Page 53 of Margo's Got Money Troubles

Child visitation be granted to.... PETITIONER ONLY ??

It didn’t make sense. Why would Mark want custody of Bodhi? He and Elizabeth had gone out of their way to keep Bodhi out of their lives, made her sign papers promising never to contact him, and now he was suing her, or summonsing her, or whatever this was?

“This is all my fault,” Jinx was saying. “Oh God, this is all my fault.”

Margo’s hands were so sweaty she was leaving damp marks on the papers, so she set them on the kitchen counter and rubbed her free hand on her shirt. Bodhi still wanted to nurse, so she gave him a rubber spatula to distract him, and he immediately whacked her on the head with it.

“I’m so sorry,” Jinx said.

“Sorry for what?” Margo snapped, almost irritated with her dad for making so little sense.

“Margo, I called him,” Jinx said.

“Called who?”

“I called Mark and I yelled at him,” Jinx said. “I was so mad that he made you sign that NDA, that he was your teacher. I just... it got to me, and I kept thinking, He thinks he can treat her like this? He thinks no one is going to stand up for her?”

Margo grabbed Bodhi’s fist midair before he bonked her with the spatula again. “But why would you do that? If you knew it would break the NDA and then Bodhi would lose his trust?”

“I don’t know, it was stupid, Margo, I wasn’t thinking clearly, but you know, technically it doesn’t violate the NDA. It says you aren’t allowed to contact him. It didn’t say anything about me or a party affiliated with you or anything like that.”

Margo almost laughed, she was so upset. This time she failed to block Bodhi, and he hit her in the head again. “He wants full custody of Bodhi,” she said. She tried to say this lightly, but there was a tremor in her voice.

“Let me see that,” Jinx said, grabbing the papers she’d laid on the counter.

Slowly, Margo tried to remember how to make coffee. It seemed almost impossibly complex. She floated uncertainly toward the cabinet that contained the coffee filters.

“There’s no way,” Jinx said, slapping the papers back down on the counter. “This is just to scare you, sweetie. There’s no way any court would grant him full custody.”

“Really?” Margo tried to swallow. Bodhi hit her again with the spatula. Jinx came around the island and took him from her. Her arms were suddenly wet noodles, the muscles shaking, and she wondered how she’d been managing to hold Bodhi at all.

“A hundred percent,” Jinx said.

“What about the OnlyFans?” she asked. “Do you think they could take him because of that?”

“OnlyFans isn’t illegal!” Jinx crowed. “Plus, how would they even know you have an OnlyFans?”

Margo finally was able to separate a single filter from the stack. She put it in the coffee machine, momentarily uncertain what to do next. It was true, she realized. They didn’t have a way of knowing about her OnlyFans. It was under the name HungryGhost. “You don’t think they’ll say I’m an unfit mother?” she asked.

“I promise,” Jinx said. “This is going to be okay. This is all my fault, and it’s just a reaction to me calling and threatening him and it will blow over, I’m sure of it.”

“You threatened him?” Margo paused as she scooped the coffee grounds.

Jinx looked sheepish. “I mean, old habits die hard?”

“What exactly did you say?” She was not happy about this situation, but there was some small part of her that had perhaps fantasized about Dr. Jinx threatening violence on her behalf her whole life.

“I don’t know,” Jinx said, “stupid stuff. About, like, asking if he knew how easy it was to break someone’s fingers, how they kind of pop, you don’t even need to press that hard, and the sound they make as they break.” Jinx made a popping sound with his finger in his cheek.

“Oh my God,” Margo said, then let out a peal of nervous laughter. This wasn’t funny. This was very bad. But the idea of little Mark, his cell phone pressed to his ear, shivering with terror as Dr. Jinx made cartoonish popping noises with his cheek, was too much.

“I may have also said that if he ever messed around with another student, I would cut off his member.”

Margo was now bent over, hands on knees, laughing so hard her eyes stung. It was the word member. Almost unable to stand, she finally said, “Was that the word you used with him?”

“Uh, I believe so,” Jinx said.

“My God,” she marveled. Jinx and Bodhi were both looking at her, concerned. “This is so bad,” she said, still for some reason smiling, though she could feel that at any moment she might begin to cry. “I’m so scared!”

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