The shock of betrayal by a trusted friend of 30 plus years.

Let’s talk about it…

“Where do I go from here”; thought Ann, after receiving her divorce decree. “I did not imagine myself single with a four-year-old child, ten years after saying “I Do.” But here I am having to plan my life as a single mother, and I don’t have a clue where to start. Okay, the first thing I need to do is find an apartment for me and Junior and childcare near my job. Having to pick up Junior from childcare near his dad’s home would bring back so many good and bad memories, I care not to revisit at this time. I need to focus on the future. Okay, it’s time to put my thoughts into action.”

Ann found a two-bedroom apartment on the other side of town in the same city where she lived with her ex-husband. Her and Junior have finally adjusted to their new norm. As a supervisor over ten employees, Ann is usually the first to arrive at work and the last to leave. She was happy Junior child care was close to the job. Her robotic routine Monday through Friday bought a sense of peace. Ann’s company was growing, which meant more work for Ann’s department. Ann and her manager agreed they need to hire a new employee in order to assist with the additional work. Finding someone with the qualification for the job was exhausting. After two-weeks of interviews Ann and her manager decided to use an outside agency to find a temp-to-hire employee. The agency highly recommended someone who was in the midst of branching outside of their family business. Ann and her manager interviewed the temp-to-hire person and agreed to give her a chance. Susie’s first day went well, as a fast learner she was able to handle her assigned work load.

One day after leaving work, Ann noticed Susie was outside standing near the corner. Susie had clocked-out two hours prior to Ann leaving.  Ann drove up to Susie and asked her was everything okay. Susie stated she was waiting on her boyfriend who had her car. She also expressed her concerns for him not coming in time for her to pick up her kids from their after-school child care program. Ann asked Susie the location of her kid’s child care. Because it was near, Ann offers to take Susie after picking up her son. Susie is a single mother of four; all boys close in age. Ann heads home after dropping off Susie and her kids. Based on Susie’s sons apparel, Ann was happy she hired her. She felt Susie was financially stricken and hoped her pay was sufficient. Taking Susie and her boys’ home has become a weekly routine for Ann. She felt it was time to have a friend-to-friend conversation with Susie. She invited Susie and her sons over for dinner. Ann knew she needed to prepare some comfort food for Susie’s high energy boys. She needed a meal that would put them in a relax state after eating. Ann prepared fried chicken, collard greens with smoked turkey and mac-and cheese. The heavy meal worked. The boys played computer games with junior after they ate. This gave Ann time to talk with Susie. She asked Susie why do her boyfriend always have her car. Susie claims he is using it to look for a job. Susie explains that her boyfriend lives with his mother on the same street where she lives and that he is eight years younger than her. “So, he is only 20 years old”, asked Ann. “Yes, but he is very mature states Susie.” Ann learns a lot about Susie including the fact that she couldn’t cook. Susie and Ann’s friendship grew closer after the dinner. Susie begins to cling to Ann. She would confide in her about the past and present hardship in her life.  Ann felt compelled to help Susie in any way that she could. She would often invite Susie and her sons to her home for dinner. As well as treat them to amusement parks and the movies with her and junior. After years of friendship, Susie’s boys would tell people that Junior was their cousin. Susie and Ann’s work relationship begin to suffer when Susie stopped completing her assignments by the deadline. Ann could no longer cover for her. Ann talked her manager into recommending Susie for a job in a different department rather than fire her. Six months after Susie was transferred to another department, she was fire by the manager of that department. After being fire, Susie and Ann continued to be friends. When Ann moved into a house, Susie moved closer to where Ann lived.

