I Believe My Son's Father Is About To Give Up Custody Of Our Son.

I've been divorced since 2021 and my ex and I have split custody 50/50 up until this point. Although we don't get along on a personal level, we have managed to remain amicable enough to coparent well enough.

Our son is 14, freshman in high school. We live in Florida.

My ex is an alcoholic(and works in the alcohol industry), incredibly controlling. He has a history of cutting friends and family members out of his life when they don't comply by how he wants things done. He did it to me when he realized our relationship was completely done and I'd moved on after we split(after he asked for a divorce, I believe it was a control tactic, it didn't work).

Recently our son has been struggling in school, and with a rigorous basketball schedule(and quite a bit of pressure from his dad to be the next all star), he decided he wants a break until next season to focus on weight lifting and grades.

As a response, my son got out of school one day to a textbook of a text calling him a quitter, telling him all the repercussions if he took a break from basketball. It was incredibly abusive and condescending and basically 'listen to me or I will ruin your life' and 7 punishments if he doesn't comply. My lawyer has seen it and agrees it is not ok, but the one text along isn't something a court would take action on. Either way, at that point it was not something I would have pursued.

Even after this text he said he still wanted a break and his father lost it, and put him on lockdown at his house(no friends, no park, no gym, no phone with an app that locked it down, took away his job at his business, threatened to take all the money he put into basketball from his bank account to 'pay him back').

Our son obviously was upset and sent a text to me saying he was going to run away to a friends' house because he was so miserable. I told him he couldn't do that and talked him down - you'll be back at my house this weekend kiddo and we'll work through it. Dads rules, I can't do anything about it.

His dad saw the text the next morning and sent me one basically saying 'pick him up after school, he's yours, I'm bringing this to my lawyer on Monday.'

Since then I've found posts on reddit about him selling his business, admitting to being an alcohol, and heard from a mutual connection that he talked about selling everything and leaving before the divorce was finalized.

I went to my lawyer on Thursday and she said all we can do is wait to see what he does this week.

Searching online it looks like a parent can't just change custody and bail...or can they? He hasn't had contact with his son or myself in 5 days now. I sent him one text after and he didn't respond, which is completely unlike him. He would take it as an opportunity to tear into me typically. I think he's washing his hands of the situation because of a pile of small clues and his history of completely cutting people out.

I guess the question is - can he just give over custody? My lawyer didn't say he would have a problem with this but per the internet it looks like it's not that easy.