Stain on my blouse forgotten, I shot out of my chair.“But that’s two weeks.”
I didn’t say that he didn’t even seem to want them for two days.How would he handle having them for two whole weeks?Not to mention that it meant I wouldn’t get to see them for way too long.
“It’ll give you time to do something without them.You could get a haircut.A manicure.Or buy new clothes.”He raised his brows at my tangled mess of hair.
“I would if I had the expendable income.”Jackass.
I should have ignored his comment.
“I’ll pick them up on the first Sunday and drop them back on the following Saturday.”
Hold your pants.Why does he assume that I’ve already agreed?
“I don’t think so.”
“Do you think you have any power here?If I say I want to take the kids on a vacation, then I’ll take the kids on a vacation.They don’t have to stay with you.All it would take is one look at Addy’s birth certificate and I’d have full custody.And since I know you wouldn’t want to split the girls up, Elana would follow.”
For the thousandth time, I asked myself if I’d been temporarily insane when I first agreed to go out with him.He’d always been cocky.But back then I’d thought it was confidence.Something I didn’t have and admired in others.And then the whole mess with Addy.And adding another baby to the already-crumbling relationship.
I am an idiot.One who would now pay for her desperation to have a family.But it was hard to regret meeting him, because without him, I wouldn’t have my girls.
“I was granted full custody.”
“In a divorce that hasn’t even gone through yet.And I can always contest the ruling.”
Something that would not only cost a lot of money but, if he wanted, he could win.Hank didn’t want the kids, so there had to be another motivation behind his sudden interest.
“One week.Otherwise, Iwillcontact my lawyer.”
He rolled his eyes, and a ball of red-hot fury formed in my stomach at the dismissive gesture.“Fine.Whatever.”
He left without a backward glance.
I still stood in the empty reception area long after he’d left, staring at the door, when Malena came back out, a stack of papers in her hand.
“Hey, chiquita, why are you staring at the door?”
I blinked a few times, shaking off the millions of scenarios that had been going through my head that each ended with me losing the girls.“Hank was just here.”
She stopped mid-step, her head tilting to the side.“He what?”
“He wants to take the girls on a vacation.For two weeks.”
Narrowing her eyes, her hands went to her hips, crinkling the papers she was holding.Her short pleated skirt flared out when she cocked her hip, her white blouse tucked in, the small pearl buttons on the front sparkling in the office light.“I hope you told him to get lost.”
“He’s taking them for one week.”
“Mae—”
I held up my hand, dropping ungraciously into my chair.“No.I have to learn to share.And one week isn’t too bad.It’ll give me a chance to catch up on housework.”
She stalked over to me, her raised brows making it clear that she wasn’t buying my bullshit.“You do realize you have rights as well?And you have the best lawyer money can buy.Have you called him to let him know?”
“No.And I’m not going to.It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.The girls barely know him.You said that they don’t sleep more than a few hours a night on the weekends they spend with him.”
It was a fact that I couldn’t ignore.Every Sunday when they returned home, they were irritable and fell asleep at six.I also knew that they never went to bed before eleven when they were with Cockalorum.“He’s their dad.He has a right to see them.”
