2 Stories That Will Leave You Shook

The Mediation Showdown

Melinda said it was standard procedure and most cases settled during mediation, but I was skeptical about Kyle and Stephanie suddenly becoming reasonable. The mediation got scheduled for a Tuesday morning at some office building downtown.

Kyle showed up in an expensive suit looking smug, while Stephanie sat in the corner wearing old jeans and wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. The mediator was this older woman who kept talking about finding common ground and moving forward.

About an hour in, Kyle made some comment about how I was just a bitter cripple trying to get money I didn’t deserve. Olivia’s dad jumped up from his chair so fast it fell over and I had to grab his arm to keep him from going after Kyle.

The mediator called for a break and I spent 10 minutes in the hallway talking Olivia’s dad down while Melinda worked on Kyle’s attorney. When we came back in, Kyle’s lawyer had obviously told him to shut up because he didn’t say another word the rest of the session.

After 4 hours of back and forth, we finally reached a settlement where Kyle would pay 30,000 over 2 years in monthly payments and Stephanie agreed to wage garnishment for 10,000 from whatever job she got next. Nobody had to admit wrongdoing, which really bothered me.

But Melinda explained that going to trial was risky and this guaranteed we’d get at least 40,000 back. Kyle’s attorney drew up the paperwork right there and everyone signed before they could change their minds.

The Truth Revealed

Walking out of that office building, I didn’t feel victorious or relieved, just tired and ready for this whole thing to be over. 3 weeks after the settlement I was sitting at my kitchen table sorting through bills when the mailman knocked on my door with a certified letter that needed my signature.

My hands shook a little as I signed for it because I knew what it was before I even opened it. The lab’s logo was printed on the envelope and inside was a single piece of paper with test results that made my knees go weak.

The DNA test showed 0% chance I was the father, but a 99.9% match to Kyle. I read it three times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things wrong.

And then the relief hit me so hard I barely made it to the bathroom before I threw up. I sat on the bathroom floor for a while, feeling this weird mix of relief and something else I couldn’t name at first, until I realized it was grief for a kid that was never mine but that I’d been thinking about for weeks.

Olivia found me there 20 minutes later and just sat down next to me on the cold tile without saying anything. She held my hand while I told her about the results and how messed up I felt being both happy and sad at the same time.

We stayed up most of that night talking about whether we wanted kids someday and what that would look like for us without all this drama hanging over our heads. The next morning I called Melinda and asked her to send Stephanie formal paperwork saying she couldn’t contact me directly anymore and that everything had to go through lawyers from now on.

Melinda drew up the documents that afternoon and sent them by courier to Stephanie’s last known address. Two days later we got confirmation that Stephanie had signed everything without any push back, which surprised me since I expected her to fight it.

A Quiet Wedding

Olivia and I went down to the courthouse that week to reschedule our wedding from the big venue we’d booked to just a simple ceremony in the judge’s chambers next month. The clerk who helped us was really nice and didn’t ask any questions when we said we wanted something small with just 10 people max.

We decided to only invite our immediate families and a couple close friends instead of the 100 plus people we’d originally planned for. My next therapy session with Tyrone was different because instead of talking about Stephanie and all that mess, we started working on who I was beyond being a soldier and beyond all this recent drama.

He had me do this exercise where I wrote down everything I thought defined me and then we went through crossing off the things that were about my service or my injuries or what happened to me instead of who I actually am. It was harder than I expected and I only had like three things left on the list when we were done, which really made me think.

Tyrone helped me see that I’d been defining myself by my trauma for so long that I forgot there was more to me than just surviving bad stuff. Two weeks later Anaisa from the VA called to confirm my prosthetic care plan was all set for the next 5 years and asked if I wanted to join a peer support group for veterans.

I was nervous about sitting in a room with strangers talking about personal stuff, but I figured it couldn’t be worse than everything else I’d been through lately. So I signed up.

Finding Community

The first meeting was in this small room at the VA with about eight other vets sitting in a circle on those uncomfortable plastic chairs. The facilitator asked if anyone wanted to share and before I could stop myself I was telling them the whole messy story about Stephanie and Kyle and the stolen money and everything.

Three guys nodded along like they’d heard similar stories before. And one older vet said his ex-wife did almost the same thing while he was deployed.

