Within four hours of Wendy’s Facebook post, my life became a digital battleground.
My phone lit up every ninety seconds. Text messages poured in from Luca’s distant cousins, college friends we hadn’t spoken to in three years, and women from Wendy’s charity auxiliary board.
*“Jessi, Wendy only wants what’s best for Fiona. Why are you keeping a baby from her grandmother?”*
*“Have you considered seeing a psychiatrist? There’s no shame in getting help for postpartum depression.”*
*“Luca is devastated. You need to come home and talk this through like adults.”*
They were flying monkeys, every single one of them, executing Wendy’s smear campaign with the terrifying efficiency of a religious cult.
I sat at Rachel’s kitchen island, watching the numbers climb on Wendy’s post. Over three hundred likes. Seventy shares. Luca had shared it with a single, tragic caption: *“Fighting for my daughter’s future. Thank you for everyone’s prayers during this nightmare.”*
“He’s setting up the narrative,” Rachel said, sliding a fresh cup of coffee in front of me. “He wants everyone to think you had a nervous breakdown so when they file for custody, the community is already primed to believe you’re an unfit mother.”
“Let them post,” I said, though my stomach churned with nausea. It was horrifying to watch hundreds of strangers dissect my sanity based on a fabricated lie. “Eleanor said not to engage on social media under any circumstances.”
“Eleanor is right,” Rachel agreed. “Never interrupt your enemy while they’re making a mistake.”
Right on cue, the front doorbell rang.
Not a polite chime. Three heavy, aggressive pounds that rattled the wood against the frame.
Rachel and I both froze.
From the guest bedroom, Fiona gave a little cry, startled awake by the noise.
“Stay here,” Rachel said, heading toward the foyer. “I’ll look through the peephole.”
I followed her into the hallway, peering around the corner.
Through the narrow sidelight window, I saw a tall man in a dark suit holding a thick manila envelope. Parked at the curb was a nondescript sedan with county plates.
“Process server,” Rachel whispered.
I took a deep breath, walked past her, and pulled the door open.
“Jessica Vance?” the man asked, holding up an identification badge.
“Yes.”
“You are being served with an emergency ex-parte motion for temporary child custody and an order to surrender the minor child to the petitioner, Luca Vance.” He handed me the thick packet of papers. “You have a hearing scheduled for Friday morning at nine o’clock in County Court Three.”
I took the envelope. “Thank you.”
The server looked momentarily surprised by my lack of hysteria, tipped his head, and walked briskly back to his car.
I tore the envelope open right there in the entryway.
Luca’s attorney, Harold Hastings, had pulled out every dirty trick in the playbook. The petition alleged that I was suffering from “acute delusional psychosis,” that I had abducted Fiona without the father’s knowledge, that I had a history of erratic behavior, and that Fiona was suffering from “severe developmental neglect” under my sole care. Attached to the petition was a sworn affidavit from Wendy Vance, detailing twenty separate fabricated instances of my supposed neglect over the last eighteen months.
“Look at this,” I showed Rachel, my hands trembling with rage. “She claims I refused to feed Fiona solid foods until she was twelve months old. She claims I locked myself in a bedroom for three days when Fiona was six months old. It’s complete fiction.”
Before Rachel could answer, my phone rang.
This time, it was Eleanor Vance’s private office line.
I answered instantly. “Eleanor, I just got served.”
“I know,” Eleanor said, her voice smooth and completely unbothered. “Harold sent a runner to my office five minutes ago with their courtesy copy. He thinks he’s very clever trying to ambush us with a Friday hearing.”
“They’re claiming I’m mentally unstable, Eleanor. Wendy wrote twenty pages of sworn lies!”
“Let her perjure herself, Jessi,” Eleanor said, a cold laugh bubbling in her throat. “Harold Hastings didn’t check the court docket before he filed his emergency motion. If he had, he would have realized that I filed our motion four hours ago.”
I paused. “What happened with our motion?”
“Judge Evelyn Martinez signed our temporary restraining order twenty minutes ago,” Eleanor said, her tone dripping with professional satisfaction. “Luca’s petition is essentially void on arrival. Not only did Judge Martinez grant you temporary sole physical and legal custody of Fiona pending Friday’s hearing, but she also ordered an immediate freeze on the Vance Family Trust account where your sixty-four thousand dollars was sent.”
I let out a breath I felt like I had been holding for two days. “She froze the money?”
