The Final Battle
One night, after Stephanie had stopped responding to Jill and Matt, and told them to go through their lawyers if they wanted to communicate, Matt decided to take things into his own hands by driving down to Stephanie’s aunt’s house where she was staying and forcibly take John away from her, contrary to the emergency custody order that Stephanie had been given in court. He started banging on the front door, screaming to see John. Stephanie’s aunt desperately tried to keep the door from opening while Stephanie barricaded John in his room and tried to stay back and calm Matt down in the meantime. Matt broke through Stephanie’s aunt, pushing her to the floor, and started wailing on John’s door, demanding that he come out “or else.” Stephanie was shocked. What could “or else” mean? Physical punishment?
She started physically trying to refrain Matt, but he was stronger than her, and he started to become violent. Eventually, he started chasing her around the house, threatening to hurt her, until the police came, and he was arrested. He was quickly bailed out by his mother, and a restraining order was put in place against Jill and him. A few weeks went by. Stephanie and Matt split up. Matt agreed to all of Stephanie’s demands in the court room, and revealed another bombshell.
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A Fragile Resolution
Matt had been cheating on Stephanie for a while with a coworker, and even went so far as to request Stephanie’s blessing to be with the woman he had been cheating on her with! She said yes, because she was ready to be done with it. Fortunately, Matt no longer wanted to see John, and allowed Stephanie to have full custody, so she wasn’t too concerned about what he did with his own life anymore.
On the other hand, Jill was not letting go of the situation as easily. After weeks of strange occurrences, Stephanie finally confirmed that Jill had been following her, tracking her every move. After Jill attempted to attack Stephanie in a parking garage, she was arrested, and in her car, the police found detailed timetables of the schedules of Stephanie and John. Turns out Jill had been planning to kidnap John and take him for herself. With the evidence found, however, her plans were squandered by the heavy hammer of law enforcement.
Stephanie and John were safe now. John began to be homeschooled by his aunt, and Stephanie began to see a new man. After a long and arduous few months, kicked off by what could have been a simple joke gone wrong, Stephanie’s life was finally returning to a new normal.
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