“They’re going to be here soon. The party starts at two, so they’ll be here in an hour. You can look for Mercer, though. He was getting done at eleven.”
“He loves me,” Zack says simply. “He wouldn’t miss my party.”
“I know he loves you. Very much.” I swallow and put the rinsed frying pan in the dishwasher. The house is pretty much party-ready. I’m just waiting for Mercer to finish replacing the crepe paper streamers that fell over the course of the morning.
All that’s missing is the present that my child should have, the one he wants the most, the one that keeps on giving.
A dad.
“Hey! That’s the car at Nana’s!”
“Nana Linda is here?” I go into instant panic mode. I don’t have make-up on yet. My hair looks like a poodle attempted the Pebbles Flintstone style, with one little ponytail perched on top of my head, failing to keep my curls back.
I yank the ponytail out, fluff my hair, put my slip-on shoes on, and race to the window in time to realize that Zack hasn’t answered.
Because it’s not Nana Linda.
It’s Eli. The car that Zack, with his crazy-detailed mind, has seen a handful of times at his grandmother’s house is in our driveway, and Eli is storming out of it.
Every curse word I can’t say because Zack will say them too crowds my mouth.
“Daddy?” Zack sounds confused and hopeful. “He doesn’t have a present.”
I close my eyes. Of course he doesn’t. Of course. He’ll come here, cause a scene, and not bring a present on his son’s birthday. “It might be a gift card,” I say lamely, planning to buy one and claim it’s from Eli, just in case. “Honey, I think... I think you should go taste test a cupcake.”
“But you said I couldn’t!”
“I changed my mind!” I hiss and scoot Zack into the kitchen, almost throwing myself onto the small front porch, stopping Eli before he reaches the end of the faded concrete sidewalk that leads from the driveway to the house.
“Got my letter?” Eli says by way of greeting, a cold smile on his face.
“Yesterday. I’m sure our lawyers are going to love seeing each other again,” I bluff, blocking him when he tries to sidestep. “You could have had your mother call or text me.”
“You ignored her last message. Broke her heart. You’re keeping Zack from her—but not for much longer. I’ve moved back in. I’m in a big suburban mansion—”
“It’s not a mansion. It’s a mansionette, at best,” I snap.
“I’ve got my own place in the carriage house, but it’s the same address. Two-caregiver family with ties to the best prep school in Pennsylvania. A trust fund that’s racking up the numbers. You don’t stand a chance of convincing a judge that my mother and I can’t give Zack a better life. I mean—look at this place. The paint is peeling on the porch. I see some sagging around the window sills. Unsafe. You took my son out of state, to an unsafe town full of monsters and freaks—just so you could have a chance at getting fucked by Frankenstein.”
I gape. “Wh-what? Also, no, this house is perfectly safe, just needs a little TLC. You wouldn’t know how to give that, and that is what a judge is going to care about,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
“It won’t be when a judge hears my side of it. The main thing is that you just came here because you wanted a new man—and you know humans have higher standards.”
“No. Oh, my God. Eli, just keep talking like that, and Zack will never even see your picture again. That kind of racist, speciesist talk is going to make every judge in the country aware of what a rotten father you’d be. What a terrible, prejudiced, sexist role model.”
“Not the right judge—and there are a few out there that prefer the old days before the Great Revelation.”
Anger is boiling inside of me, but fear is pouring cold water on it.
“When they hear about this—”
“No one is going to hear about this. It’s going to be my word against yours, and the judge is already on my side.”
What if he’s right? What if he’s already arranged it? What if one of his lawyer buddies has already handpicked a judge to hear our case, and his mom’s money arranged it?
“I don’t want your money,” I gasp out. “I want you to go.”
Eli looks flummoxed. He stops, the handsome face I once found so attractive twisted in a puzzled frown.
