he has not shown up for his court dates in the past 6 months, so Stephanie's divorce is granted by default.
Angelo is also now free of any obligations to represent Jeremiah on this or any case.
Woohoo! Looking forward to that Nova-Kim wedding for sure!
ReplyDeleteYup, time for Steph to start daydreaming about what kind of wedding she wants! They might have to keep it on the cheap though, lol! Good thing her family and coworkers are all creative types. I think she'll have a lot of help putting it together.
DeleteAnd picking a date will be a little tricky. The one thing Stephanie ever imagined about her wedding would be that it happened on the anniversary of their first kiss, but that would be in April, too soon to throw together a wedding this year (and I have Dallas and Lucy's re-wedding in May), but it feels really far away to make them wait until next April. But a lot might depend on whether we get a Seasons EP soon, because a country wedding in fall could be super pretty too!!! :)
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so happy for Stephanie, and her whole family really, that this day has finally come! I'm hoping the parental rights can be terminated without too much fuss - I have no idea how that works. I can't imagine that Jeremiah will completely give up on harassing Stephanie all together...but at least he won't have a legal leg to stand on once his rights are terminated!
After research, I can say that terminating parental rights is both easy in some ways, but surprisingly not in others. Especially how some foul behavior doesn't matter at all. Like violence, for example. It would matter if Jeremiah attempted to kill or murdered a child, but that he attempted to kill Justin (an unrelated adult) doesn't matter a single bit in any state. Only one state makes allowances for hurting the mother of the child. So, that's America for you, lol! I'm trying to use realistic laws in my research, at the same time for allowing 70-something years of common sense evolution into the future. ;)
DeleteIn the end, there are other grievances they can use against him. Just not the thing that makes the most logical sense to me. Ah, well. Whatever gets the job done!