Chapter 44

The next week dragged on. I was barely present at our shows on the weekend, but everyone, except Marco, understood. Monday was my emancipation hearing, and it would determine the course of the rest of my life.

Mr. Eaves didn’t seem worried when I met him at the family courthouse in Asheville, but I’d barely slept a wink all night. I was wearing a suit and tie that Mrs. Phillips had gotten for me, adding to the already unpayable debt that I owed her. She hadn’t asked for anything from me and said it was a gift, but at some point, I needed to pay her back for everything she was doing for me. Her and Chef.

“Don’t look so worried,” he said, seeing my face. “Today should go okay. Your parents asked for no discovery in their petition reply, I’m not sure they even hired an attorney. If they didn’t, today will probably go well.”

“What did the response say?”

“You don’t have to worry about the specifics. It was mostly grievances, missed any legal points of rebuttal, and was clearly written by a layperson. That’s good for us. If they represent themselves, it makes the outcome a lot more likely to be in our favor.”

It didn’t surprise me that Dad would try and do it all himself. The man was a narcissist who always believed he knew better than everyone else.

“Will they let them represent themselves?”

“Yes. Family court isn’t a criminal court, or even a civil court. There are still rules and proceedings, but things are more informal and lax. The judges tend to ask a lot more questions directly to the parties involved, and there is a lot more variability in the outcomes because of it. The most important thing for you to do is keep calm, don’t look at your parents, and when the judge asks you questions, answer as honestly and directly as possible. We’ve gone over some of the questions she might ask, but don’t be surprised if she asks something I didn’t prepare you for. That can happen. Just stay calm, try to answer her directly, and don’t add anything she didn’t ask for. Embellishment hurts us. Let the situation speak for itself.”

“Okay,” I said, gripping my hands together to keep from fidgeting.

“You’ll do fine,” he said, patting me on the back.

Neither Mom, Dad nor the judge were there when we went into the courtroom. Apparently, for the first case, the judge didn’t enter the courtroom until the parties were all there, and Mom and Dad were late. They showed up just before the hearing was supposed to start, cutting it very close.

Once they were there, the bailiff had everyone stand up, and the judge came in. The beginning of the case was pretty much what I expected based on Kat’s hearing, and was mostly legal paperwork stuff. The judge confirmed why we were there, that all of us were present, and laid out how the hearing was going to go. After that step, she read my petition, which would be followed by Dad’s response. Dad, however, couldn’t keep his mouth closed, as normal.

Halfway through the reading of the petition, he interrupted the judge and said, “That isn’t true, Your Honor. I want to...”

“Mr. Nelson,” she said, talking over him, clearly annoyed. “You will have a chance to have your response read into the record, and I will hear from both of you in due course. Until then, please sit down and do not interrupt me again.”

He, of course, did interrupt her again, before she even finished reading the petition. She told him to shut up again, although in legalese, and warned him he could be found in contempt if he interrupted her again. That, at least, got him to shut up. Considering he’d already been through one trial in his life, I would have thought he’d figured out how to act in a courtroom. Hell, I knew better than to interrupt a judge, and I hadn’t been a defendant before.

I also found out why Mr. Eaves didn’t want me to read the response. It wasn’t so much a response, but more of a tirade against me. In it, he rambled on about how unfit I was to take care of myself, pointed out how violent I was, including how I often got into fights, had a restraining order taken out against me and my attacks on him, and a weird section about my immaturity, which I actually couldn’t understand his reasoning or what he was trying to say.

When she finished, she set the petition down and looked at me.

“I’ve read your petition and their response, but I want to hear it from you. Why do you think you should be emancipated?”

This part Mr. Eaves had coached me on. The previous week we’d gone over what I would say over and over again, and he pointed out all of the things I shouldn’t say and what I needed to make sure I did say.

“Because I don’t think my parents are making decisions in my best interest and I fear for my safety living with them. What my father said was true, we have had several physical altercations, but I never initiated them. Both times, I was either defending myself or defending my mother. My father is a violent man, and has been my entire life, which is one of the reasons I started taking self-defense training last year. He was still in prison at the time, for killing a man in a bar fight, but I was worried he might come back. When I was little, he would beat on me and my mom whenever he was upset, and I didn’t want that to happen anymore. Because of the training I’ve received, I was able to defend myself this time, but I did not start any of the fights. I only wanted to protect myself and my mother.”

Although my record contract might have been the bigger motivating factor for me in getting emancipated, Mr. Eaves felt the abuse side was more important for us to play into. Apparently, physical abuse was the number one thing courts looked for in emancipation proceedings. To be honest, I actually didn’t fear Dad at all. I’d already shown that I could take him. I was worried the court would see that, too. Mr. Eaves had prepared me for that as well.

“From your parents’ response, my understanding is you injured your father in one of those altercations. Why would you fear for your safety if you are able to protect yourself?”

“I fear for all of our safety. For one, I don’t think it will stop with him just using his hands. My father stabbed a man the last time he went to prison. He doesn’t like to lose, and I wouldn’t put it past him to come at me with a weapon next time. For another, I don’t want to be in a position where I might hurt him. In both of our previous fights, I stayed in control and stopped short of causing him any permanent injury, although I could have. However, seeing my mom in pain, on the floor, watching him kick her in the stomach and ribs, was traumatic. I worry about what would happen if I would lose control in a situation where I try to defend her. I understand I am responsible for my own behavior, but the child shouldn’t be the one who has to maintain control of their actions in a home. That is something parents are supposed to do. They are supposed to provide a safe, loving environment where I can grow up without having to worry if this is the time Dad goes too far and hurts us, or worse.”

