Friday, July 24, 2026 - The Set Up

Although Typhon ghosted the kids during his designated week of July 20-24, that following weekend was still his custodial weekend.

Atticus filed an Order to Show Cause in my divorce case a while back to get Typhon to pay the child support arrears he owes me, as well as his share of reimbursed healthcare expenses (i.e., co-pays, prescriptions, etc.) that Typhon has so far refused to pay me. Friday, July 24th was the scheduling hearing for the Order to Show Cause, meaning that it was when the Court decided when it was going to be able to put it on its calendar to decide the merits. Once again, Atticus told me I didn't have to be there because (1) he had it under control and (2) he didn't want me to have to see Typhon if I didn't have to.

Under the Custody Agreement, we are supposed to meet on Friday evenings between 6:30 pm and 7 pm. During the summer, however, Typhon has the option of picking up the kids for his weekends during the summer at noon on Friday if the kids have nothing else going on and Typhon is in our area (instead of 2 hours south where he lives).

Since Typhon was going to be near me on July 24th for the Order to Show Cause scheduling hearing, I wasn't sure what he'd want to do for that day's custody exchange. Thus, I sent him the following message the night before:

Unsurprisingly, Typhon didn't respond to me. In fact, Typhon was still ghosting the kids so I didn't know if he was even planning on showing up to the scheduling hearing on July 24th.

At 8:50 am on July 24th, Atticus emailed me that Typhon was in court. A little less than an hour later, he called to update me on what happened. Typhon was, well, Typhon, in court. Atticus needed a police escort out of the courthouse again.

After the court hearing, Typhon sent Atticus this email:

I was working, and I didn't check my personal email until about 12:05 pm. Typhon never answered my email asking if he planned on picking the kids up at noon near my house, yet he was complaining ahead of time that I was "maliciously" violating the Custody Agreement. He was clearly setting me up.

As soon as I read that message, I hustled Ursula and Peter out the door to meet him. Huck adamantly refused to go after what Typhon did the week before and the previous Sunday night. I didn't blame Huck. And, of course, Ramona wasn't visiting Typhon ever, if she could help it.

Being an almost-teenager, Ursula's sense of time is non-existent so when I told her we needed to be out the door 10 minutes ago, it turned into waiting for 15 minutes. In the meantime, I had both Ursula and Peter texting their father every 2-5 minutes telling them that we were on the way and not to leave the exchange location. God knows if he did, it still would have been my fault that the custody exchange didn't happen, even though he was the one who never confirmed the time and location and he would've been the one who left knowing I was on the way. I really didn't want to deal with that.

(Taken from Elizabeth Shaw's Facebook page, "Overcoming Narcissistic Abuse" --

click the image for link to the post related to this quote)

By the grace of God, Typhon actually stayed at the meeting place until we arrived. The exchange went smoothly enough.

We met at a local grocery store, and Peter tells me as we pulled into the parking lot that he saw Typhon walking into the store. Typhon never locks his car doors, so Peter and Ursula decided to go wait for him in Typhon's car. I parked facing Typhon's car, but a spot or two over so that I wasn't in line with it. I could see Ursula sitting in the front passenger seat, but I couldn't see the driver's seat because of another car parked between us. I decided to wait in my car until Typhon came out of the store because I wanted to make sure the kids would be okay until he got there.

We sat there for about 5 minutes, and Typhon was still nowhere to be seen. If anyone has been in the DC area at the end of July, you'll know how hot and humid it can get here. After just those 5 minutes, I started to become concerned about the two kids sitting in Typhon's car with the doors closed. I tried calling and texting both of them to tell them to at least open the car doors while they waited and, of course, neither one answered me. I swear, why exactly did I get them cell phones? The whole point was to be able to contact them when they are with their dad, and they never answer. But that's a different tirade...

Anyway, Ursula could see me, so I was gesturing to her wildly by pointing to my phone and back to me. I hoped she would get the hint to either check her texts or call me, but she wasn't getting it. I had been trying to avoid getting out of my car because, knowing my luck, that would have been exactly when Typhon would walk out of the store. Since neither kid was answering their phone, though, my concern over them possibly overheating in the car while waiting for him eventually overrode my fear of coming face-to-face with him. Just as I was getting ready to open my car door, though, his car started pulling forward. He was in the car the whole time!

Who knows why he hadn't moved before then, or why it looked like the car hadn't been on. But I almost risked my life for absolutely no reason. Typical.