Page 146 of For Your Consideration

“Are you ready for the biggest news?”

“That wasn’t the biggest?”

“I spoke with the judge presiding over your custody case, and he agreed there is now a present danger to Sophie’s well-being. He’s going to hear the case tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I choked. I thought this was going to drag out for months, that I was always going to be looking over my shoulder to see if Ben was going to pull something up that would make me have to share custody with him.

“Tomorrow. Obviously we can’t guarantee a permanent resolution with all the other legal troubles he’s now facing, it’s all ‘alleged assault’ at this point, but with everything else the PIs have found and how he still doesn’t know his own daughter’s name, there is a very good chance I can push for you to receive full permanent custody tomorrow.”

I blinked, trying to give myself a moment to take it all in. “Will he be there?” I asked nervously.

“Likely, but don’t worry about him. Jaxson told me last night he can get security for you at any court appearances if that would make you feel better so you let me know what you need. If he is there, which he should be, he will be arrested after our court proceedings are done.”

I let out a long breath, closing my eyes, trying to calm my nerves. “It’s almost over.” I wasn’t sure if I was looking for Maya to reassure me or to convince myself.

“I’ve got this, Sutton.”

I nodded as she walked through what was going to happen tomorrow. I was pretty sure she knew I wasn’t retaining a lot of information since she assured me that she would email it all over to me.

“All you need to do is show up, Sutton. I know my reassurances aren’t going to do much for you tonight, that you’ll worry and fret and probably not sleep well. But this is what I’m good at. This is what I do. I have every angle covered, every eventuality planned for. With the assault on top of everything else, the only acceptable outcome for me is for you to never have to worry about this again.”

“I appreciate that. I did have one question.”

“Of course.”

“Would it be possible to terminate his parental rights? If everything goes as you think it will tomorrow, I mean.” I wrung my hands together.

She made a noise. “I assume that’s because you think there might be another man better suited to be her father.”

My eyes moved toward Asher’s office before I dropped my voice. “He already cares for her like a father should. I don’t really know what’s next for Soph and me, but I just want to know.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. We might not be able to terminate tomorrow but I don’t see it being a problem. Once we win, I think we’ll be able to convince him to sign his rights away so she could be adopted by someone else in the future.”

I looked down at my daughter as she moved some of her toys around. She deserved to be loved by as many people as possible. I didn’t know what the love of a father felt like, but I knew that Asher would be a good one. If he’d have her.

“Thanks, Maya.”

“No problem. Watch out for my email and I’ll see you in the morning. Deep breaths—it’s almost over.”

I hung up the phone and then picked Sophie up off the floor. She babbled away, the noises sounding more like words every day.

As we headed toward Asher’s office, Thor came to heel beside me. He may be a chaotic dog sometimes but he was very well trained.

Listening at the door, I was trying to decide if he was in a meeting or not when I heard him. “Sutton?”

I pushed open the door to find him sitting at his desk already looking at me. Sophie squirmed to get out of my arms, reaching for the ground. I did as she asked and she took off crawling quickly toward Asher. Thor followed behind. He seemed a little obsessed with my daughter and again it made me kind of want to get a dog so she had someone looking out for her always.

“There’s my girl.” He smiled as she got to him. She used him to stand as she slapped his legs and bounced up and down, babbling away like she was telling him a story.

“How did you know we were outside?” I asked as I leaned in the doorway, smiling as he watched my daughter.

The panic and anxiety were less overwhelming with him in front of me. It’s a crazy thing for a person to have that power to help. I never thought that it would happen for me. But this grumpy, quiet man made me feel calm and settled and loved.

Loved. That was scary.

I’d been thinking a lot. About why I pushed him to be friends and why I’d been scared to voice my feelings. It didn’t take a psychologist to know that I had some deep-rooted fears of love and being loved and that love going away. I’d never felt it before and now that I had, the idea of it going away was terrifying. But as Asher kept showing up, he’d made me realize that love didn’t always go away.

“Well I thought I heard you talking before then I saw the shadow under the door. I should have just left it open but I didn’t want you to feel like you had to be quiet if I was on the phone.”