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“What was that?” I nearly bellowed at Heather when we closed the door on everything outside. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Right now, you need to establish the upper ground,” she said, pale and shaken but persevering. “You need to be seen as the parent doing the best for your child. The calmer one. It helps everything in court.”
“This isn’t going to court.”
“It might.”
I seized Heather’s arm and whipped her around, getting up in her face. “It’s not going to court, goddammit.” I regretted every move, but Heather didn’t so much as flinch.
“What are you willing to do for your daughter, Graham?” Heather was obstinate and hard-headed and too fucking gorgeous for her own good. She was standing her ground, and I both loathed and loved her for it. “You want to trade threats with your ex about her? Live in constant fear? Or get this kind of behavior on the books so you can use it against her and get her to fuck right off?”
I inhaled deeply. “I don’t want my daughter involved in any of this. I don’t want her to even see Josie. I can’t allow it.”
“I understand why,” Heather said, soothing me. “But now we need to make the courts understand why. You have to make yourself at least a little vulnerable, so you can get the help you deserve—the help you need to keep Collins.”
20
Graham
The help I deserved—it was a thought that held my attention for a few days before I sprung into action, deploying everyone I knew to help in this time of need.
I needed extra security. I needed child care, reassurances, surveillance, lawyers, research, and resources. I leveraged every fucking connection I could think of because I knew I was fighting for Collins’ life. That was how seriously I took things.
Part of these efforts expanded to encompass Heather against her will.
“Listen, I don’t want you to be alone at all,” I said one day in the study. Both of us were in there, working. I’d gone into full-time remote work since everything had happened as I was unwilling to be apart from the people I loved for even just a few hours. “I don’t know what she’s capable of, but I know she’s here for nothing good.”
Heather tried to wave me off, already so far off the schedule she had tried to establish for herself that she worked day and night. “I can hold my own, and I bet I could take her. She doesn’t seem so tough.”
“I’m assigning you a security detail.”
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s not up for negotiation.” I took Heather by the shoulders as she scoffed and tried to turn away from me. “Listen to me. I can’t have anything happen to you. It would kill me. Do you understand?”
She looked up at me with the wide eyes I’d grown to love. “What are you so afraid of?”
“Of Josie ruining everything.” I hated to say it, but there it was. “Of her hurting you in any way. Of her taking Collins.”
“I can’t just have people watching my every move all day,” Heather said. “Graham, I have new clients—kids out here I’ve just started seeing in person, and the rest of my remote ones. I need to be approachable, and I can’t do it with a bunch of muscular men with guns and sunglasses standing at attention outside my office.”
“And I need to surround us with people I trust right now,” I told her. “The more eyes, the better. I don’t know what Josie has in her arsenal or whether she’s working alone, and it goes without saying that Collins needs to be withdrawn from the preschool program.”
Heather opened her mouth to argue and then apparently thought better of it, nodding shortly. “For now, that sounds like the best plan. I can watch her.”
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Heather gasped.
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, not realizing how tense she’d become since this discussion began. “Reinforcements have arrived.”
“Reinforcements?”
“I can’t believe that bitch is back,” my sister exclaimed loudly, announcing her presence from the foyer. “What does she think this is going to achieve? None of this is going to hold up in court.”
“Hello to you, too,” I said grimly. “I imagine Josie is going to try anything to get a piece of the pie, including dragging Collins into this in whatever way she can.”
Lauren dropped a designer duffle bag on the floor. “Which room do you want me in?”
“Are you moving in?” Heather asked.
