Talk about stone-cold.
Mike watches her leave. “On second thought,” he says, “I’ll meet the guys you have picking up her stuff and supervise it myself. I donottrust that woman. Gratis.”
I stop filming. “I’ll pay you for your time.”
He slowly shakes his head, still staring out the office door. “No, seriously. This one’s on me. I’ve seen a lot of bullshit, butthattakes the cake.”
Mike finishes organizing everything and hands me my copies of the paperwork while I call Arlo.
He sounds like he’s ready to go to war. “Pleasetell me she’s going to be hurting by the time Mike finishes with her.”
I sit in one of the chairs in front of Mike’s desk and slump back. “It’s done. She signed the papers. We have full custody. He’ll walk over right now and file the paperwork. It’s an uncontested modification motion by both parties. No need for a hearing. All the judge has to do is sign.”
Arlo’s quiet for a moment. “No shit?”
“No shit. But we need a couple of guys to go get Katie’s stuff from Jerilyn’s tonight. She’s moving next week, she says. Can you ask Bailey and Art to go do it? I’ll even give them gas money, if they want. Mike said he’ll go and supervise it. They only have between seven and eight tonight to do it.”
“Um, if not them, someone. Stupid question—why notus?”
“Jerilyn threatened to file false charges against us. Mike’s right—we can’t go. We arenotgoing over there and then she tries to trump up charges against us for something else.”
“Wait. What about Katie? Is Jerilyn going to see her again?”
“She didn’t ask, and I didn’t have time to offer. She stormed out of here.”
It’s all starting to hit me. Now I have to explain to my daughter what a piece of shit her mother is.
Not in so many words, of course. Age-appropriately.
Fuck. Zoey’s a better mom to Katie than Jerilyn ever was. I mean, I knew Jerilyn wasn’t perfect, but who the hell is? I figured between the two of us Katie would have a halfway decent chance for a reasonably normal life.
I close my eyes and rub my forehead. I feel like I’m about to have a migraine myself. “Can you please co-ordinate hooking the guys up with Mike so he can directly communicate with them about the arrangements?” I ask Arlo.
“Yeah, sure. Of course. Are you okay?”
“No. I’m not.”
But I know with my family’s love around me, I will be, and so will Katie.
* * * *
I let Lucas drive us home from Mike’s office, because, quite honestly, I wasn’t feeling up to it. I sit there with my head tipped back, eyes closed, and feeling this weird, swirling mix of dreadful relief. Mike assures me that, yes, this is over, unless she decides to contest it. But if she does, that’ll take months, or longer, depending on how we drag things out.
No, I’m not required to let Katie visit, or even call Jerilyn now.
I pull out my phone and block Jerilyn on Facebook and Twitter. Most of what I post is set to friends-only, and we’re not friends there, but I hadn’t blocked her before now because I wanted that extra avenue of communication open in case I needed it. And, sometimes, I post pictures of Katie that she could see, in case she wanted copies of them.
Before I block her, though, I screenshot a few pictures she posted publicly on her profile over the past couple of weeks, of her and some guy, along with an update that corresponds with the date of her unexpected “work emergency” trip to LA a couple of weeks ago.
Pictures of her and the guy on a beach, along with a caption on one:Love my new boo!
Explains why she’s so anxious to move all of a sudden, and take Katie with her. She knew damn well I wouldn’t accept her offer to move with her. Except I would’ve been free babysitting if I had.
But she’s got to save face with her new guy and look like she’s Supermom.
My phone now literally has over a hundred unread alerts, from a combination of missed calls, texts, and Facebook Messenger PMs that have been sent to me.
I think I have a good guess why.
