"Note?" I look to Axel, whose face has gone strangely rigid. "What note?"
Something flickers across Elliot's face, surprise, then calculation. "On your car. Yesterday." His eyes shift to Axel. "Although perhaps someone intercepted it."
Axel's jaw tightens, and I see his hands curl into fists at his sides.
"What are you talking about?" I step closer, confusion momentarily overriding my fear. "What note?"
"It doesn't matter now," Elliot says smoothly. "What matters is that I'm here to discuss our daughter."
"She's not your daughter," I snap, anger flaring hot and bright. "You made that perfectly clear when I was pregnant."
"I've changed my mind." His smile turns predatory. "I want to be in Poppy's life. And the courts agree I have that right."
Axel moves closer to me, his arm coming around my waist in a protective gesture. "You need to leave," he tells Elliot, voice low with warning.
"Not until I've said what I came to say." Elliot's eyes harden. "The hearing is pointless, Sadie. I have photos of you with him." He nods toward Axel. "Leaving your child to go on romantic getaways. Drinking. Engaging in… questionable behavior."
The blood drains from my face. "You've been watching me?"
"Just gathering evidence." He shrugs. "The judge will be interested to see what kind of mother abandons her sick child for a weekend of debauchery."
"You son of a bitch," Axel growls, taking a step forward. "You've been stalking her?"
"It's not stalking when it's your wife," Elliot says coldly. "It's gathering evidence for a custody case."
"She's not your wife," Axel says. "And Poppy's not your daughter."
Elliot's laugh is ugly. "The DNA test says otherwise. And we're still very much married, aren't we, Sadie? You never filed the papers."
I feel the ground shift beneath my feet. Axel turns to me, confusion written across his features. "Sadie?"
"I…" The words stick in my throat. "I tried to file. He wouldn't sign. I thought… I thought when I left…"
"You thought running away would dissolve a legal marriage?" Elliot scoffs. "Always so naive."
"Shut up," Axel warns, stepping closer to Elliot. "You don't talk to her like that."
"I'll talk to my wife however I please." Elliot's voice rises. "And I'll be taking my daughter back to Oregon where she belongs."
"Over my dead body," I spit, finding my voice at last.
"That can be arranged," Elliot says quietly, and something in his tone makes my blood run cold.
"Are you threatening her?" Axel asks, his voice dangerously soft.
"Simply stating facts." Elliot straightens his jacket.
"The courts favor biological fathers, especially when the mother has a history of instability. Running away with a child? Changing identities? Living under the radar? Not exactly the actions of a fit parent."
"You drove her to this," Axel says, his voice rising. "Whatever you did to make her run."
"He doesn't know?" Elliot's eyebrows shoot up in mock surprise. "You haven't told your boyfriend why you really left? About the money? About what you did?"
"Don't," I whisper, terror clawing up my throat.
"She stole from me," Elliot continues, his voice carrying across the parking lot. "Transferred company funds to her personal account before disappearing. That's grand theft, Sadie. Prison time."
"That's a lie!" My voice rises to match his. "That money was mine! My inheritance that you controlled!"
