After the incident with Julia, Jim was left with both of his legs broken, his right arm fractured, and had stitches all over his arms and face. He ended up spending two weeks in the hospital, where Anthony remained with him the entire time. At one point, his parents also stopped by to see him, but he could barely even remember how the visit went. His mind remained entirely focused on Cassie and Meagan.
After Jim was out of the hospital, he was left in a wheelchair and with a giant scar across his face. Unable to move much, Jim spent the next several days just sitting still and feeling upset. As he sat still, his eyes kept on darting to his phone. He was dreading the moment that he received a certain phone call that would cause everything to officially go downhill.
That particular phone call finally came about a week after Jim was out of the hospital. Julia had finally filed for divorce and Jim would be seeing her in court in three weeks.
The fact that him and Julia's marriage would officially be ending soon was not what upset Jim the most (Julia had stopped loving Jim shortly after Chris had arrived, Jim's opinion on that had hardly changed since). The instant that Jim heard the word "divorce" in the call, Cassie and Meagan came to his mind once again and his level of worry rose even higher.
The next three weeks of waiting were the hardest that Jim had ever endured.
Just like Jim (and most other people) had predicted, Julia had taken the girls up to New Hampshire and was staying with her parents. Because Julia had filed for divorce while in New Hampshire, the trial was going to be held up there. Having to travel by plane in a wheelchair wasn't even the worst part of Jim traveling up to New Hampshire. Jim was having to take a long trip up the country just to go to an unwanted court trial that he knew was not going to end well. Cassie and Meagan being stuck on his mind the entire ride over just made the entire situation worse.
By the time Jim made it to New Hampshire, he was feeling extremely drowsy due to having gotten very little sleep for the past several weeks and his nervousness about the upcoming trial was causing him to shake violently. Part of him was thinking about the very small chance that things would go well for him and severely hoping that that was the way that it turned out while a much larger part of him was constantly reminding him that that was not how things usually turned out in circumstances like these and things were, in fact, going to end very badly. As Jim thought about how everything was would more than likely play out from beginning to very end, tears began to flow from his eyes once again.
Anthony, who had traveled along with Jim and would be supporting him in the trial, continued giving him words of encouragement and kept trying to convince him that things wouldn't turn out so bad for him. Of course, Anthony's encouragement didn't change Jim's attitude in the slightest. If anything, Anthony's ignorance about how divorce trials worked only made Jim feel even worse.
The very next morning, Jim and Anthony took a long drive to a courthouse in Concord to endure a court battle that had been haunting Jim's nightmares for the past three years: the child custody trial of Cassie and Meagan.630Please respect copyright.PENANAkrv1Lmk9F5
Just as Jim could see coming from the very beginning, Julia constantly told the judge that Jim was both a terrible husband and parent and that he cared about nobody but himself. She even went as far as to say that he never spent any time with the girls or even ever made an effort to show any love for them and that the only reason he wanted custody of them was to get out of having to pay child support. Just as Jim had been absolutely terrified about from the very beginning, the judge believed every single lie that Julia told.
Jim tried his absolute hardest to tell the judge the truth. He brought up Julia's drinking and smoking problems, how she had seemed to care about spending time with Chris more than the girls, and how he had been the only one actually raising the girls ever since Chris begin living with them. Jim went into great depths of how much he loved Cassie and Meagan and how the possibility of losing them absolutely terrified him. He even went into detail about how he tried to keep Julia from taking the girls, the exact reason he had to come to court in a wheelchair. Of course, the judge didn't seem to believe Jim at all and continued to speak to him very harshly.
Julia then told the judge that the reason she began dating Chris was because Jim was "horrible" to her and she wanted to feel "actual love." Jim desperately tried to convince the judge that this was a giant lie, but the judge just shut him down. Jim just could not believe what was going on. The court now believed that Jim had been abusive to Julia. There was no way this was going to end well for him.
If there was anything that Jim could be the least bit relieved about, Julia at least never began telling the judge that Jim was also abusive to the girls. Jim was actually a bit surprised that Julia didn't go there. Instead, she began denying that she had loved Chris more than the girls and she "had no idea where Jim's assumptions came from."
