Jess needed money for a flight to Thailand, so I transferred $800 into the bank account for her. An hour later my attorney called, and we discussed the situation. I agreed to transfer another $900 to bring the total up to pay for the entire cost for her flight.
Jess’s sister asked me to withdraw the balance in her mom’s DFCU account, but Ray said this month’s deposit from social security was for the month of June. Because Suda had died, the government would be taking it back. However, Suda had $300 in a separate savings account, and I tried to pull it out with an ATM card. It wouldn’t let me.
I sent Jess and her sister this e-mail:
I couldn’t get the $300.00 in her savings account from the ATM. I don’t know why. So for now, to make sure you get the money immediately due to the situation, I’ll give you $300 in exchange from my checking account and put the money in an envelope on the kitchen counter. I’ll go to DFCU tomorrow and see what the problem is. I’ll just keep the money from your mom’s saving account in exchange for mine.
This brought the total up to $2,000, which I gave Jess that day.
Jess sent me a text early in the morning of June 5: the cremation would cost $3,000, but her sister had only $900, and Jess wanted me to give her an additional $2,500 at the airport. She gave no date or time, but that was typical of her. I did not respond to her text. I didn’t have this free cash available, and even if I had, the answer would still have been no. I didn’t believe her excuse for needing $2,500, and I was pretty sure she was using her mother’s death as a tool of manipulation.
She called twice that morning, but I did not answer. After the hateful rant she’d gone on after I called to offer my condolences, I refused to answer calls from her anymore. I received another call shortly afterward from a local number I didn’t recognize, but I did not answer that either, thinking she was using a different phone to call me. She didn’t leave any voice messages. However, when I did a reverse number search, it gave a local street for the number. It was a small road, so I might take a drive to see if our Focus was parked there while Jess was in Thailand. This address might be where she was staying.
Jess sent me another text at 10:30 a.m. saying she could withdraw only $500 for the cost of the flight from what I had transferred yesterday and would withdraw the rest when she got to Thailand. She also might borrow the money from Leah for the ticket. That was pure bullshit. The ticket had to be paid in full in advance, not when she got there. Leah was a mutual friend who had worked at Jess’s store when she was sixteen. She was the one Suda had accused me of having an affair with. Jess and I never mentioned this accusation to her. Jess also texted that Leah was driving her to the airport right now. I suspected Jess had paid for the ticket using cash or one of the credit and debit cards I had seen during her last trip to Thailand in December.
I texted Jess to tell her to have Leah give me a call so I could get the money back to her. Jess sent a text back: “I need $1,200 for Leah.” Jess sent another text: “Call Leah now, please, at once to make it easier for her.” Leah was getting married in eight days, and with all the wedding costs, I doubted she had actually given Jess $1,200. Leah was probably being manipulated by Jess to extort money from me. I would play along for now.
Leah sent me a text, and it turned out that the unrecognized number that had called earlier today was hers. She wrote, “Jess said you’d meet me to give me the money. Can we meet tomorrow outside the McDonald’s on Whittaker?”
Her text got me thinking. She had known me for more than ten years and had known my mother very well at the store. We’d spent countless hours together. Now she wouldn’t come to my home and wanted to meet in an out-of-the-way location? I knew what a master manipulator Jess was and how she had fooled Steve and Katrina about me. There was no doubt in my mind that Jess had been telling Leah wild stories of abuse. I was thinking Jess had most likely told Leah that I gave her no money and that she was broke—this was a way for Jess to get more by manipulating Leah to lie for her. Leah was being her typical nice self; she wanted only to help Jess but had no idea she was being conned.
Leah was young, in her mid-twenties, and was not aware of how Jess’s behavior had degenerated and how Jess could expertly manipulate facts to fool people. Jess knew I cared about Leah and would ensure she got her money back, especially with her wedding in eight days. There was no way I was handing over $1,200 without proof that Leah really had paid for Jess’s flight. I texted Leah back, saying, “Sure, but I need a receipt as proof as payment to Jess.”
