Page 111 of His Greatest Treasure

“So you knew where I was and didn’t tell anyone?”

Her chin dips slightly. “Only Oakley. Your mom swore us to secrecy and begged neither of us to interfere with your wishes to be left alone.”

Ashamed, I fight off a flinch. “When you say it like that, it sounds worse than I thought. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be around any of you. The opposite, actually. If I had told everyone where I was, you would have taken me back in, and I didn’t want the help I would have been offered. I didn’t wantto rely on it only to have it stripped away if I couldn’t handle it here and wound up having to go back home away from you all again.”

Ava reaches over and sets a hand over mine, squeezing softly. “And it was hard on you being so far away.”

“You could say that,” I say with a short, blunt laugh. “Having to watch all of my childhood friends grow up with one another while I was in a different country, unable to do the same, wasn’t great. I was jealous all the time, wishing I could have been here for all the birthdays and Christmases. The graduations and hockey and football games. Noah’s concerts and Addie’s fashion shows.”

“They would have loved for you to be here then, Avery.”

“Yeah, I know.”

It doesn’t make me feel better knowing everyone missed me the way I missed them. Wishing to be with someone when there wasn’t a way of making it happen doesn’t help anyone. But the guilt I feel for wasting the past decade we could have all been together out of pride and embarrassment is the hardest pill of all. I’m unable to swallow it.

“In your text, you mentioned needing family lawyer recommendations,” she says, leading the conversation in a different direction.

“If my mom told you everything, does that include my custody agreement with Chris?”

“No. I only know you two share custody with you as the primary caregiver.”

“We’ve had a non-legally binding custody agreement since we split, but Chris . . . he found out about Oliver and threatened trying to take more time with her.” I tighten my hold on my glass, leg beginning to bounce. “He can’t handle more time with her. If he tries to do this, it will only be so he can prove a point.”

Ava’s brows draw together as her mouth tips down into a frown. “He’s threatening custody because he’s jealous of my nephew?”

“It’s ridiculous, right?”

“Incredibly. Does he have any ground to stand on here if hedid pursue a more involved custody agreement? What is your current one?”

“He gets her every second weekend. No holidays after he forgot her fifth birthday and Santa was a no-show during the Christmas prior.”

“I’m sorry, Avery,” Ava whispers, disgust twisting her expression.

“Don’t apologize. Nova has me.”

“She does. And I have a few family lawyers I can reach out to. I’ve been a part of a few custody battles with the foster system, and it’s not easy, especially when one of the two parents are not willing to compromise. But if he truly is just doing this out of spite, he’ll be put in his place once you’ve shown how serious you are with legal aid at your side. He won’t continue to wave threats around when nobody will listen to them.”

“He’s slimy. I want to believe it will be easy to prove that I’m the better choice for Nova if it comes to that, but I don’t know if he’ll somehow weasel his way into taking her from me. I’ve worked too hard to let him take her when the right place for her is at home with me. He doesn’t know how to parent her, Ava. He’s never had to. I’ve always been there to pick up his slack, and there’s been so, so much of it,” I say, feeling an overwhelming sense of defeat wriggling beneath my skin already.

It’s premature and not the right time for it, but fuck. I won’t let him have more time with Nova than he deserves only so he can disappoint her and wish he’d never attempted this only days afterward.

“He won’t take her from you. You’re her mother and an incredible one at that.”

My throat is sticky when I blurt out, “What if it becomes a custody battle and Oliver doesn’t want to stick around for it? What if he starts to believe I’m too much work. Thatwe’retoo much work. I’ve already pushed him to sit on the sidelines and wait. Will he get pushed too far and leave?”

“Oh, honey. I don’t think it’s possible for you to push Oliver away.”

I shake my head, immediately ignoring her attempt to placate me. “I did, though. Chris pushed all my buttons, and I shoved Oliver out the door the moment he tried to offer me his support.”

“Has he told you that once you left Canada with your parents that final time when you were seventeen, he forbid anyone from speaking about you around him? Or that he yelled at his brother on his eighteenth birthday when he made a joke about him finally being old enough to fly to Sweden to ask you out?”

My stomach flutters. “He mentioned not asking about me.”

“He did a lot more than that, sweetheart.”

“That was all a long time ago.”

“Are you trying to convince me of the relevance of that or yourself? Because I don’t think time matters much at all. It’s been over a decade since then, and right now, he’s the one your daughter’s father feels threatened by.

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