Inside the truck, police found a loan paper with Kevin’s name written on it.
Jason looked at me with a pale face. “Laura, the driver who hit your mom was driving fast because he was on his way to collect a big debt from your husband.”
Before I could even think about what he said, my phone rang. It was the neighbor who was watching Hannah after school.
“Come back fast!” she screamed on the phone. “Brenda just came and took Hannah away!”
In the background of the call, I heard my little daughter crying and screaming for help.
PART 3
I ran out of the junkyard feeling like I could barely walk. Jason drove his car fast while I kept calling Brenda over and over. She ignored my first calls, but Kevin finally answered the phone.
“Hannah is with her family,” Kevin said on the line. “Come back home right now and we can talk.”
“Let me speak to my daughter right now,” I demanded.
“Only after you sign papers saying you drop the divorce and that the soup shop belongs to me too,” Kevin answered.
Jason gestured for me to stay calm while he recorded the phone call and told the police where we were going. “Kevin, I just want to know if my daughter is okay.”
“She is crying because you put crazy ideas in her head,” Kevin yelled. “If you do what I say, nobody gets hurt.”
Then he hung up the phone.
The police tracked his phone to his mother’s house. When we pulled up, Brenda was holding Hannah tightly by the arm near the front door. Pamela was recording everything on her phone like it was a show, while Kevin walked back and forth on the lawn looking nervous.
“Sign these papers right now!” Kevin shouted as he held out some forms. “Give up full custody of Hannah and agree that the shop belongs to both of us!”
Hannah had red eyes from crying so much. “Mommy, I do not want to stay here!”
I ran toward her, but Brenda grabbed my coat. “Take another step and we will take her out through the back alley!”
Police officers ran in from the side yard, and Jason showed them the recording of the phone call. Kevin tried to rip up the papers and run away over the fence, but the officers caught him before he could climb over. Brenda kept shouting that it was all a big mistake, but Hannah told the officers that her grandmother lied to her, saying I was sick in the hospital to make her get in the car.
That afternoon, the judge gave me a protective order so Kevin could not come near us or the shop. Brenda and Pamela were put under investigation for taking my daughter and making threats.
However, the trouble was not over yet.
Kevin’s loan sharks found out my shop was doing well and showed up three days later with four big men carrying fake papers, along with Kevin, who had just been let out on bail.
“Whatever my wife makes here belongs to me too,” Kevin told my customers out loud. “Take your money right out of her register.”
One man went behind the counter while another started taking pictures of the tables and refrigerators. Brenda walked in right behind them, pointing at all the items in the shop. “Take the coffee maker, the big pots, and the freezer because they were bought while they were married!”
“That is a lie!” I shouted back. “This place and all the tools belonged to my mother!”
Kevin grabbed my phone out of my hand when I tried to call the police and smashed it on the floor, then pulled my hair roughly.
Hannah screamed from the kitchen doorway.
The men started putting red stickers on the equipment, so I grabbed a big metal soup ladle, filled it with hot steaming soup from the pot, and held it up.
“Put everything down and get out of my shop right now,” I told them.
Brenda backed away quickly. “Look at her, she has gone crazy!”
“No, I am just tired of you coming into my life and treating my things like they belong to you,” I said firmly.
Jason walked in with two other lawyers and several police officers. He had put camera systems in the shop after the kidnapping, so the whole attack was caught on video.
“This property was inherited by Laura,” Jason told the officers while showing them the real property papers. “It is her private property and cannot be taken for her husband’s debts. Anyone touching these things will be arrested for theft.”
The loan collector checked the documents and looked angrily at Kevin. “You told us this business was yours!”
Kevin began to stutter. “It will be mine once the divorce goes through!”
“No, it will not,” Jason answered. “We also have proof that you took out loans by forging your wife’s signature on legal papers.”
The collectors turned on Kevin angrily, and the police had to separate them and make everyone leave. I put the ladle down and held Hannah tightly while she shook with fear.
Jason stayed behind to help me clean up the broken glass and spilled broth on the floor. “Do not ever face those people alone again,” he told me gently.
“I was alone for years even when I lived in a full house,” I answered softly.
He did not argue with me, but quietly picked up my mother’s blue apron off the floor and hung it back on the chair.
The divorce court date started the very next morning. Kevin showed up in a borrowed suit, and Brenda sat behind him dressed in black like she was the victim. Kevin’s lawyer tried to say that I abandoned my family and that my business success came from Kevin’s money and support.
When I took the stand, I told the judge how I used to get up at five every morning to make lunch for my family, cook special meals for Brenda, iron Kevin’s clothes, and clean up after Pamela. I explained that nobody came to my mother’s funeral, and when I got home, they just ordered me to cook for 24 strangers.
Jason placed the 24 cups of instant soup on the table as proof. The judge looked at them with a serious face.
“Your Honor,” Jason said, “to this family, my client was only useful when she was working like a servant.”
Then he played all the recordings: Brenda demanding clean clothes, Kevin saying he needed someone to clean his house, the phone call where he took Hannah, and the video of the men attacking the shop.
