Jena was so glad to have her mother and nephew safe at her home. They had slept all night after a big dinner. Jena checked on them both several times because they had been out for so long. When they were finally up, the color was back in their cheeks and they were hungry again. Sue chatted with Jena as they had coffee together. Tiger Blood had drunk nearly a week's worth of formula so quickly. It was like he held onto his bottles for dear life. Jena wanted them to stay with her. She knew she couldn't help them if they went back to the cabin. Sue and Tiger Blood were making a solid recovery from their situation. If they went back, they'd both be worse for the wear. Although Sue wasn't one to complain, Jena could tell that Thallea had been running everyone in the family down, and with Beau as her biggest supporter, Jena felt helpless watching her loved ones' rapid deterioration from the outside.
Neither Beau nor Thallea cared enough about their infant son to call to ask when Sue would return with him. Jena assumed that Beau had stopped asking questions that had answers, which would certainly reflect poorly on Thallea. Sue insisted on going back to her other three grandsons, whom she was the sole caregiver of. Jena, with Sue's blessing, followed behind her back to her cabin in the hopes that all of them would stay with her. Jena knew that only Thallea's needs were managed in that household and wanted to do her part in saving whoever she could from the volatile situation. Jena was so disenchanted by all that she had seen to assume that Beau would be a grave danger to anyone of his children who Thallea pointed her finger at. Jena intended to get them out of there before things went further downhill than they already had.
Sue arrived at the cabin first while Jena trailed behind in her top-heavy truck. They had planned it that way. Sue had found the boys hungry and distraught. It was no secret that Thallea had been sending them off to friends' houses at every chance. However, the children were out of favors to ask others. When Jena pulled up. Sue walked over to greet her. Sue whispered to Jena, who sat in her truck so as not to instill any unrest, that the boys would sleep by the creek side to hide from Thallea or Beau when they had nowhere else to go. The children were on the front porch. Jena could see from where she sat that the eldest had become overwrought far beyond his years, from missing school to care for his brothers. He had lost his carefree spirit. They were no longer working poor with a hopeful future, but were instead something far more dejected from where they started.
As Jena caught up with her mother, Beau appeared. Jena immediately recognized that he was drunk. He stood in a dirty tee-shirt, wearing boxer shorts, with his arms holding the entryway door frame, thus firmly blocking anyone from coming or going into the house. Jena watched the shell of a man she once knew with bewildered horror, waiting for him to approach and explain himself. Beau shouted to Jena from where he stood at his sister that she could not enter and that she was not welcome there any longer—the reason why was not given, though. Jena pleaded with him as Thallea watched from the window. The curtains were only parted enough for Jena to see her peeping through from her nose to her eyebrows. Beau looked toward Thallea then back at Jena as he threatened to call the police if she did not go quickly. Sue rushed inside without a word to Jena, like a fearful child. Jena yelled to Beau, "Why are you being like this?" Beau seeming to swish his thoughts then glancing at Thallea snapped back at her, "None of your fucking business anymore." Jena, realizing she couldn't make headway in that moment, yelled, directed behind Beau where she thought her mother would be saying, "Mom, call me and I'll come get you no matter what." Then, knowing she had pushed her luck, Jena remained in her truck, holding back tears as she knew she would likely never see them again, and turned the vehicle around to go the way she came.
It was a few hours' drive back and Jena was beside herself with hurt. She did the only thing she could think of and switched directions to the much closer facility where her infirmed father stayed. There Jena made herself scarce as she hid in his room, turning over and over again in her mind how she could help those she loved. Jena wished with her whole heart and soul that she could stop the madness that had caused her family to fall apart. She thought to herself that God had forsaken her and wondered why so much evil had come to roost in her life. Fighting her sorrow and exhaustion she must have dozed off like before, when she fell asleep on the recliner in his room. Just as she slipped into a deep sleep she felt like a malevolent force had heard her pleas, she felt like it accepted her anguish. She awoke with her heart palpitating in the deep darkness of the night that was surrounded by an eerie silence. She jumped to her feet thinking there was someone else in the room, but as she shook the sleep off of herself, she realized the only noise was her father's muffled snoozing to be heard. Jena felt the hair on the back of her neck was raised. Without any logical reason why she fled the building as if fear itself was what she was running from.
