I shrug again. “Lara’s great with Riley and has her about half the week. My parents and Nathan are chipping in too. We’re eventually going to have to sort things out more permanently, but we’re all taking our time to grieve.”
“Just make sure you’re not in a hurry about anything, even just making sure Riley is in preschool or whatever. Take your time,” Jess says.
I smile wryly at her.
“I don’t need that advice, but I appreciate the concern. I should help Lara,” I say, more to get away from her than anything else.
Lara stiffens a bit when I walk up and I’m glad most of the people at the party have already left. I look around a bit to make sure no one’s eavesdropping, at least obviously, and hold out my hand to her. She shakes it, giving me a confused look.
“The party came off well,” I say.
Lara relaxes. “I managed to dodge most of the questions,” she says, smiling wryly.
“We need to have another sit-down talk soon. We can’t fight like we did earlier,” I tell her lowly.
“Once we’ve settled back in after this party,” Lara says.
“Definitely. We’ll get the grandparents to take her for a night and just hash everything out, once and for all,” I agree.
“In the meantime, do you want to take down the bunting? I can do it, but the ladder scares me a bit.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I can do that,” I tell her, and go to get the ladder to get to work. At least if I’m working on taking decorations down, people will leave me alone, which is what I want right now.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lara
My phone rings just as I’m parking my car in the lot by my apartment, and when I see that it’s Dad, I hesitate. It’s been a week since Riley’s second birthday party, and Dad has been on his best behavior since I told him that if he didn’t keep his mouth shut about Ethan, I was going to cut him out of both my and Riley’s lives.
“Hey Dad,” I say, after finally deciding to pick it up. “I’m just getting home from work. What’s up?”
“I wanted to make sure that you knew before anyone else,” Dad says, and I feel my stomach twist inside of me with a kind of foreboding.
“What’s going on?” I know, somehow, that whatever is happening is not going to be something that I will want, or like, or appreciate.
“I just got out of a lawyer’s office, and I’ve filed paperwork with the family courts,” Dad says. The phone nearly slips out of my hand. I know I should have expected that just because he was acting polite and keeping things civil, Dad is still bitter and resentful to Ethan for, in his opinion, ruining everything and killing Alexis. But I had hoped that at least there wouldn’t be a lawyer foolish enough to enable him. It isn’t foolish to want to make money off an old fool, I think bitterly.
“Dad, God. What did you file paperwork for?” I cover my eyes with my free hand and shake my head.
“I’m requesting that full custody be transferred to you,” Dad says. I groan and let my head fall back against the headrest on the driver’s seat. In one fell swoop he’s managed to exceed my expectations for how badly he could possibly screw up things.
“How in the world do you think any court in this country is going to go along with you on that for even a second?” I want to point out to him that he’s practically spitting on Alexis’ grave doing this, but I know he won’t see it that way.
“I’m arguing that between the two of us, we can make a stable home for her, which your arrangement with Ethan won’t do,” Dad explains.
“What?” I can hear the pride in Dad’s voice and it just spurs a deeper anger in me.
“You can move back home, and work full time, without having to spend a couple of days a week working from the house, and I can take care of Riley during the day,” Dad says.
“Dad, do you really think that any court in his country is going to deny a father access to his daughter? His motherless daughter? Especially when he’s clearly a good father?”
“I think when the court hears about how much Ethan has screwed up this family, and how unstable he’s going to make his daughter’s life, they’ll find in our favor,” Dad replies.
“I can’t believe you,” I tell him. I shake my head, even though I know he can’t see me. “I really can’t believe you, Dad. How could you do something like this?” I take a breath.
“It’s what’s best for Riley, and Ethan doesn’t deserve to win!” Dad shouts through the phone.
I cringe at the fact that Dad still, somehow, thinks of Ethan’s situation as him “winning” anything. No matter how much I might be pissed off at Ethan still for what happened with my sister, or all the other baggage we have, I wouldn’t say at all that he’s “won” anything.
“Dad, I am furious that you’ve pulled this. I can’t even talk to you right now.”
I end the call and toss my phone in my purse, trying to think about what I should do to deal with this situation. Every nerve in my body seems to be firing off in spasms as I walk back to the building and head for my apartment.
The first thing I need to do is call Ethan. If Dad wanted me to know first, then I owe it to Ethan to let him know second. I manage to find my phone in my purse just after I get into my apartment. I toss my purse onto the kitchen counter, find Ethan’s number, kick off my shoes and throw myself down on the living room couch all in a matter of a few moments. As soon as I hear Ethan’s voice, I start talking.
“You will not believe what my crazy fucking