Leah replied that she was “uncomfortable about getting in the middle of this.” It was clear that Jess’s scheme was unraveling. Leah also texted that she would “rather Jess sort things out directly through you when she gets back.” Boom—I was right! There was no way Leah would spend $1,200 on this ticket with her wedding only a week away.
I texted back, “I understand. Just want to make sure you get any money back that was given to Jess. I don’t know what really happened with the flight ticket and don’t want you in the middle of it. Take care.”
I meant this—I cared about Leah. I hoped she did not get hurt due to Jess’s actions. Jess had destroyed so many relationships, and this might be another innocent whom she harmed.
I sent Leah another text: “Don’t know if u have talked with Steve and Katrina about what happened with Jess and I, but let’s just say they will tell you a very different reality than the stories Jess told them about me. If you ever want to talk just let me know. Anyway, have a great marriage ceremony next Saturday!”
This was the last I would say about this to Leah. She had enough on her plate with her upcoming marriage. Hopefully this would get her thinking, and she would approach Steve and Katrina. Leah was very close with them. She trusted them and did a lot of babysitting for their kids.
Three minutes later Leah replied, saying she appreciated my being so understanding. I thought it best not to reply so that she could get on with her life and concentrate on her wedding.
After Leah’s wedding, I would give Steve and Katrina a call to see if all of us could get together and have a talk about Jess. I didn’t want my reputation trashed and to have Leah and her family thinking I was a horrible human being based on wild stories I was sure Jess had told. I didn’t want Leah to be hurt by Jess’s future actions either. If we did meet, I would bring a lot of evidence to expose the lies Jess had told Steve, Katrina, and others. I was sure the same evidence would apply to things she’d told Leah also.
Ray called on June 10 and told me the divorce mediation meeting was back on for Friday, because Jess would be back Thursday. It was canceled due to Jess’s travel, but she was to be back sooner than expected. We hadn’t known she was coming back so soon. I took a half day off work to go home and finalize paperwork for Friday’s meeting.
I had mixed feelings on this. I wanted her gone for a longer time to have some peace of mind, but I also wanted this divorce done quickly and not dragged out. Having the mediation on Friday was the best course of action. This mediation was to have us mutually agree on a number of property division items, spousal support, and other financial matters. I felt that not much would be accomplished—Jess would be very difficult and unreasonable during mediation. Mediation would be surely another waste of funds, with more people taking from me, but I had to go through this process.
After I sent all my mediation documents to Ray, I removed the lockset she had put on the bedroom door and put the original doorknob back on using permanent Loctite. I had a big grin on my face as I applied Loctite to the threads of the screws. There was no way she could take it off now. The only way it was coming off was if she cut the inside doorknob off with a saw, and then she would have to drill out the two screws connecting the outer and inner plates.
Ray called the next day and told me the mediation meeting scheduled for the next morning was canceled due to Jess’s claims that domestic violence was involved. I asked why—the domestic violence charge had been dismissed the previous year, but Ray s
aid she was claiming more abuse. Due to a Michigan statute involving domestic abuse cases, mediation was not allowed, and everything had to be done through the court. Damn, this was going to delay the divorce and cost a lot more money.
I had seen Jess only once in the past three weeks, and it had been brief. I was sure her mother’s death had put her in another emotional fit of claiming she was the victim, and now she was lashing out again. At this point she was so far gone that I was positive she believed her own fantasies. Now I would have to pay more attorney fees by going back and forth with the court. It was so unfair that she could make up all these lies and never get called out on them, and I constantly had to take huge financial hits defending myself.
I met with Rick, one of the elders from church, after work, and we had a talk about everything. We had met a few times before. I told him I had been considering not going to church for a while because I was always sad after the service. The church was very family centered, and that was a good thing. But with my situation, having my family life destroyed due to Jess, it was a huge emotional hit to hear this family message over and over. It was depressing. I didn’t want to hear a constant barrage of happy family life when I had none. Church nowadays was a constant reminder of what I had lost or couldn’t have directly, due to all the hell she had put me through.
