Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“She does,” I barked.
They turned in my direction. Kids these days weren’t the same. When I was growing up, we’d cowered in the face of authority. Not these kids.
“So,” said the ringleader with a chip the size of Texas on his shoulder. He couldn’t have reached my hip, but the boy with the mop of curly brown hair seemed less than impressed by me.
I aimed a finger at him and held my anger at bay. “You’re going to apologize or—”
The little shit cut me off. “Or what? Are you threatening me?” He glanced in the direction of where some teachers stood.
“I don’t have to. I’ll just sue you and your parents for defamation.”
Nothing like big words to wipe the arrogance off a little punk’s face. “Defamation?”
“Yeah, that’s when you say untrue things about someone.”
His smirk was back. “I didn’t say anything untrue. My parents say Zoe’s mom’s a whore.”
I smirked right back. “Which is why I’ll sue them, too. Unless you can prove that statement is true, you and your parents will owe me a lot of money. You might end up homeless because slandering someone’s good name is illegal.”
The little pack of crumb snatchers broke up quick. The lot of them held up their hands in surrender, leaving their leader to stand on his own.
“You wouldn’t do that,” he dared.
“Watch me. If I ever hear you say another thing about Zoe and her mom, you can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt, you might end up in debtors’ prison where people who can’t pay their debts live.”
His jaw opened before he ran off as I snickered. I held out my hand to my daughter as she asked, “Is any of that true?”
“All but the debtors’ prison. They used to have them. They don’t anymore. Though if you owe the IRS, they’ll put you in jail if you don’t pay.”
Zoe grinned for the first time at school, and my heart swelled with pride. I did wonder if I’d get a call from the principal in the morning about my lesson on defamation. It didn’t matter. I would file a lawsuit if I had to. None of those bullies would bully anyone if I had anything to say about it.
When we got home, Zoe ran into the house. “Sunshine, Sunshine, Dad told Billy he was going to debtors’ prison if he kept saying bad things about my mom.”
“Slow down, kiddo. What happened?” Sunshine’s eyes met mine for the first time in a couple of days.
I shrugged. “I caught a group of kids teasing Zoe about their mom and I told them I’d sue them for slander—”
Zoe looked at me. “You said defamation.”
“True. Slander is another word for defamation. They mean the same thing.”
“Oh,” Zoe said.
“Genius,” Sunshine said.
Grinning, I said, “I thought so.”
“Will you sue them?” Zoe asked, with big eyes aimed at me.
“I will if I have to.”
“I hate it there,” she admitted for the first time. “They are all so mean to me.”
I blurted before I thought about it, “You don’t have to go there. You can go to Mason Creek Grade School.”
“Really?” Zoe said with a hopefulness that broke my heart.
“Absolutely.”
“I’m going to tell Grandpa,” she said and skipped out of the room.
My father had been avoiding me, too. It was good to know he was at home. It was time he owned up to what he’d done.
“Do you really think you should have promised her that?” Sunshine asked.
I snapped out of my head. “Apparently, Haley had me listed as one of the emergency contacts at school. I think I have enough to file for temporary guardianship. I could get an emergency order and then enroll her at Mason Creek.”
“What about her mom? Have you heard anything?”
I had. “They located the black box from the boat they were using. Apparently, her boyfriend was an experienced boater and was taking her to one of the private islands.”
“Where did they find it?”
That was the tough part. “At the bottom of the ocean. It’s sending out signals.”
Sunshine covered her mouth. “Oh, my God. Zoe.”
I shook my head. “I refuse to give up hope yet. Their boat was equipped with a life raft. There’s a chance they got out. And I’m not telling my daughter anything about her mom until we know for sure that didn’t happen.”
Money wasn’t an issue. I’d given the green light to hire a diving crew to go down to see what was left of the boat and if any bodies could be recovered. The problem was everyone in the area was assisting with recovery from the aftermath of the underwater eruption that had caused a massive tsunami. It could be a week or more before we could get anyone down there. In the meantime, I would keep Zoe happy as best I could.
Sunshine’s mouth curved into a smile. “You’re doing a fantastic job at the father thing.”