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That wasn’t what our daughter —my daughter— deserved. She deserved to be the center of our world. Even Lucy knew that Lisbeth would never choose her over her own selfish needs, even if she couldn’t say that in so many words.
Jenson sorted through the documents. “Why the hell would she do this after so many years?”
“I don’t know. Because she wants to make me suffer? Because she thinks she deserves it? I don’t fucking care what her reason is. It’s not happening.”
“There’s no way they’d give her custody, Wes.”
“Over my dead body they will.” I fumbled to get my phone out of my pocket. My hands were shaking as I tried to pull up her contact.
Jenson stood. “You want me to go?”
I didn’t have words to respond, just waved toward the door. I’d apologize for my rudeness later.
Jenson left, closing the door behind him and I finally steadied my hand enough to tap on Lisbeth’s number.
As the phone rang, I walked over to the window of my office. My vision was clouded over by rage, red and hot. The spectacular view meant nothing to me in my state.
“Wesley! I wasn’t sure when I’d hear from you.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Lisbeth sighed. “Can’t we ever have a civil conversation?”
“We can be civil when you stop pulling stunts like this. Custody, Lisbeth? Really?”
“She’s my daughter, too, Wesley. I want more time with her.”
“That’s fucking rich.” I raked my hand back through my hair so hard I pulled some out by the roots. “Why now? After all this time, why now?”
Lisbeth tsked. “I don’t owe you an explanation, Wesley.”
“It will come out with the lawyers, though, won’t it? You’re going to need a really fucking strong case to get the judge to give you the time of day. So lay it all out now. What do you think gives you the right to Lucynowwhen you abandoned her for five years?”
“I did not abandon her!”
I laughed mirthlessly. “You’re delusional.”
“I wasn’t ready to be a mother, Wesley.”
“And now you are?”
“Yes.”
I felt like I’d been slapped across the face. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding with that one.”
“I know it seems…strange, since I’m a forty-year-old woman. But I wasn’t ready five years ago. I had more of my career I wanted to figure out. I felt so stuck when we had Lucy. You were working all the time, and I was losing my mind cooped up in the house with her.” She paused. “I’m not proud that I ran away like I did. But I’m readynow. And I deserve a second chance.”
I resisted throwing everything that had happened during her visit back at her. The way she’d left so suddenly, barely giving Lucy a second look as she waltzed out the doorway with her fiancé.Yves…“This is because of Yves, isn’t it? You —” It all clicked. “He wants children, doesn’t he?”
The hesitation was all I needed to know. “He and Lucy really connected.”
“He wants children and you’re afraid you’re getting too old to give him what he wants, is that it?”
“You’re so fucking cruel, you know that?”
“So you might as well have a backup plan, in case you can’t become pregnant, is that it?”
“If I were there, I’d slap you across the face.”
