Page 73 of Broken Chains

"You are not her mother. You'll never be her mother. You're nothing but Oliver's latest whore. He'll come back to Melina, he always does," Trish said.

"Not this time," I assured her, reaching for Peyton's hand on top of the table and bringing it to my lips to kiss it, while simultaneously showing off the wedding band she wore on that all important finger.

"You really got married? I thought you said you'd never get married," Melina said softly. There was still a very small part of me that didn't want to hurt her the way she had hurt me and Eve when she left.

"You can thank your parents for that, actually. When they found out Peyton and I were living together and raising Eve together, they got upset and threatened to revoke their guardianship rights. I was ready to lawyer up, but it was mentioned that getting married would settle things easier," I confessed. "I'll do anything to protect my family."

I produced our marriage certificate and handed it to Katherine.

"Without signs of neglect, which I highly doubt I'm going to find, I'm afraid your rights here are looking slimmer by the second," Katherine admitted to Melina. "You really signed away all maternal rights to your parents when her biological father was in the picture and obviously willing to step up and care for the child?"

"This is bullshit. It was supposed to only be temporary," Melina insisted.

"That's not what these documents portray," she admitted. "Is that it?" she asked me.

"Afraid not," Elizabeth said. "You'll have to most definitely take this one into consideration as well." She handed her the official adoption certificate, naming Peyton as Eve's legal mother.

Peyton grinned and hugged my arm happily. She still battled tears every time she looked at the piece of paper that legally secured her rights to Eve.

"I see. While I am here, just to close out the case, may I have a tour of the house and physically see the child?" Katherine asked.

Melina perked up. "I'm going to get to finally see my daughter?"

"I'm afraid not. You want to fight to restore custody rights, you're going to have to do so in court, and even then you really don't have much to stand on. Not only has Oliver secured full custody rights of Eve, filing under abandonment with your parents’ verification when they signed guardianship to him, but after they married, Peyton filed and was approved to legally adopt the child. I'm sorry to tell you that you have no maternal rights here. Eve is, legally speaking, Peyton and Oliver's daughter now."

"What? That's bullshit!" Trish said.

"I really don't see where any of this is your concern. Chances are without your interfering, Melina would never have returned home anyway," Oliver said. "One of these days you'll realize that your constant interference does nothing but hurt people."

"How could you?" Melina asked.

"I told you, I'll do anything to protect my family and those I love. You knew that and you made your choice."

"I wasn't going to live in that disgusting trailer park," she spat.

"Look around you," I said. "I was never staying there long." My pride would never admit that we were only out of there because of Peyton. It didn't matter anymore. What was mine was now hers and she'd made it very clear what was hers was now mine. We had joined our lives fully, and now there was no longer any question we were a family.

We left Melina and Trish at the table while Peyton proudly showed Katherine around the house and I followed just behind. Now that the threat of losing Eve was cleared, she relaxed and even pulled out her phone to show off pics of what the place had looked like when we bought it. She gushed over the kitchen and pointed out every piece of furniture I had built for her.

We eventually headed upstairs and quietly peeked into the nursery to find Eve still sleeping soundly.

Katherine noted the childproofing elements throughout the house and raved over the nursery. It was pretty impressive. I'd been able to restore most of the original pieces we'd found.

Much to my surprise, Melina was still downstairs waiting when we returned.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked. "Alone."

I shook my head. "No. You can talk to me and Peyton, but I won't disrespect her like that."

She sighed and looked so sad. I couldn't let myself care.

"Oh, just talk to her. We aren't leaving until you do," Trish said.

"I brought restraining order forms, just in case," James announced. "I have no doubt we could justify this one, too," he said, pointing to Trish behind her back.

I couldn't help but laugh, though Peyton didn't find it nearly as funny. Trish was just a pain in the ass. I had no idea why she felt the need to be up in everyone else's business, but she'd been that way for as long as I'd known her. In truth, I wasn't at all surprised to see her here egging everything on.

"You know, it's okay," Peyton said. "You can go talk to her." I looked at her like she was crazy, but then she didn't know Melina the way I did. Ruby walked in carrying Opal on her hip. I had forgotten Peyton's sisters were still there. Melina smiled excitedly, then I watched as it fell as she realized that wasn't Eve. I wondered how I would feel if the roles were reversed. "I think she just has some regrets and needs some closure," Peyton said, squeezing my arm in reassurance.

---