“I’m not legal. I don’t speak legal jargon, so I don’t know exactly. The gist of it is they want a bazillion dollars for pain and suffering and the loss of that man’s eye.”
“His eye?” Cian looks to Liam, who’s head is down, eyes focused on the paperwork. “You took his eye?”
Ayla makes a gagging noise, and the baby on Cian’s chest stirs.
“I handled the threat.”
“I’d say,” Ayla puts in.
“How much coverage do you have on your house?” Liam skewers me with his gaze.
“My umbrella policy is at a million for personal liability.” I nod to the papers. “But they’re asking for way more than that. And the two guys sued separately, and I think mine is per incident. I don’t know. I did what they recommended, not thinking that on day one I’d blow it all up.”
Liam nods and returns to the first page to read again.
Cian interjects. “Will you tell us what happened from your perspective? Cliff’s Notes over here gave us a very condensed version.”
12
them we or us we
Lorien
I start from the beginning, including my cleaning and mood music and work through the tale until the ambulance came and went and I was left re-cleaning the house, trying to remove the smell of urine from not one, but two men soiling themselves in my house before eight in the morning.
It’s the first time I’ve told the story, and I realize I needed to get it out. It’s downright therapeutic.
When I’ve come to the end of my story, I look up at the man who’s stopped pacing, who’s bare feet are rooted to his wood-planked floor and ask, “What are they suing you for? I’d assume self-defense is fair.”
“I didn’t defend myself, did I? I entered your home and defended you. In their estimation, I attacked them.”
“But they were holding me at knife point. I was vulnerable and they could’ve…” My voice trails off.
“I know that and I don’t regret what I did.” He sets the papers down on the coffee table and stabs his hands onto his hips. “So they’re suing Lorien for an attack on her property. The same as if I were a rabid dog.”
Fitting. I don’t say it aloud, but he was definitely the counter-aggressor in that situation, if I look at it from an outsider’s perspective.
“And they’re suing me for all the rest. I’m not sure myhomeowner’s insurance will cover anything as I wasn’t under this roof.”
“Interesting thought,” Cian starts and hands the baby off to Ayla, beginning his own pacing. “This townhome row has a joint roof, actually. It covers five of you. Could you use that as part of the castle doctrine?”
“We definitely need Sherman,” Ayla says.
“Who’s Sherman?” I ask.
“Our family’s attorney,” Cian offers.
“You have a family attorney? Is that a thing?” I ask Liam, but it’s Ayla who answers.
“We get into a fair bit of trouble.” Her smirk would be reassuring if I hadn’t just been dropped into the plot of some angsty movie I don’t want to be cast in.
Oh-kay.
“So this Sherman guy could answer whether our HOA or bylaws could protect Liam, but it wouldn’t necessarily protect me.”
“Okay.” Cian is still pacing but he’s looking around the room from person to person. “We’re creative, smart people, albeit from different careers, but there’s no reason the four of us can’t come up with a solution. Or at least multiple options. I know our expertise.” He looks from his siblings to me. “What do you do, Lorien?”
I can’t be sure, but I think Liam smirks as I reply, “I’m a nuclear biochemist working on genomic mapping for autoimmunology.”
