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That wasn’t the first question that should have come out of my mouth. Hell, it wasn’t the first thing I should have said, but it was what my mouth decided to say. He stepped inside and pushed past me as he spoke.
“Francis told me.”
Of course my father did. God forbid he just respected my decision and allowed me some time to sort out my own emotions. He wasn’t butting in because he cared about my welfare. He was doing this because his business partner was pissed, and now he was trying to force a genie back into the lamp.
“He had no right to tell you,” I said as I closed the door, but as the words left my mouth, I knew it was the wrong thing to say.
He snapped back towards me and the anger was radiating from him, “He had no right to tell me where my son is? He had no right to tell me where my fiancée had ran off to with my son?”
I had to bite my tongue to keep the words,he’s not your son, from escaping. We rarely argued, but when we did, it was always about his old beliefs. It was always about how I should be a certain way. That Jeremy was his pride and joy, but he only cared about him in a public setting. He treated us like he was achieving a society status upgrade. Not like two people he claimed to love.
“First, I am not your fiancée. We are done. That was made perfectly clear when I left you at the church. And second, he’s our son and if I want to take him to live in a different city I am allowed. I don’t need your permission.” I said, as I moved so we were more in the living room and not standing by the front door.
My eyes went over to the second level and I was relieved that the boys were hanging out in Christian’s room. I wanted to take them out to go and look at some of the lighthouses. I figured we could go to the beach later in the week. I had to talk to Liam first before taking him, because I didn’t know how well Christian could swim or if there was something special I had to do for him. Where water was concerned, it was better to be safe than sorry.
“You are fucking right you need my permission. He is my son, and I will not allow you to take him and move across the country,” he seethed.
He was angrier than he had ever been. Where was all this passion when we were together? Where was the desire to be a family then?
“You are going to pack and get in the car and come back home. Now,” he demanded, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Who the fuck do you think you are? You don’t get to order me around. I’m not your servant. Jeremy and I are living here. I am working here. He likes being here, and we will continue to be here until I decide I wish to move us. I don’t love you. I am never coming back to you. You can either accept it and move on, or you can go fuck yourself. Choice is yours.”
I have never been submissive to a man, and I sure as shit was not about to start now. He wanted to talk to me this way. He wanted to treat me like this. Then he was in for a rude awakening. I was not his employee or slave. I was not going to bend to his will because he had the dick. And it was just further proof that he didn’t know me, because if he did, he would have known that speaking to me this way was only going to result in me cutting his dick off.
“I am not going to allow you to take my son from me. You don’t want to start this fight. You won’t win. I can have a whole boardroom filled with lawyers. They will tear you apart, and I will be the one with sole custody of Jeremy. You’ll never see him again until he turns eighteen. I know you don’t want that. So stop this foolishness and come home. We can work it out,” he gave me a smile, but it only turned my stomach.
How could I have not seen how disgusting he was? He was a used car salesman, and he was trying to convince me the car was perfectly safe even though it was missing two tires.
“You think I’m going to be happy to settle? That I’ll come home and pretend for the next fifteen years that we’re so happy? I don’t love you Adam. You don’t love me, and you know it. I don’t even think you love Jeremy. You just love the idea of what we represent. You don’t even know his favorite color. You don’t know anything about him, and that’s because you don’t want to.”
“Don’t be stupid. This is a mistake that you won’t be able to walk back,” he threatened.
“You Adam, might have a boardroom full of lawyers. You might dig into my life, my past, and try to find any reason to discredit me as a mother. But I am an amazing mother, and you know it. I know Jeremy. I am the one that has been in his life every single day since the moment he was born. You’re the father that doesn't even know what he likes. And let’s be real here; out of the two of us, you’re the one with skeletons in their past, not me. I’d rather do this amicably, but if you want a war, that’s fine.”
This was the last thing that I wanted. I just wanted him to be an adult and to handle this with dignity and respect. Apparently, that was too wishful thinking, because he was going to fight dirty. He reached into the inside of his coat pocket and pulled out some papers. I didn’t need to look at them to know what they were. He tossed them down onto the coffee table before he spoke.
“Life as you know it, is over.”
He gave me one last menacing look before he turned and headed for the front door, slamming it close in his wake. He didn’t even ask how Jeremy was. I took in a deep and shaky breath before I moved over and sat down on the couch. My hand shook slightly as I reached over and grabbed the paperwork. A quick look at it told me that he was suing for full custody and complete control over visitation rights. The reason was stated unsuitable living conditions and incompetence. According to the document, I didn’t work and haven’t in four years. That I didn’t have my own home and I had become emotionally unstable. That I was a risk to Jeremy’s welfare and mental health.
Fucking asshole.
He was going to try and discredit me as a mother. Make it seem like I was making irrational decisions, all because I didn’t want to marry him and play pretend any longer. Fucking perfect. I had money in a trust from my parents and grandparents over the years. However, it wasn’t much. My father had expected for me to get married and have a man take care of me. I would have maybe enough for a lawyer for this court proceedings, but it all depended on how long it went on for. I was going to have to be very careful with my paychecks and save everything I could.
If I could go back and kick twenty-one-year-old me’s ass, I would. I had made a decision out of fear and desperation. I should have been honest from the jump and told Adam that I didn’t know if he was the father. I should have just taken my lumps and got through it. The problem was, I had been afraid of what my parents would say or do. I had been afraid of what it would mean for my child’s life.
And now that lie was going to bite me in the ass as the man who thought he was my son’s father was suing me for custody while I was working for the man that was my son’s father. This was some Jerry Springer shit.
“Mommy!” I looked up as I heard Jeremy’s voice. Him and Christian were running down the stairs. “We go now?”
They were both very excited to check out some of the lighthouses. I gave them a smile as I folded the papers up. “Absolutely. Get your shoes on.” I stood and headed over to my purse. I would worry about all of this with Adam later. For now, I was going to enjoy the day with my two favorite boys.
Liam
Paperworkwasgoingtokill me. I was either going to die sitting in this chair or a stack was going to collapse onto me, crushing me to death. I had no idea how I got to this position. I knew I ran the company. It was mine after all, but I didn’t have this much paperwork when I started the company. Somehow, as I got bigger, the piles got bigger and now everything needed to be filled out multiple times for various people. This wasn’t exactly the idea of what being a CEO was to me when I was fourteen and started my own car detailing business.
Car detailing. That was laughable now. It was me washing cars and vacuuming the inside. As I got older, I got better at it and added different things, but it had been my first business and I had loved it, specifically the marketing aspect of the business. I loved being able to create different ads and ways to create flyers. Marketing was logical, strategic, but it was also creative and my brain was craving that combination. I saved up every cent that I could for four years, and when I turned eighteen, I went away to college and lived off my own income. I didn’t want my parents’ hand in any of it. I wanted it to be my own.
