“I can’t let you use Riley as a pawn to get back at Ethan. If you insist on making this a battle, you and Ethan’s parents are going to both be fighting against Ethan and me. I will tell the court the truth. That you’re emotionally unstable, that you’re only doing this for revenge, and that Riley would be better off in a foster care placement than she would be with you,” I say, slowly and quietly.
“You’d put her in foster care?”
I shake my head.
“I have no intention of her ever going to foster care, but I am not going to let you take her away from her father just because you’re lonely and grief-stricken and guilty and bitter,” I tell my father. “If I have to, I’ll make sure that you can’t get any access to her at all, on pain of going to jail, rather than let you harm her like that.” I stand up and go back into the kitchen.
Sure enough, Ethan is on his way.
We should be there in about fifteen. Batten down the hatches.
I smile to myself weakly, the worst part, I hope, of the day should be behind me. The rest of the day the court cases are off the table as conversation topics. Hopefully both my dad and Ethan’s parents take that seriously.
We’ll be ready for you!
I check on the turkey again and remind myself to breathe.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ethan
Before I leave my parents’ house with Riley in tow to go to Nathan’s for Thanksgiving dinner, I know I have to talk to my mom and dad and make sure everyone’s on the same page. I have to wonder if Lara’s doing the same thing with Nathan, right now, as I’m doing it. Riley’s in another room, getting the last few minutes of play in before we have to leave.
“Mom, Dad, I want to talk to you for a few minutes before we leave for Nathan’s house,” I say.
“What’s on your mind?” Dad asks. I sit down across from my parents at the kitchen table, and try to think of how to phrase what I know I need to say without making things overly dramatic right before we need to leave.
“I want to talk about the court stuff going on before we go over there, because once we’re there Lara and I both agreed there’s going to be no discussion of it at all, especially in front of Riley,” I tell them.
“That seems fair,” Mom says.
I take a quick, deep breath. “Both Lara and I want you to drop your case against Nathan and Lara,” I tell them.
“I can see why Lara would want that, but are you sure that it’s the best thing for you?” Dad says, looking at Mom. Dad crosses his arms over his chest and looks at me, and I get that same feeling I used to have when he would ask me about what I thought my future was going to look like when I was in high school.
“Ethan, we’re looking out for you, that’s all. And for Riley too,” Mom adds.
“Lara and I both want to do what Alexis asked of us. We’re working together on this, and we’re going to raise Riley together,” I say firmly.
“It just seems suspicious to us that the girl who cut her own sister out of her life now apparently wants to co-parent with you,” Mom points out.
“Lara’s got every reason to still be pissed at you,” my dad says looking at me and then my mom. “How do you know she’s not just keeping you thinking you’re on the same side while waiting for her father to get custody for her?”
Dad raises an eyebrow as he asks me the question and I have to wonder just how long it’s going to take for all of us to learn to trust again, and how much of this whole mess is my fault, at least as an origin point. I can’t take the blame for everything, but if I had never taken up with Alexis, none of us would be here right now, including Riley.
“She and I have worked things out about the situation with Alexis, and we’ve agreed on what we’re going to do and how we want to do it,” I say.
“Oh, you have?” Mom looks at me doubtfully.
“We have. And we’ve both agreed that if you two and Nathan won’t drop your cases, we’re going to make it as hard as possible for you to get what you want from the courts,” I tell them.
“How on earth are you going to do that?” Dad looks at me with a little bit of surprise on his face.
“The courts are obviously going to have us testify during the process, and Lara and I both agreed that we’re going to use that opportunity to block you, if we absolutely have to, you two and Nathan, all of you.” I sit there in silence for a moment, letting them absorb what I’ve said.
“You’d really do that? How do you know Lara’s going to follow through on her end?” Dad looks more shaken by what I’ve said than Mom does, but she’s definitely getting to the point faster.
“I know because I trust her, and because we’ve worked this out between the two of us,” I say. There are other details that Lara and I have talked about since Riley’s birthday and since we got the news about her dad’s suit and my parents’ counter-action, but I’m not about to reveal our joint hand to my parents. It’s important though, like Lara said a few days ago, to give them the chance to back down on their own.
“We just want to look out for you, and for Riley,” Dad says.
I shrug off his comment. “I get that, I really do. But you’re not actually doing that. What you’re doing is taking Nathan’s bait and excluding me, and Riley, from what you’re trying to do for our sake. And before you bring
