Page 4 of Raven's Hacker
“Good. Now then, Mr. Owens, you clearly had an affair. Averylong-term affair with Ms. Hannahan. Mr. Owens, do you object to anything, including custody of your son, that your wife has proposed?” The judge asked, I think just trying to get this done and over with.
“Yeah! I’m not paying for falling in love with someone else! If she’d been a proper wife andshownmeany support or affection,we wouldn’t be here! I’m the victim in this, your honor!” He shouted indignantly. The judge looked at him, like he’d lost his damn mind. Maybe he had.
“What is it you object to?” The judge looked at him, one eyebrow ticked up slightly.
“I won’t pay her a single penny!”
“Well, considering the post-nup you have, with the cheating clause written in, stating the offending party is to pay one hundred thousand dollars in a single lump sum, along with any child support to be calculated. You don’t have to worry about paying more than that.” The judge stated, leafing through the paperwork in front of him. Matthew froze at that, then looked confused.
“What post-nup? What is that? What are you talking about, Your Honor?” His voice rose in panic.
“You signed it here. It looks like the date it was filed was about six weeks ago.” Matthew’s face turned red in anger. He turned to look at me while I was listening to Jefferson tell me that he’s only pretending to say something to me, but he’s going to bring up custody of Ryder in a moment, all while Matthew looked ready to kill me. I had to work hard to focus on Jefferson. He promised it would push Matthew, and he’d make another mistake. Ignoring instead of engaging was the best way to deal with guys like him.
“Your Honor, if I may?” My lawyer interrupted. The judge nodded, “We’d really like to discuss custody of the minor child. We are hoping to keep him with his mother, as his father has proven to be an unstable party.” Jefferson kept his eyes onthe judge, ignoring my soon-to-be ex-husband like he wasn’t even there, while Matt’s lawyer tried to keep him in his seat. It wasn’t working too well, and Matt stood up, outraged.
“Unstable?! I’m not unstable! I just don’t want to deal with akidanymore! I want to be free fromyouand the shackles that come with being tied to you! I’ll pay the hundred thousand. I’ll pay a lump sum of child support. Fuck it.Anythingto get me the fuckawayfrom herfaster.”
“Watch your language in my courtroom, Mr. Owens!” The judge demanded as Matthew shrugged, sitting back in his seat, looking incredibly mad. Probably thinking about the accounts, the ones he thinks I supposedly don’t know about. Lucky for me, Jefferson’s PI was the best in the business, and so was his tech guy.
There was some back and forth, mainly about the asset division, but in the end, I was awarded full custody, and Matthew was made to have supervised visits once a week until he either came to his senses or terminated his parental rights, which he seemed to think was some sort of honor. Like he could just shrug his son off and wash his hands of the responsibility.
His girlfriend was ordered to pay me one hundred thousand dollars for getting involved with a married man, resulting in the ruin of the marriage and family. After I left, Matthew picked up on the fact that I wasn’t coming back, and she stupidly started posting their love story on social media, flaunting it, proud of being together without a care. I was just waiting until the money hit my account, the new one he didn’t know about.
Jefferson and I left the courthouse to meet Mom and Ryder for a quick lunch at the diner across the street, then we headed back to his office to meet this PI. I wanted to thankhim in person for all his help. While we were waiting for the PI to show up, Jefferson got a call on his phone. I pulled mine out, not waiting to eavesdrop on his call, I decided to check my texts and emails. There were a few from Stormi wishing me luck, promising a signed copy of her book if I needed or wanted it, as well as a text from an unknown number.
Unknown: Your ex is really a worthless piece of trash. Happy to help you get rid of him. I’m the tech guy the PI uses. My name is Beckam, but everyone calls me Hacker. If you ever need help again, I’ll be here.
I saved the number before replying.
Raven:Thank you for all your help. I don’t know if things would have gone as smoothly as they did without you. Jefferson said that you had to do a lot of digging to find the accounts and footage of them posing as me. Thank you. So, so much. From both my son and me.
Hacker:Anytime. I’ll check in later.
I smiled, holding my phone close to my chest. There were good people out there. Granted, he was getting paid to do a job, but I didn’t think he was getting paid to check in later. Maybe he wouldn’t, maybe this was just him trying to be kind. Who knew.
We shall see, I guess.
F O U R: TW*
**This chapter has descriptions of SA and child abuse. It is Hacker’s backstory and is important to the plot of the story. There is no super descriptive SA or abuse, but there are mentions. **
Hacker’s POV
Growing up wasshit. Plain and simple. The trauma I have from literally just trying to survive one day to the next was enough to keep a therapist on speed dial, as well as funding them for the last fifteen years. There was one point in trying to move past the bullshit I had to endure that I would get panic attacks and be unable to cope in the middle of the night. My therapist was cool enough to give me their personal cell phone number.
Yes. I am part of the Satan’s Sinners MC. Yes, I have my own therapist. I see her, virtually, twice a week, every week, for the last fifteen years. The short story? I was horrifically abused as a kid. The long story? I had to ask everyone if they really wanted to hear it, or if they were just asking. It was not a happy story. It was sad, gut-wrenching, stomach-turning. Above all else, it also made people look at me with pity.
And I fucking hated the fucking pitying looks everyone gave me. It made me want to rage. Mainly because I would tell them before I started the short version. I haven’t told anyone the long version since Prez, Hades, Bullet, and Atlas. They helped me put the people responsible either behind bars or they helped with some gardening.
The only guys here who knew the intimate details of my story were Prez. After all, he’s my president, and his dad,because he was the president, and I had to tell him when I first prospected, so he wouldn’t push me to be in with all the other guys all the time. I knew I couldn’t handle it then, and it’s only been the last year or two that I’ve really been able to start coming around more. Sticking to the outer rim of gatherings, but it was progress. His dad explained that I was better in a room with screens in front of me. That was how I worked. I didn’t handle being around lots of people or any sort of physical touch well.
No touching.
Ever.
Withsomeof the guys, I could do a fist bump now, but that’s all. Any more than that and I will break out in a panic attack.
Hades knows. I was directed to him to help with my revenge on those who hurt me. I have a photographic memory, so learning has always been my strong suit. Bullet was the other one who knew what happened to me. He offered to help Hades so I wouldn’t have to deal with the pain of knowing these people were out there doing unspeakable things to others. We have a lovely patch of land that we were trying to grow trees on to help replenish all of the ones being cut down.
