Page 29 of Silver Fox's Intern Dilemma

I wanted to tell her how much that angered me, but I had to trust Howard's advice. I had to keep my mouth shut and keep a dependable and stable environment for Leah. If I wanted to complain about this, I had to bring it up with the judge. This might change things in his eyes. Maybe not, but picking a fight with Dana definitely wouldn’t help things.

I knocked on the door and heard Dana shout Leah's name. Then the door swung open and she stood there with a burning cigarette in hand looking tired and haggard with one arm over her stomach and her elbow planted on her wrist. Smoke rose upward from the lit cigarette and she scowled at me.

"So you finally decide to start showing up on time when you’re scheduled? I thought I had a few hours left." The sardonic reply made me irritated, but I plastered a fake smile on my face.

"Is Leah ready? I can wait in the car if she's not." I listened intently but only heard the sound of the TV blaring in the other room.

"She's not coming tonight," Dana said, and it confused me. It was my night to have my daughter, and Dana had just called her down.

"Why not?" I asked, suddenly feeling defensive. I knew my forehead was displaying the signals, a deep, furrowed brow, stormy eyes. But I tried to keep my tone light. Arguing would not serve my purpose.

"Why not? Because you'll have that hoe Sophia over again." My heart clenched at the comment, and she just kept talking. "Yeah, you thought you were sneaky, bringing women into your house with Leah around. I know you're fucking her while our kid is in the house, and I don't even know what sort of person she is."

"I told you, Mommy. She's a doctor like Daddy." Leah's chipper voice broke through the tension between me and my ex-wife, and I swallowed my rage like medicine. I would not break down and argue with Dana in front of Lean.

"Hey, baby, go run and climb in Daddy's car." I gestured, but Dana put her hand in front of Leah's chest and stopped her.

"I told you, she's not coming." Dana held Leah back, but my little girl was so good and respectful, she didn’t argue. She just stood there with a pleading expression and I decided I had to get firm or I'd lose my weekend. Then Dana would tell the court I stopped taking her when it was my turn.

"Dana, let me remind you that you are bringing men into this house whom I have never met." It was a struggle to keep my even keel, but I was managing. I just kept glancing at Leah, and it reminded me what I was fighting for. At this point, I wasn't fighting Dana. I was fighting my own anger. "I could say the same about you. Now, it's my weekend, and I have the custody agreement saved to my phone in a file. Unless you want me to call the police to come settle this, you’ll let Leah leave with me."

"Who is she?" Dana spat, and I had zero intention of answering that question. It'd been years since we split and shehad no right to ask that of me. I never questioned the people she was friends with or the men she dated. Though, Dana and I still hung in the same circles. We had friends who wouldn’t invite us both to events for fear of there being drama. I could be civil, but Dana never would.

"It's none of your business," I told her, reaching my hand to Leah. She scurried to my side and held my hand, and I told Dana, "Listen, I'm not supposed to talk to you about this. Howard warned me to say nothing, but I thought I'd let you know. I'm considering suing you back for sole custody. You can't just take Leah and move to another state. I'm not just going to take it lying down."

Dana spat at my feet, with no regard for what she was teaching Leah. I knew she didn't care one bit about our daughter. She only wanted to hurt me. I had, in her mind, destroyed something inside her that she'd never get back, and this was her punishment. My heart broke for the relationship Leah would never have with her mother.

"Come on, Leah," I said, and I turned and walked us to the car.

We were halfway home before Leah spoke up, and when she did, it made me feel sad. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to make Mommy mad at you."

I looked at her reflection in my rearview mirror and sighed. "It's not your fault, baby. Mommy is just sad and angry. Okay?"

Above all, the last thing I'd ever want to do was damage the relationship Leah had with her mother. Someday, she'd grow up and realize it for herself, but I wanted no part of being the one who broke her.

"But she was so mad at you and Sophia. I like Sophia." Leah wistfully stared out the window, and I thought I saw her crying, but I heard no sniffling.

"You do, huh? Well, Sophia has been working too hard this week and she feels a little tired and sick, so she won’t be here this weekend. But maybe next time you come by."

Leah got quiet for a while, and it dawned on me that because Dana cared so little for her, she probably hadn't even asked her opinion about moving. What a horrible thing to do to a child whose parents are no longer together and live in different homes. It would feel like ripping her heart out.

"Did Mommy ask you about having a new house? Going to a new school?" I asked, gauging what she knew.

Leah's eyes seemed frightened and she shook her head. "No. I don't want a new school. I like my friends."

I sighed hard again. Dana planned to do all of this without even discussing it with Leah. That angered me more than just the idea of her doing this at all.

"Well, if you had to live with Mommy and her new boyfriend or me at my house, what would you choose?" I pulled up to a red light and stopped, and it gave me a chance to turn over my shoulder and watch her facial expression shift.

"Can Sophia live with us too? Because if she does, then I want to live with you." Her face lit up like the Fourth of July, and I chuckled.

"Well, we'd have to ask Sophia that, but let's just say I have a good feeling she'd want to. She likes you more than she likes me."

Leah clapped and laughed, and for the rest of the ride we talked only about Sophia, the light in my child's life. I could've said I was jealous of her, but in reality, I was seeing my little girl happier than she'd been in years, and it was all because of the woman I was falling head over heels in love with.

Now to figure out how to make a judge, the board of trustees, and my ex-wife see that Leah’s being with me and Sophia was the best thing for her. All in a way that got neither of us fired.

23

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