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Should I be?Surely Zegas could see I was being manipulated. Wasn’t I?
“I want him to . . . I don’t want to be controlled by him.” I didn't want my children’s lives to be dictated by one man’s decisions. Like our lives had been determined by my mother’s choices. Like we had been hurt.
“Mrs. Linley. Until you are my client, I won't advise what I can and cannot do. It sounds as though Whitley prepared a document that has shocked you. Whether that’s from the legalese or the suddenness or the unfairness, I’m not sure. I need to see the document before I can provide any further advice. Now, I can request a copy of the contract on your behalf, but you will need to sign a contract with me to that effect. Can I email it to you now?”
“Yes. I’ll give you my details.”
It wasdark by the time we got home, the house the one lone black spot on the street. I trudged up the steps, pulling Blake’s stroller up backward.
Using my phone as a flashlight, I unlocked the door.
“Zegas, huh?”
I jumped and slapped my hand over my heart.
“You shouldn’t make a habit of creeping around dark houses. It isn’t becoming.”
“I hardly think you’re the authority on behavior that’s becoming.” His voice held an edge to it I didn’t recognize. Infinitely colder. And I hated it.
I pushed Blake into the foyer where it was warm but couldn’t bring myself to turn on the light. I didn’t want to seehim.
As I closed the door, a shadow darkened the entry, the progress halted. I shoved harder to no avail.
“We’re not doing this to Gummy Bear.” He was too calm. Too reasonable.
“You’re the one trying to define her life with a piece of paper.”
“I did it for you.” The calm snapped, his growl bouncing in the small space.
“Me?” I pushed at the dark form in front of me. “You do not get to use me as an excuse. You did it for you.”
“It’s my promise to both of you. Everything in that document is what we agreed on.”
“Your word was enough.”
He snorted. “For now. Who knows in a few months?”
“See. You did do it for you. You’re afraid I’ll change my mind. Go back on what I agreed to.”
“Based on this reaction, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance of that.”
“You just dropped the envelope on me like it was nothing,” I screamed as pain slashed through me. “We could have talked about it. Before you drew up the papers. You couldn’t even wait. Did you draft this while we were still at the cottage?”
“Wedidtalk about it.”
“Not about making a legal document. Out of our daughter’s life.”
Blake’s cry pierced the dark. I fumbled around until I found him and held his shaking form to my chest. I bounced and shushed him, but he only cried harder.
Patrick’s expression was lethal.
Mine was equally so. “When you hit me with that bunch of crap, you told me exactly where you stand. It didn’t have to be this way with lawyers.” I didn’t want it to be this way, but he’d left me no choice. “From now on, all contact needs to be made through my attorney.”
I climbed the stairs to Blake’s room and started when the front door slammed. I slid down the wall and fell apart.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Patrick
