At my lawyer’s request, I started a log.Date.Time.Count.A thin column titled “notes” that stayed mostly blank because what could I write besidesstill happeningandwon’t stop?
On speaker one afternoon, Mom clattering pans in the background, Clara and Jackson arguing over whether frosting was a food group, my lawyer said, “I know it’s maddening.With blocked numbers, we need escalation or corroboration.Keep documenting.If he slips, if there’s a text, a voicemail, anything traceable, I jump.”
“So I just wait?”I asked.“Write down every time he pokes at the bruise and pretend it doesn’t hurt?”
“You keep living,” he said gently.“The process is slow, but it’s moving.And Cassidy, when this goes to court, your record will matter.All of this will matter.”
After we hung up, I stared at the notebook like it had all the answers.Then I closed it and opened my laptop.
Marin’s email was a little flare of light in the inbox:We’re greenlit.Offer attached.
My first book under my own name.Fiction, technically, names pulled up by the roots, timelines shifted, but the bones were mine.We went back and forth for two days, tightening clauses, confirming I could keep certain structure choices, and then I signed.
I texted the family thread.Signed.They exploded with emojis andproud of youand Dad’s accidental all caps response.My hands shook, but for once it wasn’t fear.
Now I just have to finish it...
The conversation continued, encouraging me to keep going, congratulating me on getting this far.
A separate ping came in almost immediately from a different thread.
Brody:Heard a rumour.
Me:Which one?I’m collecting them like trading cards.
Brody:The good kind.My parents said the land sale went through.Congratulations, neighbour-not-yet-but-soon.
Me:Thank you.I can’t believe they said yes.
Brody:They didn’t say yes.They said, finally.
Me:??
Brody:Now the important part.Placement.
Me:Of…?
Brody:Your house.Your library.Your porch, where you’ll drink coffee and judge the deer.
Was it normal that my heart stuttered?
Me:I don’t judge deer.
Brody:You do.You’ll need a sightline to glare at them when they chew your garden.
I snorted, picturing me doing just that.
Me:That’s fair.
Brody:So we camp on the lot.Check out all the best places for you to build.Spend some time on the land.You’ll feel where it belongs.
Me:Bold of you to assume I would want to do that with you.
Brody:Bold of you to think I’d let you build without doing it right.
Me:And why, exactly, do we camp on my land?
Brody:Because I know what you want even when you don’t say it.And because I like being around you.Pick one.Oh, and I know the land better than you.