At this point I wished I had never met Jess. I was very glad we hadn’t gone through with adopting a child. I had seen signs of her mental deterioration years ago and hadn’t wanted to bring a child into such an environment. Sure dodged that bullet—she could barely take care of herself now.
On June 11 at ten thirty at night, I was in bed trying to get to sleep, and she came into the house for the first time since her Thailand trip. I had moved back into the master bedroom, as Jess was rarely in the house. Someone must have dropped her off, because the Focus had been parked at the house since her trip. I assumed she had gone to wherever she had been staying all this time and then was driven back to the house. She didn’t bring any luggage in.
Jess came upstairs and pushed into bed with me with all her clothes on. She was partially on top of my legs, saying, “Excuse me.” I asked her to leave and go to the other bedroom, but she said, “Excuse me again,” and wouldn’t budge.
I had no choice but to leave the room. I knew any other actions on my part would be twisted out of context by her and used against me. When I left the bed, I took my pillow and asked her, “Why do you have to be such a bitch?”
It was clear that she was sending a message that she would do anything she wanted and was purposely trying to push me to do something so the police could haul me away. I was not going to fall for it. I also told her, “Soon you will be out of my life forever.”
Her pillow was in the other room, so I got it and tossed it at the foot of the bed for her to use. Jess screamed, “You hit me!”
What a lunatic she had become. The pillow might have grazed her foot, but this was just another one of her drama queen acts. Only an overly dramatic nutcase could think this was an act of aggression. I didn’t respond to this silly outburst and instead left the room to go to sleep in the other bed. It was another example of her twisting something I did into a hateful act. I knew better than to try to do something for her. I should have left her pillow on the floor of the hallway so she could get it herself.
The next day I woke up in a bad mood because of her outrageous actions. Before I left for work in the morning, I pulled the cable to the cable modem and disconnected the media server from the network. She wouldn’t freeload off me anymore, watching TV or using the Internet at home; she was not home 90 percent of the time anyway. Being civil to her hadn’t worked; she twisted any kindness I gave her into something evil. I had to do anything legally possible to assert my rights. I had to be careful though—I didn’t want to seem like a jerk to the court. Part of me knew I shouldn’t have disconnected the Internet, but I was too pissed off to think straight.
I wrote Ray an e-mail about her climbing into bed with me the night before. I told him her aggressive actions were out of control. I had to get some peace in my home, especially since she was there only one night every two weeks on average.
It was Friday, and I also asked him, “For Monday’s divorce hearing in front of the judge, please do everything you can to get her out of my house. Be as ruthless as needed. Could a PPO on her be warranted?” I wanted her prevented from entering my home in order for me to get some peace and protect myself from being set up on more false charges.
A letter from Kay Jewelers arrived, and I opened it. There was a statement of Jess’s transactions over the last month. On May 5, she had received a refund of $175. On the same day, there was a “return of merchandise” item for $8,538.90. What the hell! I was shocked and wondered what this woman was doing. How was she buying this stuff? It had to be with her foreign bank accounts. She was complaining about money, and here was a recent return for a large amount of money. This was a great piece of evidence to keep.
On June 13, Jess came into the house all dressed up and smelling of perfume for Leah’s wedding. She was looking for the wedding invitation. She had a rushed look on her face, the same look I’d seen hundreds of times before when she was running late. She looked on the fridge, didn’t see the invitation, and then asked what I had done with it. That was typical: she lost stuff and then blamed me.
I told her I hadn’t done anything with it and that the last time I’d seen the invitation, it was stuck to the fridge with a magnet. She insisted I had done something with it. I walked away and didn’t reply. She probably hadn’t written down the address or time the wedding started and didn’t know where to go. Jess never learned from her mistakes and would always live like this. She left the house for a bit, came back, and then stayed in bed for about three hours. She left again late in the evening. I wondered if she’d even gone to the wedding.