Nobody judged me or acted like I was stupid for not seeing it coming, which felt better than I expected. After the meeting a couple guys came up and shared their own stories about getting screwed over by people they trusted.

And it made me realize this kind of thing happens more than people talk about. The first of the month came and went without Kyle’s settlement payment showing up in my account.

So Melinda called his lawyer and found out he was already trying to dodge the agreement. She didn’t waste any time filing the consent judgement paperwork that would let the court garnish his wages directly from his employer.

Kyle’s lawyer tried to argue for more time but the judge wasn’t having it, since Kyle had signed the settlement agreement knowing what the payment schedule was. Within 2 weeks the court approved the automatic garnishment, which meant Kyle’s employer would have to take the money straight from his paycheck and send it to me whether Kyle liked it or not.

Final Boundaries

Melinda explained it would take longer to get all the money this way, but at least it was guaranteed to come eventually instead of hoping Kyle would do the right thing. I spent an afternoon writing a short statement online about setting boundaries and focusing on healing without going into all the dirty details.

As soon as I posted it I turned off all the comments and notifications because I didn’t want to deal with random people’s opinions or the trolls who always show up on those kinds of posts. It felt good to say something publicly on my own terms without having to defend myself or explain everything to strangers who didn’t really care anyway.

Three nights later Olivia asked if I wanted to go swimming at the community pool after it closed since her friend worked there and could let us in. We drove over around 11:00 and the place was completely dark except for the underwater lights making everything glow blue.

I slipped into the water first and the temperature was perfect, not too cold like during lap practice. Olivia jumped in next to me and we just floated on our backs looking at the stars through the glass ceiling.

Neither of us talked for maybe 20 minutes and it felt good to be in water without having to prove anything to anybody. My prosthetic was sitting on a chair by the pool and for once I didn’t care about getting back to it quickly.

The water held me up just fine on its own. 2 days after that Melinda called to say she was sending out the final paperwork to everyone involved in the case.

Moving Forward

She mailed certified letters to Kyle and Stephanie confirming the settlement amounts and payment schedules, along with the no-contact orders that would stay in place forever. She also included a list of job training programs and housing resources for Stephanie.

Even though we didn’t have to do that, the legal part of this whole mess was officially done, even if my brain was still processing everything that happened. Melinda said the court would handle enforcement from here and I should focus on moving forward with my life.

That weekend Olivia’s dad came over with a six-pack and sat on our couch looking uncomfortable. He cleared his throat about five times before finally saying he was sorry for pushing so hard about filing criminal charges against Stephanie and Kyle.

He said he got carried away because he was mad about what they did to me, but he understood why I chose the settlement instead. We talked for 2 hours about how sometimes peace is better than revenge and how carrying anger just makes you tired.

He shook my hand when he left and said he’d respect whatever boundaries Olivia and I set going forward. The next morning I went to the bank with my military medals in a shoe box and rented a safe deposit box for $20 a year.

I put everything inside, including my purple heart and bronze star, and turned the key feeling weird about locking away things that used to define me. The bank lady asked if I was sure I wanted to store them instead of displaying them and I just nodded.

A New Life

Building a new life meant not living in the old one anymore, even if that felt strange. 3 weeks later we got married at the courthouse on a Tuesday morning with just 10 people watching.

Olivia wore a simple white dress she bought online for $60 and looked more beautiful than any bride I’d ever seen. Tyrone showed up even though it was his day off because he said he wouldn’t miss it for anything.

The judge read the standard vows and we both started crying when we said “I do” Because we actually meant it this time.

No fancy venue or 200 guests or $40,000 price tag. Just two people who knew what real love looked like.

After the ceremony we all went to this Italian place for lunch and everyone was laughing and telling stories. About halfway through the meal the restaurant started playing some country song about soldiers coming home.

And suddenly I was back in that helicopter with blood everywhere. I stood up fast and walked outside where I could breathe while Olivia followed me out.

She didn’t say anything stupid like “It’s okay” or “you’re safe now” because she knew that didn’t help.

Instead she just stood next to me and matched my breathing until my heart stopped racing. We went back inside after 10 minutes and nobody made a big deal about it, which I appreciated.