"My girls are the most important thing in the world to me," Julia said. "I can't even imagine loving some man more than them. It honestly breaks my heart that anybody would ever assume that."
Jim once again tried to explain how Julia had truly been acting with Chris for the past few years, but the judge was hardly even letting Jim speak at this point. Jim really wished that Chris had been willing to accompany him to the trial and back him up, but Chris unfortunately had "not wanted to get involved." As understandable as that reason was, Chris being at the trial would have probably helped out Jim quite a bit.
Anthony tried his absolute hardest to back up Jim, saying that Jim had been an excellent husband to Julia and was an amazing father to the girls. He even brought up all the videos that he had taken in the past. In addition to videotaping their births, Anthony also had videos of Jim and the girls happily playing together. Unfortunately, even this wasn't convincing enough for the judge. No matter how hard Jim and Anthony both tried, Julia continued to shoot down every argument made against her and the judge just kept on believing her. Julia's argument against the videos was: "Of course he's going to make himself look good while he's being videotaped. I said Jim was selfish and cruel, I never said he was stupid."
What made matters much worse was that Julia had much more support than Jim. Not only was Julia's family siding with her, but several former family friends (most of which stopped communicating with the Burlesons shortly after Julia began developing problems) were also backing her up. One of these former friends included Melissa Hyman, a good friend of Julia who was always very friendly with Jim and sometimes liked to talk about physics with him.
Julia's family and friends kept on telling the judge that Julia was a wonderful mother and that she would never do anything that would harm the girls. Jim and Anthony brought up her drinking and smoking addiction, but their argument against this was: "Smoking and drinking doesn't make her a bad mother. At least she spends time with the girls and loves them." Jim never usually became very angry, but he really felt like throwing a chair at the wall each time somebody accused him of not loving his daughters.
Anthony was the only one supporting Jim and he wasn't entirely helping despite really trying his hardest. Everyone seemed to view Anthony as a young immature man with little knowledge of the world and was only supporting Jim because he was his brother. Jim's parents (who had still not retired), were too busy to take part in the trial and Jim had no other family or friends there to back him up. At this point, there was no point in even arguing anymore. There was no way Jim was going to gain the judge's trust.
After another long while of Julia's supporters calling Jim a horrible human being and Julia an angel, Anthony finally brought up a valid point that the judge was willing to take into consideration. Jim was still living at the house in Texas and Julia had no other place to go. It didn't seem right to just let Julia have the house, as Jim's parents had paid for it in the first place. Would the judge actually give custody to Julia while living in her parent's home?
Unbeknownst to Jim and Anthony, Julia's father (who was very rich) had already paid for a large four-bedroom home for Julia and the girls to live in (this was probably where Julia had intended to live with Chris). He also had lent her a large amount of money to pay for anything else that she and the girls would need. Julia's supporters all assured the judge that they had seen the house and that it was a "great place for Julia to raise the girls."
Feeling extremely anxious, Jim also brought up that Julia had no job and was no longer even going to college. But then Julia's parents stated that they had already given Julia a job at their family business (which they never even really described). Julia also assured the judge that she would start going to college very soon and hopefully one day achieve her goal of being a nurse. All of this information was satisfying enough for the judge to make his final decision.
In the end, Julia received full custody of the girls with Jim being limited to visitations only twice a year. Jim's worst nightmare had finally come true.
When Jim had told Anthony that he didn't want to put Cassie and Meagan through divorce drama, this was exactly what he meant. This was exactly what Jim had been trying his hardest to prevent from the very beginning. Cassie and Meagan were more important to Jim than anything else and now he was only going to be able to see them whenever a court order allowed him. Becoming a father had always been one of Jim's biggest dreams and now he was only going to enjoy it for a small portion of each year.
Jim had heard of divorce stories many times and they were almost always the same. The court sides with the mother and gives her custody of the children and the father is only allowed visitation rights. Only a very few times had Jim heard of a divorce where the father actually won. As for all the rest, the only time they are able to spend time with their own children is through visits. When Jim had dreamed of becoming a father, he had dreamed of actually raising his children, not just visiting them every so often. Jim's greatest accomplishment had been snatched away from him.
