That evening, my phone rang. Nora was furious.
“You’re threatening my son now?”
“It’s not a threat,” I said evenly. “It’s a warning. I have a recording of your son admitting he flooded our house because you told him to.”
“Then you’ll have no problem proving that in court,” I replied.
She didn’t pay.
So I filed the next morning.
When the court date came, Nora and Rick showed up looking furious and tight-lipped, dragging Tommy along.
We submitted the evidence. Then came the recording.
The defense tried to spin it as a child’s exaggeration.
But the judge wasn’t buying it.
He turned to Tommy.
“Son, can you tell me what happened that day?”
“My mom told me to do it,” he said quietly. “She thought it’d be a joke.”
Nora gasped. But it was too late.
The judge ruled in our favor. Nora and Rick were ordered to pay every cent — the full $22,000, plus my legal fees.
