The judge nearly rolled her eyes.
“Fine,” she said. “Another DNA test will be performed immediately. The child’s representative will be the one in control of the DNA test. In fact, he will choose a company to perform this test. Because I know that your next argument will be that the defendant’s wife works there. All parties in agreement?”
The baby’s lawyer, Nathan’s lawyer, and Eerie’s lawyer—who might I add looked as if this was a lost cause—all nodded their agreements.
Eerie looked like she’d swallowed a lemon.
I would’ve laughed had I not wanted that judge’s attention on me.
The judge was scary.
She was scary good at picking through lies—the ones that Eerie had tried to spin all morning—and I didn’t want her to realize that I was a complete and utter faker.
That Nathan and I were just playing at being married.
Even if we were getting really darn good at it.
Every morning since our deal had been struck, we’d woken up in each other’s arms.
We went to sleep in each other’s arms, too, if he was there and not at work.
I was beginning to get comfortable in the routine. Beginning to feel like this was what happiness felt like. What perfection personified meant.
I had a house. A husband. A baby—even if I did have to share that baby with Eerie, I was really beginning to love the guy—and my dream job.
This was all that I’d ever wanted since the moment that I’d fallen in love with Nathan.
Though, granted, in my daydreams, the baby was supposed to be mine and Nathan’s, not Nathan’s and another woman’s.
But, seeing as Eerie had always done some freaky, creepy shit that always turned out bad for me, I didn’t see the point in going down that particular rabbit hole of fuckedupness.
“Pending DNA tests,” the judge said as she looked at Nathan’s lawyer, “what else do you have that you’d like me to consider?”
“The name change, your honor,” Swayze said. “That’s something that needs to be addressed immediately.”
I felt my fingers tense.
The judge pulled her glasses from her nose and rubbed her eyes with her opposite hand. “And the name? Why does that need to be changed? We can just add the last name to the birth certificate.”
Nathan looked sick for a moment as Swayze explained the importance of the name.
Judge Batista turned to survey Eerie who started to sink down low in her chair as if she couldn’t quite believe that all that information could have somehow been said.
“You’re telling me you named that child after a person that attempted to murder the child’s father?” the judge asked Eerie.
Eerie lifted up her chin.
“Stanley’s my father’s name,” she said.
Stanley was her father’s name.
What wasn’t her father’s name was Jones.
Which Swayze pointed out seconds later to my smug satisfaction.
The judge turned to Nathan then.
“What would you like to name your child?” she asked.
“Darren Wolfgang Amsel Cox.”
“Amsel?” Judge Batista asked.
“That’s actually my adopted father’s last name. Amsel. I go by Nathan Cox, though. Always have. I didn’t want to take my biological father’s name away when that’s all I have left of him, and neither did my adoptive father.”
Understanding was written all over her face.
“Gotcha,” she said as she looked at the child’s lawyer who looked quite bored. “Do you have any problems with that, Mr. Prater?”
Mr. Prater shook his head. “I’m all right with the name change. I don’t think it’s in the child’s best interest to be using a serial killer’s name, anyway.”
The judge nodded. “All right then. Pending DNA tests, we’ll reconvene in a week’s time. The name change has been granted. As for now, you two will co-exist in that NICU. Mom takes the morning. Dad takes the evening. There will be no fighting in between,” she raised an eyebrow at Eerie, looking at her pointedly. “Please think of your child for now, Ms. Foster. It will only help your cause later.”
With that, she slammed the gavel down and walked out of the room.
“That went better than could be expected,” Swayze admitted. “I think that you did well, keeping your calm.”
She looked at Nathan as she admitted that. “You could’ve done a lot of harm like Eerie did, yet you kept your cool. Good job.”
“So what now?” he asked, looking briefly at me before returning his attention to his lawyer.
“Now we get your DNA test. We wait for the results, and then we hope that the judge sees Eerie for the jerk that she is,” she said, uncaring that Eerie and her lawyer could likely hear every single word.
There was a loud snort and then an, “I’m going to the NICU to see Stanley. I have an hour before it’s considered ‘afternoon.’”
Swayze cleared her throat and said, “Not Stanley. Darren. Or Dare if you’d like. I’ll make sure that the hospital is aware of the name change, too. And, ma’am, technically the morning and the afternoon are separated at the twelve p.m. hour. As of right now, it’s my client’s turn.”
Eerie did not look happy.
Me, on the other hand? Yeah, I was fucking jovial as we walked out of the courthouse hand in hand.
“That look on your face makes me want to kiss you,” Nathan said as he led me to his bike.
I grinned and took the helmet that he’d procured for me at an estate sale—helmet prices were ridiculous. And I’d seen this one driving down the road with him on the way home from visiting the baby one day.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he kissed me.
Later that night, after I’d gotten into bed and Nathan had crawled in beside me, he’d startled me by saying, “I want this to be real.”
I’d lain there in shock for a few long seconds as I’d processed his words.
“You want what to be real?” I asked carefully.
“I want you and me to be real.” I heard his head move on the pillow, but since it was so dark, I couldn’t see
