“I thought you were worried about us taking it too fast.”
“Oh, I am. That’s my job, after all. The more I see, though,” she says, her hand brushing over mine in a soothing gesture, “the more I know.”
“What do you know?”
“That despite the fact you’re already sleeping with each other, you’ve built something outside of that. She trusts you, which can’t have been easy. And if you didn’t trust her, you wouldn’t encourage this relationship she has with Paige.”
“How do you know we’re sleeping together?”
“Oh please, I’m old, but I’m not stupid,” she says, and I laugh.
“You’re not even old,” I say, pulling my vibrating phone out. “Shit.”
“Go take it,” she says, seeing my attorney’s name on the screen.
“What happened?” I ask when I answer it, after taking a few more steps away from my family.
“She’ll give primary custody,” Tom says. “For a fee.”
“A fucking fee?”
“Basically. I got the impression she’s remarrying, wants a bigger house, the life that comes along with that.”
“The life that comes along with a new family,” I muse. The life that comes along with ditching your old family is what I mean. She wants to sell me my own daughter so she can live it up. With my fucking money. “Did she ask for anything else?”
“One weekend a month, two weeks in the summer, every other Christmas.”
“That’s it?” I ask, fucking appalled at how little time that is. No birthday, no spring break, only one damn weekend a month.
“That’s it.”
“How much?”
“Quarter of a million.”
The silence would be deafening, except for the blood pounding in my head. I don’t have that kind of money, which Brenda knows. If I sold the house, I could pay her off. But then, what? I’d have no place to bring Paige home to.
“The rest of the payments would end, though?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
“Give me a couple of days,” I say. “I don’t know if I can come up with it but give me some time to exhaust all options.”
“If nothing else, Grady, this helps us if we take it back to court.”
“But going to court doesn’t give us the guarantee.”
“Correct.”
“Okay, I’ll get back with you soon.” I end the call and pace the beach for a few minutes. My mood sours with my fast-paced thoughts. Every day since catching Brenda cheating on me, I’ve tried my best not to hate her. Not for my sake, but for our daughter’s.
I forgave her for that. I forgave her for fighting for primary custody. I forgave her for doing her best to suck my savings account dry.
There’s no forgiving this. She’s selling me Paige. And fuck, I’ll take that deal every day of the week because it gives my daughter the most stable life. But fuck Brenda for this.
“What’s up?” Dad must have seen the steam shooting out of my ears.
“For the low price of a quarter million, I can buy primary custody from my ex-wife,” I say softly, not wanting my voice to carry. Paige doesn’t need to know about this, whatever the outcome. Her knowing doesn’t lead to anything good.
