“I love you,” she whispered, looking from one to the other. “I love you all.”
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
EVIE
Sally and Edward had moved out towards the end of January, and Gabe, Asher, and Shepherd had as good as moved in with her.
It hadn’t been planned. They hadn’t discussed it, as such; it just kind of… happened.
Obviously, with Gabe already living next door, he didn’t need to do much more than roll out of bed and stroll to work, and he had tacitly assumed responsibility for getting Ollie up in the mornings. Her son didn’t so much as blink an eyelid. Shepherd wasn’t much further away, either, since he just lived at the bottom of the knoll on which Evie’s property and the Evergreen were built.
Asher had the furthest to travel and was the only one who needed to drive, but by unspoken agreement, he always left his car in the Evergreen parking lot where it didn’t draw attention. But since he was going that way, it was Asher who started taking Ollie to school.
They’d settled into a routine, and it seemed… natural and uneventful.
That might seem somewhat boring to a lot of people, but to Evie, it was a relief. There’d been no backlash from the community, just as Gabe had predicted. Ollie was his usual happy self and hadn’t suffered any repercussions as a result of their living arrangements, and even Victoria seemed to have backed off after her run-in with Shepherd. It would seem, standing up to your bullies was a lot more effective than turning the other cheek, after all.
The biggest stain on the horizon was Adrian, who kept letting Ollie down, making more and more excuses about why he couldn’t see his son. The only consolation was that at least Ollie didn’t seem unduly bothered by it.
That’s why, when the very official letter was delivered, one that was couriered and Evie had to sign for, it was such a shock.
It was Monday - her ‘lazy’ morning, since the bakery was closed and she had some precious time to herself. Though even now, Evie was doing some baking prep work at home, despite that she’d had an all-new industrial kitchen fitted at the bakery during the January shutdown, thanks to her windfall.
More often than not, Gabe would leave the Evergreen and come have lunch with her, and sometimes Shepherd and Asher would join them if they weren’t too busy.
Evie washed her hands at the sink and opened the registered letter. Was it something to do with Nana Rose’s bequeathment? Were their taxes to be paid, or would that have been done when her grandmother died? Or perhaps the property needed to be registered in her name. She was embarrassed to realize she didn’t know about such things.
She frowned as she extracted the legal letter, but it was the contents that took her breath away.
No!
This couldn’t be real.
But it was.
The letter was signed and stamped, and even Evie recognized the name of a reputable law firm.
Except… surely this was extortion, or blackmail… or something.
The words swam before her eyes, black ink on crisp ivory paper that suddenly felt too heavy in her hands. Her knees went weak, and she gripped the edge of the counter to steady herself.
The legal jargon tried to dress it up in professional language, but the message was clear enough. Adrian Montgomery was filing for primary custody of Oliver Montgomery, age five, on the grounds that the child's mother was engaged in ‘morally questionable cohabitation’ and creating an ‘unstable environment’ for their son.
Morally questionable cohabitation.
The phrase made her stomach turn. They meant Shepherd, Asher, and Gabe. They meant the men who'd become her family, who helped Ollie with his homework and taught him to make the perfect cappuccino foam and let him test new toys before they hit the shelves. The men who'd been there for her son more in the past few months than Adrian had been in years.
Her hands trembled as she forced herself to keep reading.
There was more. Of course, there was more.
The letter mentioned her recent inheritance - how did Adrian even know about that? And suggested that given her ‘newfound financial resources,' it would be in Oliver's best interest to have a more 'traditional family structure.'
Traditional family structure. With Adrian. The man who'd dragged his son out of the line to visit Santa to take him on holiday, then promptly brought him home early because his girlfriend didn’t like having her shopping trips and nightlife curtailed by responsibility.
The thick vellum paper crinkled under her grip.