She drove the remainder of the way home in a cold sweat. It was half past three am when she pulled into her driveway. Thinking her horrible ordeal of the day was over, she sighed in relief. Unfortunately, it was short-lived as she noticed, squeezed under her doorway, was a note left by Roman. It read, "Call me now." Jena felt more grounded by reading Roman's message, which had all of his trademark lack of patience or basic civility. Jena called the old man, once she crossed her threshold. He answered on the first ring as if he had been waiting for her. He didn't let her speak as he ordered, without raising his voice in a tone of absolute disdain, "Come to Turner's, you need to sign something." Then he hung up. The call was less than a few seconds. Jena didn't know what exactly was going on, but she knew it was important enough for Turner to be willing to pay Roman double overtime to have him up after hours. Jena had wanted to check on her birds for the night but didn't even bother to take off her shoes as she went right back out to Turner's house on the other side of town.
Turner left the light on for her on the front porch. Jena could see the men pacing back and forth in the living room discussing something. She was about to text Turner to tell him she was there but by the time she wrote the message, Turner had already opened the door for her. Roman who was smoking coughed as he jump to scold her, "Where the fuck have you been?" Jena was still too raw to explain, especially to Roman, who didn't care, mumbled "saw my dad." Turner ignored their interaction and went to the kitchen to top off his drink. Roman tossed onto the coffee table a packet, "This is for the other vegetable in your life. Sign everywhere there's a red sticker." Jena sat on the couch and began to read the lengthy document before Roman slapped a pen onto the table. "Just sign it idiot, it's all legalese." Jena was taken aback by Roman's more overt than typical hostility, and asked, "What is this for?" Roman tapped his cigar into the ashtray, "Your bitch mother-in-law wants to pull the plug on your cokehead husband." Jena looked at Turner who was staring at his phone, "What? When did this happen?" Turner threw up his hand, "She had you served by one of my guys so I had it brought to Roman because you weren't home." Jena was irritated that no one had involved her in the decision-making that led to the response she was being demanded to sign without so much as reading, replied: "The judge awarded her all decision-making, there's nothing I can do even if I wanted to." Roman cut her off from continuing, "It's handled, sign it so we can get this done."
Jena was infuriated by the way she was being addressed, especially considering that when she needed help those months ago, they both couldn't be bothered to do a thing for her. Jena feeling overpowered, signed for no other reason than to leave. "There." She said as she passed the papers back to Roman who was standing over her. He flipped through the pages to be sure she hadn't missed anything then without so much as a "thank you" to her, addressed Turner saying, "It's good." Then he went out the door to where his car was parked, going off into the night like a bat out of hell. Jena still on Turner's couch asked him, "What did I just sign?" Turner rubbed his forehead, answered, "It's essentially an emergency power of authority for Roman to act as your lawyer on Nate's behalf. You just bought our boy some more time." Turner held back a laugh to himself, sparking Jena's curiosity, before he added, "Roman made sure to put in that you are too stupid to manage Nate's affairs. He requested to overturn the first court order so that he would act in your best interest to protect Nate. You're officially legally incompetent."
Jena stopped herself from saying Roman was an asshole out loud. Instead, she couldn't help but shake her head in disbelief. "Turner, I'm not so sure Nate can be saved." Turner must have been a little too drunk because he laughed, "No shit, he's as dead as a doorknob." Jena looked at him sideways, hoping she had misunderstood him, "What do you mean by that?" Turner straightened up, "Sorry, bad joke." Jena not only found it to be in poor taste but also confusing. She had no idea why he had said that so matter-of-factly. Turner seemed to want to change the topic as Jena got up to leave, and asked, "Jena, did you still need help with Beau's wife?" Jena stopping in place, answered, "Not really, she's out of the house and everything...it's just." Jena couldn't find the words to properly surmise all of the events into a few sentences. Turner seeing her struggle, spoke over her, "If you keep it together with what we need you for with Nate, I can help, with anything." Jena became uncomfortable with that statement knowing all of the unsettling things Turner's company had a hand in. Still feeling ambushed by Roman, she gaffed him off saying, "I'm really tired. Call me if you need me in court." Turner nonchalantly nodded.
At home, Jena felt so overwhelmed and taken advantage of. She was in a state of absolute dread from all of it. With her shoes still on, she curled up in her bed and cried herself until there was nothing left in her body but a whimper. She felt so trapped. Her whole world was out of control and she had become both a puppet and a pariah. She remembered back to Nate's party. She simply wanted a divorce, and to go live with her mom, but so much had happened that she felt like her dream of finding peace was out of reach. She felt more trapped than ever. She cried until one last deep breath escaped her. It was as if her soul had become too exhausted and left her body. With that, she lay there in a restless slumber of worry. For the first time in her life, she had no idea what would happen next. It scared her to her very core.
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