Page 90 of The Rules of Dating

I dropped my head into my hands and yanked at my hair. “Jesus Christ. This is insane. What am I supposed to do? Marry her?”

“It wouldn’t be ethical for me to advise you to enter into a sham marriage for the sole purpose of securing a green card. But since the subject of marriage has been raised, and immigration is not an area I’m too familiar with, I took the liberty of reaching out to an immigration attorney in this building. Adam’s a friend of mine, and he’ll give you a free consultation. At least that way, you’ll have all the information you need to make an informed decision on how you’d like to proceed.”

An hour and a half later, my head was spinning as I walked out of the second attorney’s office. I wanted to run straight to the liquor store and drink until I couldn’t think anymore, but my little girl was at my parents’, and I knew Billie was anxious to hear how my appointment had gone, too. So I sucked it up and went to pick up my daughter.

“Hi. How did it go?” My mom opened the door looking almost as stressed as I felt. I probably shouldn’t have filled her in on everything when I dropped off Saylor earlier today, but she’d taken one look at me and been convinced I was hiding a terminal disease.

I walked inside and looked around. “Is Saylor taking a nap?”

Mom shook her head. “Your father took her out to the park.”

I nodded and pulled out a seat at the kitchen table, heaving a big sigh.

“I’m going to make us some tea,” Mom said.

“Thanks.”

A few minutes later, she set two mugs on the table and slid into the chair across from me. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I frowned. “I want to rewind time and make it stay four days ago forever.”

“Not good news?”

I stared down into my tea. “I just can’t believe this is happening. My choices are basically to take my chances in a custody fight or marry a woman I loathe and chance up to five years in prison if I get caught attempting to marry someone for the sole purpose of evading immigration laws.”

My mother covered her heart with her hand. “Oh my.”

“Tell me about it…”

“Does the attorney think you would have a good chance at winning full custody?”

I shook my head. “He thinks Maya will get some sort of visitation. Which means I’d have to explain who she is to Saylor and risk Maya disappearing again once she got what she really wanted out of things. I can’t trust this woman with Saylor’s heart, Mom.”

“I never thought I’d tell my son to keep a mother from a child. But the reasons Maya has come back scare me, too. Any person who would use a child as a pawn to get what they want can’t be trusted with our Saylor’s well-being. I hate to say not to fight for what’s right, but sometimes it doesn’t matter who wins. The war itself does all the damage.”

My eyes welled up. “I don’t know what to do. But I can’t risk Saylor getting hurt in all this.”

My mother reached out and covered my hand with hers. “It sounds like you’ve already made a choice, son.”

I closed my eyes.

“How long would you have to stay married?” she asked.

“I met with an immigration attorney, and he said the process averages about nine months from the time the application is made. We’d have to go through interviews and stuff, which is where the risk of getting caught comes in. But the attorney didn’t seem too concerned with that since Maya and I have a four-year-old. I guess it helps to look like we’ve been together a while.”

Mom nodded. “Well, at least it wouldn’t interrupt your life for too long.” She forced a smile. “I guess the bright side is that you’re single, so there won’t be a third party involved to get hurt.”

Heaviness settled into my chest as I caught my mom’s eye. “I met someone, Mom. I was going to tell you about her.”

“Oh, Colby…”

“Her name is Billie, and she’s absolutely amazing. We’ve been circling around things for a while because she wanted to be sure before she got involved with someone who has a child. But I really think she could be the one.”

My mom smiled sadly. “I’m so happy to hear that. Though obviously the timing isn’t ideal.”

“Yeah…”

“What does Billie think about all of this?”