Page 155 of Love Notes & Lifelines
“What’s wrong? What can I do?”
He shakes his head, then reaches over the girls to seek out my hand in the dark. When he finds it, he entwines our fingers, and rests our clasped hands over my heart.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He glances down at Ruby, then over to me and Emmy. “In fact, nothing has ever been more right. I stayed up with Teddy because Elijah got him high on my coffee.”
“Oh no.” My body shakes with laughter, and it’s nearly impossible to remain silent.
“It all worked out. He and his dad walked me through every single document they’ll present to the judge tomorrow.”
Emmy flops over and laughs in her sleep. My heart flutters in my chest.
“If she can laugh in her sleep then I think we’re doing something right,” he whispers.
I roll over so we’re face to face. He looks as tired as I feel. My sleep has been fitful at best, and I’m not sure when he actually slept last.
“I’m sorry about our wedding day.” The emotion in his words tells me the guilt over it has been weighing heavily on his shoulders.
“Beck. I don’t care about a ceremony. To be honest, I’ve never really been able to picture my wedding anyway. This, right here, is where we were supposed to be today—fighting for these little girls—fighting for us. I’ll never regret that, so you have no reason to apologize. Well, you may want to apologize to Bella.” I cringe. “No one called her, and she waited at the church for over an hour for us.”
“No,” he groans.
“She finally called Tabby, who let her know what was going on, but she worked really hard to pull everything together. I feel terrible.”
“We’ll make it up to her, after we get through this.”
We’re silent for a long moment, listening to Emmy’s deep breaths and Ruby’s gurgled noises.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks.
I learned a long time ago not to speak my fears because they generally come true, but when he squeezes my hand, then leans over the girls to kiss my lips with a heartbreakingly gentle touch, I open my heart. “We will get through this, right? The four of us, together?”
He nods, but never breaks eye contact. “It could be a difficult few months, but I’ll spend every dollar to my name to make sure they get what they deserve—and it starts with Danica. She’s the mastermind behind all our heartache, and karma is finally on our side.”
Ruby kicks in her sleep and gets him right in the chest. She’s strong for such a little thing and he grunts, then lays his head back on his pillow.
“Yes, Stella. We’ll get through this. I’ll make sure of it.”
Call me crazy, but I believe every word he says.
Morning came too quickly,and the girls could sense something was off from the moment they woke up next to us.
And it all went downhill from there. When Emmy realized we were leaving for the day, she complained of a stomachache, then an earache, and that her heart had broken so she needed me to stay home with her.
Ruby just wailed and screamed, feeding off her sister’s energy.
Leaving them, even in the loving care of Tabby and Leo, is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and that includes living through Silas’s gaslighting and abuse.
But that’s how I ended up in the courtroom with my skirt on backward, a blob of applesauce on my right boob, and two different shoes.
Beck didn’t fare much better. Although he does have matching shoes, his shirt is wrinkled, and he may have used Emmy’s glitter gel instead of his hair gel this morning.
“We’ll break for lunch in about twenty minutes,” Mr. Park, Teddy’s dad, whispers to my left. Beck sits on my right, and Teddy next to him. Behind us is an entire row of attorneys, and behind them, our Sailport Bay family.
Danica and her team have held court all morning. Teddy and his dad thought it best to allow them to dig their own grave, so we’ve sat through every demeaning, fraudulent claim she could dream up. All the while I stewed and imagined horns sprouting from her skull that I could use to swing her around and toss her ass-first into a firepit straight to hell where she belongs.
“How can she be allowed to submit photos that are artificially generated? That’s not even me up there,” Beck hisses.
Another lawyer leans forward to answer. “We’re documenting it all. When it’s our turn, we’ll prove their lack of authenticity.”
