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“I feel so much better now that you’re here.”
“I never should have left.”
“You have to run the farm. You have work to do. I get it.”
“None of that is more important than you, your safety, and the safety of our children.” He brought her hands to his lips, and pressed them close. Relief that she was okay, fear for Alice warred in his body, and he felt the need to get up to walk around, to do something. He hated just sitting around. But, if they were going to go through the police, that was what was going to happen. He had to let someone else do their job, while he prayed. That was all he could do. Other than staying beside Alaska and making sure that no one else was able to touch her.
“Pheebs and I talked about it, and we thought that maybe you two would want to have a day or two together. But, we were hoping that Alaska would start working with us. I know Claudia said that she had asked about cooking, and if that’s her interest, there’s plenty of cooking to do. I mean, she would be with us all the time. That would help keep her safe.”
“That’d be great. But yeah, I guess I probably want to spend the rest of the day with her. Tomorrow too. We’ll see how this turns out. I need to spend some time on the phone with my lawyer. I already was in contact with him for the PFA and I suppose he can handle this.”
“Chalmer doesn’t want custody. He just wants money.”
“Right. It can’t look good, being that he is using his supposed rights as a parent to manipulate that.”
“Does he have any rights?” Priscilla asked.
“I’m not sure what the law says about that. We’ll have to look into it.”
“I think he’s so desperate for money that if we offered him something, he’d give up his rights, legally, and then we wouldn’t have to worry about this again.” There. He put it out there. So they could be thinking about it.
“I know the ranch doesn’t have much,” Tobias spoke, and Ezra looked up in surprise. He hadn’t even realized that Tobias had come in. Tobias, more than any of his siblings, usually spent a lot of time alone. He was happy to work alone, didn’t always come to the table for meals, and was happy in the cabin he’d lived in all winter on the far side of the ranch.
“I think that whatever we have, we should make sure that this gets taken care of. We can’t have someone coming on the property, taking Alaska’s children.” Ada spoke up, from where she stood at the sink, running water and letting Eugene play in the stream that came out. A clever way to distract the little boy, because he was no longer fussing for his mom.
He also appreciated Ada’s support.
“I knew when I married her that everyone would rally around her and help me protect her. I...wasn’t expecting it to cost us money.”
“I feel terrible. Please don’t make the ranch suffer because of me. But, I really would like to figure out how to get Alice back.” Alaska wasn’t crying, but she clung to his hands, holding them tightly so tightly her knuckles were white.
“We’ll get her. If it’s possible, we’ll do it.” He didn’t go into all the things that had gone through his mind, all of the crazy situations that could happen, all the ways that a baby could be hurt and even...killed.
“Ezra. Were you not listening to me?” Tobias spoke again, slight irritation in his voice. “I know the ranch doesn’t have much, but I do. I’ve been saving for a long time, and I don’t know how much the man wants, but I have close to fifty thousand in my account, and we can offer all of it to him in exchange for him signing away his parental rights.”
Ezra couldn’t believe it. Where had Tobias gotten that kind of money? And then, as he thought about it, he realized that Tobias really had never spent any money. Anything he ever earned, he probably saved. He never went anywhere, he never did anything,and he hadn’t even bought a truck, which was the first thing that Ezra had done when he had had enough money saved up.
But Tobias had always been content to keep to himself, quiet, unassuming, and, after the things that he had gone through, Ezra couldn’t blame him.
“I couldn’t take your money,” Ezra said. Knowing as he said it, that for Alaska, he probably would.
“I’m not giving it to you. I’m giving it to Alaska.”
He looked down as Alaska’s eyes widened, and Ezra squeezed her hands. This was his family. And, while he was still petrified for Alice, he was proud that his siblings had always rallied around each other. Now he was the one who needed them, and they hadn’t hesitated to step forward.
“Thank you,” she said, emotion in every syllable.
“It might not take that much. It might take a lot less. I wouldn’t let anyone know how much you have. Maybe we can get away with paying him a lot less. I would feel bad about saying we’re trying to get a bargain for someone’s parental rights, except it’s obvious that they don’t mean anything to him.”
Ezra felt a little bit bad for the man. He didn’t know what he was missing out on. Alaska had a beautiful heart, and she was honest and loyal. And, from what Ezra could see, she wanted to do everything in her power to make sure their marriage was a success.
Chalmer should have taken her while he could get her. Of course, he had never been free to pursue Alaska, since he had been married and lying to her the entire time.
They talked a little more, coming up with a plan, which included Ezra calling the lawyer as soon as he pulled himself away from Alaska, and figuring out what they could do and what rights Chalmer had.
There was also the possibility that if Chalmer really didn’t have any parental rights, the police would charge him with kidnapping, and child endangerment, and hopefully a whole slew of otherthings that Ezra, who was a rancher, and not involved in law enforcement at all, could never come up with on his own.
He would want them to throw the book at Chalmer, just to keep Alaska safe. Not necessarily because he wanted to punish the man.
