Wyatt and Michelle: Postpartum
Requiem
Dear Diary: Everything was going perfect. I had it all. But then I made one mistake. It was one offhanded and unthinking, but foolish and destructive mistake. A few months after our Christmas engagement we had started planning a wedding for May. It was such a boring process for me but a stressful process for Michelle. She mentioned to me that it is very unusual for a couple who has a child together in their teens to stay together. I told her we're both very unusual people. She laughed but then she paused for a while. I could've just ignored the pause and left it alone, but I just had to ask what was wrong. When I asked she told me she had been thinking about her cousin again. I sighed. I thought I had avoided that subject brilliantly before and didn't think she'd mention it again, but she had. She wanted to know if maybe her cousin and her cousin's boyfriend had managed to stay together like we had. I wouldn't dare breathe a word to her about it, because I knew it would crush her and send her back to the coat rack. I'm certain that may have been what sent her there in the first place, she just doesn't remember. Again, I could've just stayed silent and wondered with her, but instead, I had to give her a hopeful lie. "Who knows? But I'm sure they're fine." Words that will now forever be burned into my memory. I'll never, ever forget them. Two weeks passed after that conversation and everything was normal. Then on the fourteenth day it was pouring raining outside and Michelle stormed into the apartment soaking wet with a laptop tucked under her armpit. She ran in screaming so loudly that it woke up Stevie.
"I'm sure they're fine? I'm sure they're fine?" she howled at me. I had no idea what she was talking about until she flung open the laptop and showed me the top news story. It was about the trial of Michelle's cousin's boyfriend, Rodney. I didn't even need to read the full article to know why Michelle was pissed. I tried to explain to her that I was only trying to protect her. She didn't remember any of this being in the news because it became really high profile around the time that Stevie was a newborn and Michelle was catatonic. I hadn't wanted her to know out of fear of her going crazy again. But I couldn't shield her from Google.
"My cousin is dead and you told me that you didn't know what happened. I won't put up with liars. I'm taking Stevie and-" I cut her off when she threatened to take Stevie.
"You're not taking my son!"
"Oh trust me, I am. I'm taking him to my mother's house."
"Lay one finger on him and I'm calling the cops." I screamed and surprised myself at how defensive I could be.
She then left in a huff and slammed the door behind her. I knew she would be back and contemplated fleeing with Stevie to the U.S. but I knew that would make things worse. I cuddled with Stevie that night fearful of what would happen the next day.
Sure enough, the next day came with a knock on the door from a social worker. She informed me that Michelle believed that Stevie would be in danger if he continued to live with me. I told her that Michelle is a crazy mental patient whose judgment can't be trusted. Nevertheless, the social worker still had a job to do. She went through the cabinets, toured the bedroom and examined Stevie while jotting everything down on a clipboard. I was furious with Michelle by then. I called her mom's house looking for her, but Mrs. Carter claimed she had no idea where she was. After all Mrs. Carter and I had been through with Michelle she was still willing to protect her. That's a mother's love for you, I guess. I was furious that I couldn't get in touch with Michelle when she was throwing curveballs at me. I talked with my mom and she helped me get a lawyer. Then, later, I found out Michelle had a lawyer as well. After several weeks of meetings with lawyers and signing paperwork I was finally able to find out from her lawyer what Michelle wanted. Basically, she wanted to see me suffer, which meant she wanted our son. I honestly didn't think she could get custody of him given her mental state, but when our lawyers went to court the judge ruled, after examination done by psychiatrists that Michelle was mentally sane and fit to raise a child. Also, Michelle's mother attested to her being fit to raise a child and said she would help her. The decision was not yet made as to who would get Stevie because the judge said we and our lawyers could work it out for ourselves.
My lawyer continued to tell me that I should give up custody to Michelle and I could possibly get visitation rights. But I didn't want that, I wanted full custody. I was so sure that Michelle just wanted to fight, so if I didn't give up my rights to my son, she would tell him terrible things about me and we would never stop fighting over who should get custody. The more the lawyers persisted and insisted that if Michelle wouldn't give me full custody the courts wouldn't either and the fear of never seeing my son crept in, the more I began to back down and cooperate. On a cold March morning I went to my lawyer's office and signed away my rights as a parent to Stevie so that I'd at least have some chance of seeing him if Michelle got full custody. The following Friday I went to court and found out troubling news. As I had signed away my parental rights to Stevie, Michelle had done the same thing. She only wanted to hurt me while I was fighting, but when I backed down, she was done. Since neither of us had parental rights to Stevie anymore, he would be placed with a foster family and/or eventually adopted. I tried for three more months to get my son back but the courts continued to deny it and then I found out it was too late. He had been adopted by a family and I was not given the name of the family or any information about where Stevie was. My life literally crumbled before my eyes as I lost the things that mattered most to me so quickly. My son, the woman I had loved, and my will to live. I thought of ending my life more times than I could count, but it never got past that stage. I isolated myself from friends and family and poured myself into my music. I had won that song writing contest and had my song recorded and it became a hit. I didn't talk with my old friends anymore, anyway so who would care? By May, instead of becoming a husband and having a lovely family to support me I became a singing sensation practically overnight with many local fans adoring me and teen girls wanting to date me, but which one do you think I wanted the most?