“Enough,” Mr Kellman said, not raising his voice but cutting cleanly through both of them.
They stopped.
The room settled again.
Mr Kellman looked between them. “Charlotte and Richard were very clear. They wanted Mia raised in her home. By both of you. Together.”
Elizabeth looked down at the document again as if it might rearrange itself into something more reasonable.
It did not.
“I should also mention,” Mr Kellman said, “that they left a note to accompany this provision.”
He glanced down.
“It reads: Hello Darcy and Elizabeth. We added this clause somewhat in jest, and we hope it never has to be enacted. However, should life play its games and it comes to this, we know you will both say yes. We know because we know you, and because we know how much you love Mia. We are sorry for making this complicated, but there is no one else we would trust her with. Take care of her as you would your own.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
That was Richard. Entirely. She could hear Charlotte behind it, especially in the last part.
She opened her eyes again.
Mr Kellman folded his hands. “For the record, I am required to ask whether you are both willing to accept joint guardianship under these terms.”
Another pause followed.
“Yes.”
Darcy said it immediately.
Elizabeth turned to him.
Of course he did.
She counted.
One. Two. Three.
Her mind catching up with the shape of what was being asked.
…Fourteen.
“Yes,” she said.
Mr Kellman nodded and made a note.
Elizabeth looked down at her hands.
Fourteen seconds. That was how long it took her to accept there was nothing she could do about the clause.
He had not needed even one.
She did not yet know what to do with that.
***
They stood together on the sidewalk outside Kellman and Associates in the thin October light. The city moved around them without interest. A cab passed. A woman with a stroller navigated the curb. Someone's phone rang and was answered and the conversation faded down the block.
