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My chest feels tight and the corner of my desk is digging into my palm from gripping it so tightly for so long. “You can’t do this, Kinsley. I won’t let you take Isla.”
It’s laughable that Kinsley is trying to lecture me about what I’m exposing our daughter to whenever she’s partying the night away with felons and druggies, but it’s my word against hers at this point. And unfortunately, thanks to that fucking sex tape leak, she has high resolution video evidence to use against me.
“I can do it, though,” she says. “We’re filing the paperwork today. As I said, this is just a courtesy call.”
“Fuck your courtesy,” I snap, unable to hold back any longer. “You can request whatever you want from the court, but I’ll fight you every step of the way. You won’t win. Youwon’t.”
It takes a second for me to realize she’s already hung up. I slam the phone down and scrub a hand over my face. This isn’t a fight I want to have, but she isn’t giving me a choice.
I’m not sure I can win this fight, though, and that scares the hell out of me. Losing means I’ll lose the most precious part of my life.
My whole world.
My daughter.
I spend the next couple of hours pacing in front of the window, anxiety ripping me to pieces. I’ve been receiving updates every thirty minutes from my team of lawyers, but the day is almost over and they haven’t been able to tell me anything new since Kinsley filed her request for an emergency custody hearing.
I know who the judge is. And I’m not above throwing money around to get what I want, but all the money in the world doesn’t do me any good on such short notice.
My stomach is in my throat as I step off the elevator into the foyer of my apartment. I want to go find Isla and hug her tight, but there’s something else I have to do first.
Something I should have done last night. Something I probably should have done a long time ago, if I’m being honest.
I just deluded myself into thinking that maybe, just maybe, things would work out between Ella and me. But it’s time to end the charade.
I set my briefcase down next to the sofa and walk straight back to Ella’s room. It takes half a minute for me to muster the willpower to actually knock on her door. In the intervening moments, I feel like a reticent child.
No matter what I may say out loud, a large part of me simply does not want to do have this life-altering conversation. I wish like anything that I could just ignore Ella’s lies and Kinsley’s threats.
I wassocloseto feeling happy.
Exhaling a long breath, I rap on the door.
“Ella? May I come in?”
She doesn’t say a word, but the door silently swings open a few inches in front of me. She’s standing there, looking at me with a careful expression, like I’m a ticking time bomb and she’s waiting for me to explode.
“Thanks.” I step inside and clear my throat. “We need to talk.”
“Okay.” She’s only a couple feet away from me and it’s hard to resist the urge to take her into my arms, but I know I can’t start to get weak now. “I’m listening.”
I fold my arms across my chest and force myself to start speaking.
“Kinsley has filed a request for an emergency custody hearing.” Even now, the words almost get stuck in my throat. “She’s going to present the sex tape as evidence that I shouldn’t be allowed to have full custody of Isla.”
Ella’s face falls. “Oh my God, Keir. I’m so sorry. What can I do? Can you fight this? Don’t you have like, a hundred lawyers on retainer?”
“My lawyers are already doing everything they can,” I nod. “But they can only do so much. As long as you and I are still living under the same roof, my lawyers’ arguments are a lot less effective.”
I pause a moment to wait for my words to sink in. Ella’s face crumples and she rubs her temple.
“You’re saying…” She takes a deep breath and swallows hard. “You’re saying I should leave, right? Is that what you’re saying?”
“After everything that’s happened, I think it’ll be for the best.”
Ella swallow hard and blinks, staring off into space.
I came in here expecting an argument, but this feels different from all the times we’ve fought before. For one, there’s no yelling. No cursing. No words spoken in the heat of the moment that we can’t take back.
