A Small Voice Silenced

By J. Barrin

Based on true events...

A Father fighting to get custody of his son against a narcissistic ex who manipulates the Family Court System to her advantage at every turn.

All Myle

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sarah Gilbert
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087929149

Book preview

Prologue

Sam's POV

I met Brandi September of 2005 and we became attached at the hip immediately. 

I was renting out a room from Bill Stapleton, and a couple of months after we started dating, she moved in with us. It didn't take long before she expressed interest in becoming a stripper and a prostitute at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada to make money. I was a bit shocked when she expressed interest in working as a prostitute. I thought she was bluffing at first, so I told her to go for it.

It turns out she was not bluffing. I was a bit uncomfortable with her doing this, but I decided to go along with it because I wanted to show her how open-minded I was and that she could have everything with me. I was so in love with her.

On and around Thanksgiving 2006, Brandi had been staying with one of her drug-dealing clients (Gill) in Truckee, California.

Brandi took a break from her debauchery to visit me at home in December of 2006. 

She insisted that we separated for a while and went back to Truckee, California, to stay with her new drug-dealing boyfriend and continue working at the Bunny Ranch. I was heartbroken and devastated. Then, on December 30th, 2006 (my 31st birthday), Brandi called me to tell me it was over and then put her Gill on the phone to lecture me about treating women better.  

I still loved Brandi, and I was worried about all the drugs she was doing. She told me Gill had ties to an organized crime drug ring. She said they had big bricks of cocaine and were doing lines all day while living at that cabin with Gill and his friends. 

Thus, began my scramble to convince her to extend me some forgiveness and come home. Once back at the Bunny Ranch, she began calling me around midday on the phone to keep her from being lonely.

From being drunk, I could stay on the phone with her and talk to her all night even though I had work early the next morning. I kept hoping that she would notice my efforts to keep her happy and therefore decide to come back. 

One night in February 2007, Brandi had slipped and fallen from being drunk and pierced her butt with her stiletto heel while working at the Bunny Ranch.

Crying from her injury, she called me in the middle of the night and asked me to drive down and pick her up. So, I got in my car and began to drive from Portland, Oregon to Reno, Nevada, at 1 am to pick her up. She took some cocaine back with her and wanted me to try some with her.

About a week after we came home, Brandi was expressing interest in being back with Gill again. I asked her to marry me as a way to keep her from leaving.

In a way, I was sort of joking, but it seemed to get her attention. So, I committed. She wanted the option to continue seeing Gill in the future if the opportunity came up. She became upset with me when I told her that I wasn't comfortable with that.

We were eventually able to work out a reconciliation of sorts and moved forward with our relationship. 

Not long after we were married, Brandi was pressuring me to have a baby. I didn't feel like I was ready yet. So, even though I didn't think we were ready yet, I gave her my child as a way to show her once again how committed I was to this relationship. 

After Myles was born, Brandi became constantly cold and irritable. All of a sudden, none of my jokes were funny anymore. Sex was impossible because she claimed it hurt. Two years went by, and she virtually ignored me. No sex, no affection, just cold, icy contempt. I kept begging for her attention and did whatever I could to please her. I gobbled, I scrambled to do what I could to get her to be happy again, but nothing worked.  

Then, just after her grandmother decided to sell the house that we were living in, Brandi told me it was time for us to separate for a while. We separated in May of 2012. 

I moved in with my parents; she rented a room out in a house on 188th CT in Hillsboro. Brandi gave me the condition that we could move back in together and keep working on our marriage if I found us couples counseling. I was eventually able to get us counseling.

While living with my parents, Brandi let me see Myles on a regular basis. I often got to have him every weekend and one weekly overnight as well. 

I would often visit her and Myles on the days that I didn't have him. I even helped her buy a car with my tax returns; I helped her move from Bonnie Meadow Ln to Jim and Katie Stunton’s house. All the while being happy to help in any way that I could. 

By the middle of August 2012, we had been attending counseling and were house-hunting together. We found an apartment complex that was perfect—the Villa Capri on Quatama Rd. 

I remember I was excited because we were going to be able to work on our marriage again, but we were denied at the last minute because of income technicalities. So, we continued to search for a home. 

Then, in our couples counseling in early September, Brandi confessed to making out with a guy (Ren) on a night she went clubbing with your friends. I forgave her immediately. I thanked her for her confession. Then she said she wanted to keep working on our marriage. I said I wanted the same. 

We then got a babysitter for our wedding anniversary, and her friend Dede let us use her home because she was out of town. We celebrated, and I was overjoyed that night because it seemed like we were really going to make it. 

Then, two days later, Brandi told me it was over. Not because of any fight. There had been no recent arguments between her and me. It was just over. I knew it was because she wanted to be with Ren. 

I disconnected her line from my phone plan because I was upset with her. Then, (because she claimed she was homeless even though she was staying with friends), she and Myles moved in with Ren about two weeks later. Not only did Myles not know this man, but he didn't even have his own space. Just a section spaced off in his dining room. Then and only then did he start displaying signs of developmental delay. I've looked at his pediatric records, and he was at least 85 percentiles in all categories up until this point. He only started displaying concerning behavior shortly after he moved in. 

Any kid at two years old is going to be affected negatively when you move him in with a new boyfriend he doesn't even know. She encouraged poor Myles to refer to him as Dadda-Ren or even Daddy... Of course, she was still happy to let me see Myles for multiple overnights a week at this point.  

I found my own residence in October of 2012, and she would drop him off regularly for my parenting time.

In early December, she admitted that she had been encouraging Myles to refer to Ren as daddy or dada Ren. This brought me to my tipping point. To avoid a fight (because Myles was in the car, I told her that I didn't think it was a good idea for us to talk about this anymore because it was too upsetting of a subject to discuss. I had nothing more I could say that would be constructive for the conversation, so I remained mute. I felt like I was about to explode and held on to my cool for dear life. She then threatened to take Myles away from me since I wasn't speaking to her.  

This is the part of the story where I did something I regret. I lost control of my actions. I started screaming at her about using our child as a pawn for her games. I became irate and tried to forcefully take her phone away from her as she pretended to cry and call Ren. 

Myles started crying. I then stopped, came to my senses, stopped trying to take your phone, continued to drive, and remained calm. The rest of the drive, the tone was lowered but still very unpleasant and slow. When I dropped her off, I apologized for my actions, and she slammed the door and walked into the house with Myles. Shortly after, she talked to DHS.  

Because of her fabricated account of what happened in the car, she was basically forced to go