Chapter 4 - The Legal Shield
By eight o'clock the next morning, I realized that protecting Iris from Gavin’s violence was only half the battle; I now had to protect us from the relentless, suffocating pressure of an extended family desperate to preserve their own social standing. My phone had accumulated over fifty messages overnight, ranging from weeping apologies from my mother to veiled legal threats from Derek’s brother, who happened to be a corporate insurance lawyer.
I didn't reply to any of them. Instead, while Iris was eating a small cup of applesauce with her uninjured hand, I made a call to Sarah Jenkins, an old college friend who had built a formidable reputation as one of the most aggressive family and civil litigation attorneys in the state.
Sarah arrived at the hospital forty minutes later, wearing a razor-sharp suit and carrying a briefcase that looked like it contained weapons of mass destruction. She spent fifteen minutes reviewing the medical charts, looking at the photos I had taken of Iris’s wrist, and watching the video clips I had projected at the cookout.
"This is an absolute slam dunk on the civil side, David," Sarah said, closing her notepad with a definitive snap. "The medical evidence is incontrovertible, and Derek’s text messages to you specifically endorsing dominance and bullying establish a clear pattern of parental negligence and enabling."
"I don't care about a payout, Sarah," I said, pacing the small area near the window. "I want them away from us. I want a wall so high and so legally thick that Gavin, Derek, and Valerie can never come near Iris again."
"We’ll do both," Sarah replied firmly. "First, I’m going to the courthouse this morning to file for an Emergency Ex-Parte Order of Protection against Gavin Montgomery and his father, Derek Montgomery. Given the video evidence from your parents' security cameras showing unprovoked physical violence against a minor, the judge will sign it before noon."
"What does the protective order cover?"
"It mandates a mandatory five-hundred-foot stay-away order from Iris, your residence, her school, and any medical facility where she is receiving treatment," Sarah explained. "If Gavin or Derek attempt to contact her—in person, online, or through third-party family members like your parents—they will be subject to immediate arrest for contempt of court."
She paused, looking me in the eye with a fierce, protective intensity. "Second, I am filing a civil tort lawsuit against Derek and Valerie for parental liability in an intentional tort committed by a minor, alongside a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. We are going to demand they cover every single cent of Iris’s medical bills, her future reconstructive surgeries, her physical therapy, and her psychological counseling."
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"Derek will lose his mind," I said, a grim sense of satisfaction settling in my chest.
"Let him," Sarah said coldly. "He thinks he's an alpha male? Let’s see how alpha he feels when we place a lien on his house and freeze his bank accounts during discovery."
