He's gone. This is it, what I have wanted for the longest time. However there is no feeling of relief. I am constantly checking that the doors are locked and keep the curtains drawn.
There is a warrant for his arrest but the Police can't find him. They call me a couple of times a day to see if I have heard from him.
He smashed my phone and I have a spare but it is flat and my charger is at work. It is Saturday morning and I get the kids ready to get in the car. Once we get up to the drive way I remember I left my car down by the bus stop. About a 10 minute walk. So off we go, DS wont walk so I carry him.
We get to the car and I get everybody in and buckled up. I go to start the car and it wont. It is not even turning over ... this is all I need. My car is old but reliable and it has never not started before. I pop the bonnet not really knowing what I am looking for but something I might notice as wrong. I start to cry. I hadn't cried at all through the night before but this was the straw.
An old man came out of his house to see if he could help. But I told him I don't think there is anything either of us can do. The walk back home is going to be all up hill and I just don't have it in me to carry DS all the way home. I ask the old man if he can drive us and he kindly does. Me a crying mess in his front seat.
I couldn't call anybody because I didn't have a working phone. I was so angry at him right then. On the side of the road feeling completely helpless and this is not hurting me it is hurting the children as well.
I call FIL, I don't know how much he knows but he seems to know some of what had happened the night before but I didn't call to discuss that with him. My suspicion is that he has done something to the car and I tell FIL this. FIL says he will go and have a look at the car and get back to me. About thirty minutes later he calls and says he can't see anything wrong with it but he also can't get it to start.
FIL pays for a taxi for me to go into work to get my charger. I leave him with strict instruction not to let him in the house or near the children. That there is a warrant for his arrest and that if he helps him in anyway I will lay a complaint with the Police.
I get back home about half an hour later and FIL informs me that he will go get my car and bring it home for me. I ask him how as neither of us have been able to get it started. He replies that he just has a feeling now that it will start. A feeling my arse, he has spoken with his son and he has somehow managed to fix what he broke.
Sure enough the car starts and is working again. Two years later and he still has the spare key but wont give it back.
Given it is a Saturday there is not much I can do to get organised for the week/s ahead. I need to get a lawyer and file for protection, furniture, property and care orders first thing. I need to organise care for the children so I can go to work. I don't know how much time I am going to need off work to sort all this out.
I feel nervous all the time, trying to keep it together for the kids. I feel lonely and scared. Overwhelmed by the largeness of it all. Wanting to feel relief but he is still a wild card , nothing stopping him coming back.
On the Monday morning I manage to get DD into the holiday program that day, which means she can get of the house and doesn't have to sit around listening to me on the phone all day.
I have called work and told my manager what is happening and as always he is amazing supportive and tells me not to worry about them and take the time I need. I get an email later from him in the day offering me a weeks paid special leave.
I manage to also find a care facility for DS that has a full time space and we go and visit that afternoon. We come up with the plan to integrate him over the week while i am not at work so he would start full time the following week. I feel sorry for the little dude as he had never been in that environment before.
So by the end of Monday I have care sorted for the kids and know I will be back at work the following week. I still need a lawyer and to get all the orders filed. The police are still trying to find him to arrest him.
Tuesday and he calls me, he wants to come to the house to talk. I tell him that is fine I have to go out for a little bit but if I am not there when he gets there I won't be far away. I put DS in the car and leave. I stop down the road a bit and call the Police to let them know he will be at the house soon. They arrive five mintues later and tell me to wait in the car where I am.
I keep an eye on the rear vision mirror and it only takes a couple of minutes before the Police car comes down the road and past me, with him in the back.
He was charged with assault and wilful damage (breaking my phone) and plead not guilty. He of course was out on bail and was not allowed to make contact with me. The most peaceful months I had had in the longest time. He dragged his court process out for a few months by continuing to plead not guilty. Because this was his plea I was called as a witness. I was there to hear a conversation between him and his lawyer where it was explained to him that the court would not take it lightly that he was going to push this to the point where I would be put on the stand. But he never cares about anybody else but himself. He went through three lawyers, they all dropped him as a client. In the end his Daddy (FIL) paid big bucks to have him represented by a Queens Council, who walked into the court and plead him guilty. Done. I didn't have to be a witness any longer.
As it was his first offence there was no conviction.
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