“That little shit can’t...” Dad blurted out, not able to contain himself.

“Mr. Nelson,” the judge said, finally raising her voice. “I warned you once. I am holding you in contempt. You will pay one hundred dollars to the clerk at the end of these proceedings. If you speak out of turn again, you will spend a night in the city jail. Do you understand?”

Dad sat back and crossed his arms like an angry child.

“I asked you if you understand, Mr. Nelson.”

“Yes,” he said, clearly fuming.

“Now,” she said, turning back to me. “Is this the only reason you want to be emancipated?”

She knew the answer before she asked the question, since we put it in the petition, but I guess they had to ask about everything in a specific way in cases like this.

“No, Your Honor. Last summer I received a record contract from MAC Records to both tour and record an album, with my mother listed as my guardian. Although the contract was for me, because I’m a minor, she had to sign off on everything I did with them. The same went for any bank accounts I opened. When Dad returned, he convinced my mother to allow him to call the record label, on her behalf, and started making demands of them. He used to be a musician himself and saw this as a way to get his career back after getting out of prison. At this moment, the label has already warned me they might cancel my contract with them because of my father’s continued interference. Instead of being my guardian and representing me in this situation, he is trying to use my work to further himself. His greed and selfishness are very close to losing me everything I have worked for. The only reason it hasn’t yet is because the record label is happy with my performance so far. He has also emptied out my bank accounts of everything I made over the summer, using the money to buy instruments and other things for himself. I have other musicians who play with me, who I’m responsible for paying. His taking all of the money has made it difficult for me to continue to meet my obligations to them, further putting my future career into jeopardy.”

“We have signed affidavits from a representative of the record label as well as the other musicians, along with bank transcripts to show the transactions mentioned, Your Honor,” Mr. Eaves said, holding out pieces of paper for the bailiff, who took them and carried them to the judge.

I had been against him calling Kent. My goal was to keep the label as far from this as possible, since they were already annoyed with me, but Mr. Eaves had been insistent. He said the court was very reluctant to take away a parent’s rights, so we needed to prove to the judge how bad the situation was. That was also why I kept mentioning Dad’s being in prison and his killing someone. In a criminal case or in front of a jury, that wouldn’t be allowed; but here, it was definitely fair game and Mr. Eaves wanted to judge to be reminded of it regularly.

“He has also tried to take me out of school and switch me to homeschooling, so I can tour more and make more money,” I added. “I don’t want to get a GED and I’d like to go to college. Homeschooling won’t get me there. I was homeschooled until my father ended up in prison and we settled down in Wellsville. I was so far behind, I had to go into remedial classes and work with a personal tutor to get caught up on all the stuff I didn’t know. I’m at my peer level now, but if I was to drop out and go through that same homeschooling, there’s no way I’d be able to get into a decent college program. The label has already agreed to work around my school schedule, so it doesn’t put my contract in jeopardy. It is hard to not feel like his only motivation is for me to make money for him, instead of what I want, or even what is best for me. Everyone knows how unpredictable the music industry is. Just because I’m making money today doesn’t mean I will still be able to make money doing it next year. That’s why I want to get my high school diploma and go on to college, so I have other options if, one day, my career falls apart.”

“Mr. Nelson,” she said, turning towards my father. “In your response, you said your son was too immature to decide his own future. Did you ask for him to be taken out of school so he could work more? That seems to me to be the less mature of the options available to you.”

“I know the record industry, Your Honor,” Dad said, I guess remembering he couldn’t just lecture and yell at everyone. “Charlie’s at the beginning of his career, and it could all go away really fast. If he doesn’t make the right decisions now, he could be throwing his entire future away.”

“What about his schooling? You previously homeschooled him?”

“His mother did. She tried her best, but we were living on just my earnings, and struggling, so we didn’t have any help. Now, he has regular gigs and I’m sure I could get his label to help cover the expense.”

“Have you spoken to them about it?”

“Well, not yet, but...”

“And you tried to have him removed from school anyway, before you had a concrete plan for his education? Was there a reason you tried to move so quickly?”

“His album was coming out and he really needed to get out there promoting it. Besides, his previous manager, which he had fired, had already booked him a whole Midwest tour that would have made really good money. I was already working to get that manager back so that once Charlie was switched to homeschooling, we could try and get some of those dates back.”

“Why did he have the previous manager fired?” the judge asked.

“Because they didn’t get along. Charlie is very argumentative and, like most kids his age, thinks he knows everything. He threw a fit and the label removed him. It was short-sighted, but kids make mistakes. As his guardian, I was working to fix that.”

“Your Honor,” Mr. Eaves said, standing.

“You have something to add, counselor?”

“Yes. As the affidavit I provided from the MAC Records will show, Charlie requested the removal of his previous manager because he had booked performances during the school year, in violation of his contract with the label, in addition to some other infractions against the contract. The label agreed with Charlie, removed that manager, and subsequently fired him entirely from their employment.”

I was surprised that Mr. Eaves had thought far enough ahead to have the thing from the record label not only talk about all the stuff Dad had done, but also the problems with Brent. I’d already gotten the sense he was a good lawyer, but seeing him in court and how very prepared he was, I realized I still hadn’t given him enough credit.