Even on the night that Julia had taken off with the girls, Jim knew that the possibility of getting to keep them after the divorce was very slim. If Jim had managed to stop Julia from taking them, she still would have gotten custody of them by the time the divorce was over (and Julia would have probably twisted the story in court and made Jim look even worse). However, Jim still could've at least been able to keep them for a short while as Julia drove up to New Hampshire and filed for divorce. Jim could've made their last few weeks with him the best that they had ever had. Jim's happy dreams that he had had at the hospital could've become a reality.
While Jim had extreme feelings of worry and doubt prior to the custody trial, he still had that large amount of hope that he would be one of the few fathers that actually succeeded in the end. Maybe the judge would see through Julia and see what kind of person she truly was. Maybe the judge would fully be able to see how much love Jim had for Cassie and Meagan. Maybe Anthony's words of encouragement were actually foreshadowing something. But no, not even Julia's antics were enough to crack the thick skulls of the ignorant family court judges that always sided with the mother in custody battles just because she's the mother.
Jim was not even able to see Cassie and Meagan while he was in New Hampshire. Asking Julia in person to let him see them was out of question, and he didn't think it was a good idea to ask the court for permission about anything now that they believed he was a selfish abuser who didn't even care about his own children. After the trial was over, Jim and Anthony didn't even bother to stick around. They immediately headed to the airport, not saying a word the entire time.
Jim's flight over to New Hampshire had been pretty difficult, but the flight back home was the hardest and most depressing trip he had ever taken. Jim was on his was back home to Texas, but Cassie and Meagan were still back in New Hampshire. His daughters, whom he loved more than anything, were living across the country from him.
Jim and Anthony remained silent even after they were back in College Station. Anthony drove Jim home, told him goodbye, and then left. Anthony felt there was no point in trying to help Jim feel better. He knew that no words of encouragement were good enough at this moment.
After Anthony was gone, Jim stared blankly in complete silence for a few seconds. He then wheeled his way to the back hallway. As he passed by the living room, he noticed Julia's wedding ring on the floor. Seeing this made the sick feeling in Jim's stomach grow even worse.
Jim wheeled down the hallway and into Cassie's bedroom. He went over to Cassie's bed and picked up her stuffed rabbit, which Cassie had dropped after Julia had pulled her from her bed. Jim stared at the rabbit for a few seconds and then began to hug it as if it were Cassie. Tears slowly formed in his eyes.
After hugging the rabbit for about a minute, Jim sniffled and wheeled out of the room and over to the dining area. Cassie and Meagan had left their drawings from daycare on the table for Julia to see. Jim picked up Cassie's drawing of a pink cat and Meagan's multicolored drawing of scribbles and stared at them for a few seconds. Tears were now flowing from his eyes much faster.
Jim then wheeled over to the laundry area. On top of the washer lay Cassie's princess dress, which was still covered with tomato soup stains. Jim picked up the dress and stared at it along with the stuffed rabbit and the tear-damaged drawings.
At that moment, Jim completely broke down. He cried much harder than he had ever had before, clutching all of the girl's belongings very tightly. He had never felt more sad in his life. With all of the problems he had dealt with Chris and Julia in the past, Jim had been at least able to make himself feel better by thinking about how happy he was to have Cassie and Meagan. Thinking about Cassie and Meagan at that moment only reminded him that he was now only going to get to see them twice a year. Only twice a year of happiness...
After a really long while, Jim wheeled back over to hallway. Still clutching all of the girls' belongings, he stared at both of their rooms. It was nearing eight o'clock, the time that Jim would normally be putting the girls to bed. At that moment, it hit him that he hadn't been giving the girls their goodnight kisses for the past few weeks that they had been gone. This was something that Jim had remembered to do every single night up until Julia took them away. Jim wouldn't be able to give the girls their goodnight kisses again until their first visit with him several months from then. Upon realizing this, Jim sobbed much harder.
Jim had had a real hard time sleeping the past several weeks. At this point, Jim wondered if he would ever have a regular night of sleep again.
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