I spoke again with Ray, and he was very concerned about all the crazy stunts Jess was pulling and the malicious acts Jess’s attorney claimed I was committing. Ray assured me he knew I had not done what they claimed. Ray wanted to know what was said on the recording Jess had made with Laura in August last year, so I finally listened to it. It was thirty-five minutes long. Jess’s intent had been to get some dirt on Laura to discredit what Laura had said to the police during my arrest. After listening to the recording, I knew there was no dirt on Laura. Laura said her husband, Travis, was not mean and never abused her. Jess even said Travis had a kind and warm face. This proved that Jess had made up the lies that Travis hit Laura and they were getting a divorce. When Jess was unable to get what she wanted from Laura, she made up stories to tell the neighbors.
On the recording, they started the conversation talking about Laura’s mother and the way her mom’s husband had abused her. He also was a cop. Jess was pressing for details about how Laura’s mom had coped with the abuse. Laura said her mom hadn’t wanted them to grow up without a dad. Her mom didn’t want the kids to know, so she’d hidden it. Laura never saw any of the abuse. Jess spoke briefly about her alleged abuse in her previous marriage in Thailand.
At almost three minutes into the recording, Jess said I was very sweet: “He’s kind. It’s not as bad.” Laura said that didn’t mean it was OK. Laura described how her mom had been brainwashed and felt that the abuse was all her fault. Jess talked about her health issues for a while.
At eighteen minutes in, Laura talked for a while about how people in law enforcement and the military have more emotional issues because they see things that cause traumatic and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Even people behind the lines have it. Laura said they have power issues because they tell people what to do and those people have to do it.
At twenty-one minutes in, Jess asked if Travis had the same issue. Laura said he had some post-traumatic stress syndrome, but she had finally convinced him to go to therapy. He was very snippy, very grumpy, but never mean. Jess asked if he had been abusive before. Laura said he was never abusive and didn�
��t get mad at her but was crabby all the time, like a “big ole grumpy man.” This was when Jess said Travis had a kind and warm face, but she was intimidated by his height and size—he looked like a big teddy bear. They both laughed at Jess’s comments.
At twenty-five minutes into the recording, Jess described feeling threatened by the prosecutor and said the prosecutor was “getting him” and was “out for blood.” She was referring to me and the DV case. Jess also said the prosecutor was not listening to her and didn’t believe what she said. Jess said, “It’s just so unfair.” Jess said the prosecutor claimed I had broken her neck on the report, and Jess asked Laura how the prosecutor got that information, because Jess had never said this to Laura. Laura said she wondered if the prosecutor might have pulled medical records, but Jess said, “He never touched me and never broke my neck.” Jess said her neck never was broken but she’d had whiplash.
Jess said she really didn’t want me to get into trouble. Jess said she cried—I assumed she meant during the talk with the police—and that they (the police) took that as a wrong impression. Jess said she cries a lot with issues and sobbed with Laura before.
“I cry all-out,” Jess said and laughed while saying this.
Jess finished the conversation talking about her Yorkie Sasi, who was kissing her on her lap at Laura’s.
On June 15, Ray called and told me Jess’s divorce attorney, Linda, had quit. The attorney’s excuse was that this case was too complicated, but I think the real reason was that she finally realized Jess was a pathological liar. Once her attorney saw our paperwork with the pretrial hearing statements about Jess’s mental instability, prescription narcotic usage, and other evidence of her causing problems with others and lying, she bailed on Jess. This complicated case created more fees for an attorney, and the bottom line was that they were all looking at what cash they could get. In this case, there was no way an attorney could properly represent a client who flip-flopped or created wild stories as Jess did. I was sure Jess had driven her to the point of quitting, even though we hadn’t even had the first hearing. It was a testament to Jess’s ability to create conflict.
Tales of the Crazy Page 23