Ann adopts her sister’s three young kids after her sister passed away. Although Ann’s adopted kids were her nieces and nephew, the kids called her mom.  Ann and Susie would help each other with their kids. Although, Ann’s family had increased by three, she continued to treat Susie and her boys as long as she was financially able. When Ann’s financial status no longer allowed her to treat Susie, their relationship began to change. Susie became more of a distance friend. Ann was being told by mutual friends that Susie was always talking about her in a negative way. By this time, all the kids had graduated from high school, so Ann did not take to heart what people said. She felt the disconnect between her and Susie was because the kids were older and there was no need to take them to amusement parks or the movies as a group. Ann youngest adopted child became pregnant at the age of eighteen with her first child and at the age of 20 with her second child. Susie begins to spent a lot of time with Ann’s adopted kids. Although the kids were young adults, the girls would have sleep overs at Susie’s home. Ann’s oldest adopted daughter begins to mimic Susie’s personality traits by dressing inappropriate for a girl her age. The more time Ann’s adopted children spent with Susie, the less they would listen to her advice. Ann did not want to act like the jealous mom by coming against the relationship the kids had formed with Susie. Susie became obsessed with Ann’s youngest daughter kids. She would often baby sit them. Susie’s influence with Ann’s adopted kid spiral out of control with her input in how the girls dress, who they date or not date, and how they are to live their life. Ann’s oldest daughter begins to see the hold Susie had on her and her sister. Also, she became aware of all the lies Susie had talked about her adopted mom. Ann’s oldest daughter realized Susie had been poisoning her and her siblings’ thoughts with negative talk against their mom, Ann. Therefore, she no longer believed the lies Susie told her. She realized everything Susie said about her mom was not the truth. However, because the youngest daughter was in need of Susie assistance in babysitting, she remains under her control. Ann was working a full-time job and wasn’t able to babysit during the weekday. However, she spent a lot of time with her grand kids on the weekend.

When the youngest daughter moves in with her kid’s father, Susie tried to convince her that he was not a good person. She wanted the youngest daughter to move in with her. Susie tried to use Ann to convince the youngest girl to move in with her. Susie tells Ann that the youngest daughter boyfriend was abusing her. When Susie’s plan did not work, she spent the next two years building a child endangerment case against the youngest daughter and her boyfriend. She would call child protective service weekly. Each time child protective service would do a welfare check in on the grandkids they wouldn’t find any evidence of what the caller would state. Ann had no idea this was happening behind her back. Susie would occasionally call Ann, but never told her about the calls she was making to child protective service. After two years of getting nowhere with calling child protective service, Susie befriends someone who worked in the department of children service. Susie’s friend tells her what to do in order to get the kids removed from their parents. Susie, her son, along with the son’s wife began to spy on the youngest daughter. Susie went as far as to tell Ann that the grandkids was endangered. Susie states her son and daughter in law witness the father beating up the youngest daughter outside in public and that he dragged her by the hair in the streets. Ann was upset with the news she received from Susie; she immediately contacted her daughter. Ann’s daughter denies everything Susie had said. Two days after Susie had talked with Ann, child protective service comes to the youngest daughter house as she was at the end of moving, the only things left in the apartment was trash. The youngest daughter refuses to allow child protective service in her apartment. She asked her kids to come to the door so that the worker could see that they were okay. The worker looks through the window then asked the parents why was there no furniture and why was trash all over the floor. The parents explained to the worker that they had just moved and they were in the middle of cleaning up the apartment before turning in the keys.

The next day while unpacking at the new location, the youngest girl receives a call from the police stating that they were at their previous location with child protective service. They stated that child protective services have orders to remove the kids from their home. The police ordered the parents to bring the kids to court the next day in order to avoid kidnapping charges. The parents did as the police instructed. The grandkids were taken from their parents at court and given to Susie’s oldest son who was listed as the kid’s uncle and the only relative. The parents told the Judge that Susie’s son was not related to the kids and they have family that would take the kids. The judge asks child services to look into if there is family available to take the kids. The parents were able to get a copy of the report and charges against them. The report listed two years of calls from three different numbers claiming child endangerment. Ann, being furious about the kids being taken and given to Susie’s son the same day of court decided to call Susie to find how is this possible. Susie tried to convince Ann that she told her that she was working with a social worker to have the kids remove because they were not safe being with parents who fight publicly in the streets. Also, she tried to convince Ann that they had agreed that she and her son would be the best care providers to the kids since everyone in Ann’s family worked full time jobs and wasn’t available to take the kids. Ann and her family came together to fight against the lies told by Susie to Child Protective Service. It took two years of fighting before the kids were reunited with their family.

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Thank you to all who have purchased my book title “A Thirst That Never Ceases” on Amazon. Please be so kind to leave a review on Amazon; hopefully five stars 😀

Judy Owens