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“I know I haven’t been good with communication, but I’m back now. We can be a family,” she pleaded, and I had to assume she was running low on money. That was the only logical explanation to any of this.
“We are never going to be together. I don’t love you. I can’t love you, not after everything you have done to me and to my son. As for Christian, until you prove to me that you are sober, you are not going to see him.”
“This isn’t the road you want to go down Liam. I would hate to have to fight you for full custody. That won’t look good on your reputation, and it’s not fair to Christian to have to only see you on weekends or holidays.”
I couldn’t help but scoff at that, “You actually think you would win? You abandoned him. What part of that is confusing to you Ellis? You have no home. No income. I bet you can’t even go two days without drinking. You are not stable. No judge would grant you custody.”
If she wanted to go down that route, that was just fine. I would win. She wasn’t going to take my son from me. I was not going to put him in that type of environment, no matter what I had to do.
“Well, we’ll just see about that,” was all she said before she turned and headed out of my office.
Fuck.
This was not the day I had been expecting to have, and now I have to deal with all of this shit to go with it. I knew she wasn’t threatening me. Once she got an idea stuck in her head, it was virtually impossible to get it out. She was going to file. It was only a matter of time, and there was nothing I could do to stop her.
Jasmine
Ithadbeenacouple of hours, and Liam still hadn’t been back yet. I had gone up to check on the boys, and they were just on opposite sides of the room staring each other down. It was quite disturbing considering they were both three years old. Not to mention half-brothers. I needed a way to get them to relax around each other and open up. I had gotten them down into the living room to watch a movie. Turns out, they both love the water so Finding Nemo came to the rescue once again. It was a small thing, but it was finally something they had in common, and I was hoping it would be a place to start.
“Hungry Mommy,” Jeremy said as they both came to join me in the kitchen.
“I know. I am working on dinner. I just can’t seem to find where everything is.”
This kitchen was like a maze. There were a gazillion cupboards and each one had something in them. What made it more confusing was whatever system Liam was using. The dishes were not next to the cups. They were over where the coffee maker was. Okay fine, but the baking items were not next to the baking ingredients. The pots and pans were not next to the stove; they were by the fridge. I mean, was it alphabetical or something?
“What do you need?” Christian asked.
“I thought I would make chicken fried rice with some vegetables.”
I had no idea what Christian liked, but according to the extensive notes he did like all of those ingredients so I had some hope that he would enjoy it. It was one of Jeremy’s favorite things to eat. He loved Chinese food. Christian gave a nod, and he started to zoom around the kitchen, handing me various items that I needed.
“Thank you. You are a great helper. Do you and your dad cook a lot together?” I asked as I grabbed the boneless, skinless chicken from the fridge.
“No. Daddy cooks while I clean my room.”
I could tell he was a bit disappointed that he wasn’t helping out more. I knew kids didn't like to clean, but what they did like was to do it with someone else, especially a parent. It gave them one-on-one time with them and something that was boring could be turned into a fun game. Cooking was the same thing. It was even more important in my opinion because you could help them learn some math as well.
“Can you do me another favor? Can you find me another set of ingredients?”
He eagerly nodded his head, and I gave him a list of baking ingredients that we were going to need. I was hoping Liam had everything we would need to make some sugar cookies. His kitchen seemed to be well stocked so the odds were in my favor.
“We make cookies Mommy?” Jeremy asked, and I could hear the excitement in his voice. He knew exactly what we do with those ingredients. Baking cookies was one of our favorite things to do. I liked the time we got to spend together, plus he was learning fractions. It was a win/win.
“We are. Christian, have you ever made cookies before?”
He gave a small head shake as he spoke, “Daddy says eat good food to grow big and strong.”
“Your daddy is right. It is important to eat fruit and vegetables to stay nice and healthy. But you can eat a bit of sugar and still be healthy. And there is nothing more fun than making cookies and decorating them.”
Okay, technically, I shouldn’t be doing this. I knew from that ridiculous schedule just how healthy Christian was eating. In my defense, though, children should never grow up not knowing what a fresh cookie smells like. Without making some to leave out for Santa. Hell, a birthday cake. Like a real one and not some carrot wannabe cake. It was my first day with Christian. I could easily play stupid when Liam got home and told me he didn’t approve of my snack choice. Plus, this was bonding time for all three of us. It was completely medicinal.
I got the chicken cooking on the stove and turned to the kids. I got the mixing bowls out and all of the measuring cups that we were going to need on the table. I moved over the ingredients and got the kids to kneel up on a chair right by me.
“Okay, we are going to make the cookies while dinner is cooking. We’re gonna make sugar cookies, and you guys can put them into shapes with the cookie cutters. Then tomorrow they will be fully cooled off and we can decorate them.”
There were no decorating ingredients in the kitchen, so we would need to hit up a baking store or a grocery store so they could pick out icing and sprinkles.
“Alright, so we have two bowls, a bigger bowl, and a smaller bowl. We put all of the wet ingredients into the big bowl and the dry ones into the smaller bowl,” I began to explain.
