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"I'm sorry," I said.
She gave me a reassuring nod. She already had her phone on her ear. Oh, right, she’d called the doctor.
"Get the hell out of here," Drake said, letting go of Lawrence.
"You just wait. I've got plenty of proof about what happened here today. I don't want my kid anywhere near that woman." He pointed at me right before he stomped out of the room.
Drake made to go after him, but Declan held a hand up. "Don't engage him."
"You're supposed to mediate."
"Yes, things escalated," Declan said. "Now I'm doing damage control. Let him walk out, and we'll resume this another day. Right now, the best thing you can do is not engage him."
On an intellectual level, I knew Declan was right. But on an emotional level, I was right there with Drake. I wanted to throttle Lawrence. He'd never cared about his son before, and then he came in here and threatened to take him away? Who did that? He didn't even want to touch him. Though maybe that was his gameplan all along, and with Michael choking, it fell right into his hands.
My heart was hurting for the baby, who was inconsolable in Suze's arms.
She winced when the front door slammed shut. "He's gone," she said, relief obvious on her face.
“Suze, what did your friend say?" Drake asked.
"She’ll pay us a visit. I’m so lucky she’s a pediatrician. Last time I went to the ER, and it was madness.”
Drake frowned. "Why didn't you tell me this?"
"I didn't want to worry you. You three, go to the living room. I'll calm him down and wait for my friend, okay? Declan, thank you so much for, well, everything you did today.”
Declan nodded. "It wasn't that much, but stay in touch, okay?"
"I'll let you know when I hear from that asshole. He can't take him away from me, can he?"
Declan hesitated for a split second, and my heart clenched. "I won't let anything like that happen, trust me. He has no claims. He walked out."
I could tell he wanted to go into lawyer mode, but Declan had mellowed since he met Liz. He could probably sense Suze wasn't in the right mind for that.
"We'll be in the living room," Drake said. "Call me for anything you need."
She nodded, and all three of us left her with Michael.
Once we reached the living room, Drake spun around, looking straight at Declan. "What was that back there?" He'd obviously sensed Declan's hesitation as well.
"He can try fighting for custody. There's nothing stopping him. Doesn’t mean he stands a chance of winning." Declan looked at me apologetically. "He actually could use the incident to try and prove that Suze can't properly care for him, but all odds are against him."
"Fucking hell," Drake exclaimed.
My chest constricted. I could barely breathe.
"Declan, you're serious?" I asked, now feeling totally responsible.
"Accidents are accidents. A judge would know that. I'm just laying out all possibilities."
I wasn't sure if this was helpful or not.
"Look," Declan continued, "I need to make a few phone calls to my office in case we hear from Lawrence's lawyer. I'm going to have to ask her to prepare some statutes so I'm ready."
“Thank you,” Drake said.
Declan went outside to make the phone call. I realized he probably wanted to give me and Drake some privacy.
