AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Will you both stop yelling?” Josh roars before I can intervene. “You’ve been fighting all day.”
They immediately loop us into their battle. “She won’t let me play with her doll!” screams Caro.
“She takes the clothes off!” protests Rae.
“Because I want to dress her myself. Like a mommy does.”
“Stop screaming!”
“Youstop screaming!”
“ENOUGH!” The silence that follows my cry is immediate and prickling with tension. “Honestly,” I continue, “with the fighting, fighting, fighting. All day and all night. It’s driving me crazy. I want all of you to bequiet.”
Josh’s eyes are huge when he turns them on me. Even the girls look flabbergasted. Caroline’s mouth is hanging open and Reagan’s bottom lip is trembling.
Ineveryell at them. That’s usually Ben’s forte. But me? Even when I’m having a bad day, even when the kids are being their worst selves, I don’t yell. I discipline them, yes. But I’ve never resorted to unnecessary screaming or punishments. The fact that I’m doing it now is a direct result of the current state of chaos my mind has been submerged into.
I’m angry and frustrated at myself. I’m battling demons in my head and the kids’ squabble was just getting tangled up in my misery. That’s all there is to it.
Which is why I feel horrible.
I have no right to take my anger out on them just because I’ve lost control of my own life.
Idiot.
Bad guardian.
Bad mother.
Bad person.
Idiot.
I’m just about to apologize when one of the maids walks in. She’s wearing a deadpan expression as she hands me a piece of mail stamped with an official seal on the flap.
“It arrived a few minutes ago, ma’am. By registered courier.”
I accept the intimidating white envelope with a slight nod and the maid disappears almost instantly. That whole “staff must be seen and not heard” rule in this house is no joke.
I tear open the seal and pull the papers out. My fingers go cold first. Then my arms. Then the rest of me.
This document was drawn up by lawyers representing Beatrice and Barrett Carson.
My own damn parents are suing for custody of the children.
I try to breathe through the panic. As naïve as it sounds, I didn’t think they would take it this far. But apparently, Beatrice wasn’t kidding when she accused me of being a shitty guardian.
I feel so stupid for letting it come to this. I thought that, because Kirill and Ruslan were handling it, I didn’t have to worry any longer. I’d just kinda relaxed, assuming that the temporary custody I had of the children would stick.
They were safe from Ben at least.
But now that my parents are trying to get custody, what might that mean?
Lord knows they have the money and the connections. Barrett plays golf twice a month with a prominent New York City judge and Beatrice is on the boards of half the society clubs in the city. They’re also pissed off enough with me to see this through.
My head spins and the pounding only gets worse.
What am I gonna do?
