Page 15 of Fourth Wall

“We had to send you off to court in a good mood.” Tatum shoved a coffee in my hand.

“And a full belly.” Gianna passed me a croissant.

“And something for later to celebrate.” Chels handed me a mini bottle of champagne.

I felt the tears forming, and I knew I would start crying at any moment.

“You guys.” My voice broke as I reached for my friends and gave them the biggest hug that I could squeeze out of my body.“You are the bestest friends in the whole world. I’m so grateful for you.”

“Are the girls here?” Tatum asked, looking over my shoulder.

“It’s Tyler’s week, so they’re probably with his stay-at-home house husband.” I rolled my eyes.

“Come on, Maeve,” my mom called from the passenger side of the car.

“I’ll see you later at Tatum’s house.” We had made plans to all meet there this evening to debrief. After another big hug, I ran and jumped into the car, driving my mom and I to the courthouse downtown.

The courtroom was cold, and other broken families and their lawyers surrounded us. There was bright fluorescent lighting at the front where the judge sat behind his wooden bench. This was just family court, so most of what we needed to do was in front of the judge. There wasn’t a jury but an empty jury box, which they must have used in other criminal cases. The atmosphere, though, was palpable. There was a sense of dread between everyone, an uneasy calmness that blanketed the entire room. It was the worst part and what made my thoughts spiral.

“The case of Maeve Murphy and Tyler Kirkland, please approach the bench with your respective counsel.”

I walked over to the bench where the judge sat. My lawyer followed. The guy couldn’t have been any older than me, but by the way he kept his stoic composure each time our case kept getting pushed to the bottom of the docket, I knew he would handle all of this fine enough for me. I didn’t know it, but I kept convincing myself he was the best. Alex had set us up with someone he trusted, so I had to trust that I was in good hands.

My mind kept spiraling because these were my children we weretalking about. I was a good mom. I didn’t smoke or do drugs. I didn’t understand why he was doing this to me. As wewalked toward the bench, I couldn’t help but glance at the father of my children. At one point in time, I thought I loved him. He cared for me. At least I thought he did.

I didn’t get why he was doing this to me. This power trip he was on had to stop. I just wasn’t totally convinced that even if I had the best lawyer in the entire world, it would stop Tyler from trying to fuck me over. He was always like this—extremely calculated and always put himself in a position of power.

My mom stayed outside the courtroom to wait for me as they only wanted to have those being represented and their lawyers in family court.

Tyler stood there with a lawyer I recognized from his law firm. I was sure he was doing most of the legwork.

“Tommy, I cannot wait to see you on the golf course this weekend,” Tyler told the judge.

Ah fuck. Of course he knew who the judge was. There had to be some sort of fucking rule for this. You shouldn’t be able to golf with the judge who was also deciding the fate of my children. I looked over at the lawyer, who already caught the little gesture back and forth between the two.

“If you two know each other personally, I assume there will be no reason for me to assume you cannot remain neutral on this case, Judge Perry?” Damn. Got him. Antonio, the lawyer representing me, would be good for me. I just needed to have faith that he knew what he was doing.

“Of course. There is no issue here.” The judge looked at Tyler and Antonio. I stared straight ahead because if I engaged in whatever “who has the biggest dick” match was happening among them, I would for sure start laughing.

“I looked at the provided paperwork between the two parties. It seems that you, Maeve Murphy, do not currently pay rent. You have a job that you are often tardy to according to youremployees—” The judge began, and there was no way this would be a fair fight.

“Your honor, Maeve drives all the way to La Jolla to drop off her children at a daycare that Mr. Kirkland insists they attend, then she has to drive all the way downtown. During morning traffic and with drop-off times, she is sometimes late, but her employer has nothing but positive remarks for her work ethic,” my lawyer responded, and I wanted to high-five him. Yes, get ’em. Tell them I don’t suck as a human even though I am notoriously late to everything, so all of this was only partially true, but whatever, the judge didn’t need to know that.

“I will note that. I also will note that Ms. Murphy does not pay for the children’s healthcare and that the other party’s partner watches them during the day every other week as well as daycare pick-up occasionally on her weeks.”

“That isn’t fair. You offered. I told you my mom could pick them up, but you said Stephen could just grab them if I was stuck at work.” Tyler shot me a look, and Antonio grabbed my hand to settle me down. I was raging. What a fucking asshole. He was using everything he had against me.

“Mr. Kirkland, you are currently a lawyer, and your legal husband watches the children while you are at work. You provide healthcare for them, pay for their schooling, and split other expenses in half.” Wait…legal partner?

“You…you got married?” I looked over at Tyler, who didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to when I looked down and saw the ring on his finger. He was really pulling a power play. “I cannot believe you didn’t think this was important enough to tell me Monday or any other day that you saw me,” I huffed, and Antonio, yet again, silently requested that I shut up with his facial expressions.

Of course, he got married because Stephen would end up just like me, but they would take my kids with them. This judge wasalready up to Tyler’s game and falling right into the trap Tyler set out for him. Schmooze you up and then get whatever you want. In the end, the girls would get fucked, but Tyler’s too fucking wound up and narcissistic to see that.

“After reviewing all the facts, it is clear that—”

A moment of panic seeped through my veins. I had to do something quickly. These were my children we were talking about, and I felt like whatever the judge was about to say wouldn’t side well with me.

Think.

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