“Do you still need to be convinced?” Simon looked across the table at her, worried she would push back against him at any moment.

Heather was sitting beside Aaron in one of the conference rooms of Jones, Chang, & Associates, both of them poring over legal documents.

She paused to look up. Heather had washed her face before they had left the courthouse, but her eyes were still red and puffy from crying. She still held herself in check. It was impressive.

He clenched his jaw, hating every minute that she suffered because of her ex-husband. After Simon had suggested they go after Gary, she had fled to a bathroom without saying a word in response. During the drive to Aaron’s law firm she had sat in complete silence, too shaken from her first day in court to say much of anything.

Simon had come along for moral support, but from the forlorn look in her eyes he was starting to wonder how much good his presence was actually doing.

“No, I don’t,” she said finally. “I don’t need to be convinced to go after Gary, because I’ve made up my mind.”

“What have you decided?” her lawyer asked gently.

“I hate that we have to do this.” She let out a pained sigh. “But Gary hasn’t really given me a choice. We have to go after him. You were right, Simon, so you can go ahead and say you told you so.”

“I don’t want to gloat,” Simon said, shocked that she could think so badly of him. “Heather, being right is the last thing I wanted.”

“I’m sorry. That came out wrong.” She lowered her eyes, crossing her arms on the desk as if she was fighting to get back some semblance of control. “You both told me to go after Gary but I didn’t listen.”

“You were simply trying to do right by your son’s father,” Aaron said. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I don’t even know what right and wrong is any more,” she said. “If we hold back and let Gary win, then Finn will end up with a selfish father. If we go after Gary, I’ll basically be ruining him.”

“But Heather, if you’re so sure you’re going to be ruining him, don’t you think that means he’s up to something?” Simon asked. “I mean, if even you think he’s got skeletons in his closet, it doesn’t exactly speak well of his character.”

“It doesn’t.” Her gaze drifted upwards and her eyes landed on him. “He was so cruel. Simon; you’re the only reason I didn’t completely fall apart up there. His lawyer was just relentless.”

“That’s how Charlene is,” Aaron said.

Simon nodded. “Heather, I know you credit me for helping you keep it together, but I honestly think the preparation you did with your lawyer was most important.”

She didn’t respond, merely averted her gaze and turned her attention back to her lawyer. “It’s settled. I’m giving you the okay to go after Gary. Get every piece of dirt you can on him. If he’s going to come after me the way he did today, then I’m going after him.”

Aaron reached for a folder in the stack in front of him and handed it to Heather. “I think switching to more aggressive tactics is the right idea. For now, I’m going to have a talk with the firm’s investigator to get the ball rolling on investigating Gary. Why don’t you look over this list of your court dates in the meantime?”

“Okay,” she said softly as Aaron exited the conference room, leaving them alone together.

Needing to stretch his legs, Simon eased out of the leather swivel chair and walked over to a side table to refill his cup of coffee. He took a sip and turned his attention to Heather.

“I know it’s a stupid question to ask, but how are you feeling?” he asked.

“Honestly, I’m exhausted,” she confessed, her shoulders sagging. “I’m trying so hard to keep it together, but I feel like I’m failing.” 

“You’re not failing.”

“You heard what Aaron said back at the courthouse,” she said. “Things don’t look good. The judge is already being swayed to Gary’s side.”

He nodded, trying to show her that he was acknowledging her fears. It wasn’t going to do any good to give her platitudes right now in her agitated state, but he also didn’t want her to sink into despair. “Today was tough,” he said honestly. “But Gary’s lawyer tried to break you. She failed. That’s an accomplishment. I know it might not feel like that now, but it’s important that you’re fighting for Finn. He would be proud of you. Plus, I’m proud of you because I know that, whatever happens, you’re never going to give up, Heather.”

She lifted her chin, the defeat starting to fade from her eyes. “Giving up isn’t an option. I’ll never let them take Finn from me. Not ever.”

“That’s why Gary isn’t going to know what hit him,” Simon said. “All he sees is the nice side of you that put up with all his crap. But now, you seem...”

“Angrier?” A bitter laugh escaped her throat.

“Maybe. But I was going to say more determined,” he replied. “I’ve never known a parent like you, Heather. I don’t think there’s a mother alive who could possibly fight harder for their child than you fight for Finn.”

“I just worry that one day I won’t be able to hide it from Finn anymore,” she said. “I try so hard to look strong and brave in front of him, while inside I’m losing it. Losing it because Gary just won’t let up.”

“How about some coffee?” he suggested. Right now she looked so worn down that he was beginning to worry. The hearing had been just another stressful event on top of all of Gary’s delusional attempts to make Heather pay for supposedly ruining his life by getting pregnant.

She nodded. “Yes, please.”

He set his own cup aside to pour her a cup. After adding some cream and sugar he handed the cup over to her and waited while she took a sip.

“It’s got to be tough to keep your fears from Finn,” he said, picking up the conversation. “I’m not a parent, so I don’t have the right to tell you what to do, but maybe it’s okay to show Finn how you feel. Show him that you’re scared.”

“I wish I could, but I can’t,” she murmured. “If I show Finn how scared and upset I am, that will just make him scared and upset.”

“It sounds like being a parent means you have to hide part of yourself from your kids,” he said sadly.

“Sometimes.” She sighed and gave him a faltering smile. “Luckily I’ve got support. I have my parents and you. I couldn’t have gotten through today without you, Simon.”

Heather reached out to him and he took a seat beside her, taking her small hand in his. “Whatever you need, I’m here,” he said.

“All I need is you,” she said gently before leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

Her soft lips brushing against him was enough to send a strange combination of tenderness and desire running through him. As she pulled her lips away, the feeling inside him gave way to dread. Because he knew just by looking at the pain etched on her face that if the stress of the custody battle really took its toll, he was liable to lose Heather. There was no way their relationship could survive her losing Finn, even if it the loss ended up being a temporary setback. If she lost her son, Simon was certain he would lose her in the process. Lose both of them. And as the icy claw of fear gripped his heart, he realized that he didn’t know how he could possibly survive losing the two people he was already starting to think of as his family.

~~*~~

BY THE TIME HER LAWYER returned, she’d gone over the court schedule he had handed over to her. Simon was in the corner of the conference room, taking a business call.

“How did it go with the investigator?” she asked as Aaron resumed his seat beside her.

“Good. He’s ready to start going over Gary’s life with a fine-toothed comb,” Aaron said. “However, the investigator just gone into a meeting, so he won’t be able to meet with you at the moment. In the meantime, he wants any details you might have on Gary.”

She bit her lip, wracking her brain. “I haven’t lived with Gary since the divorce, so I haven’t exactly been keeping up with his life. If he has any secrets, he’s keeping them well hidden from me.”

“At this point, no detail is too small,” Aaron said. “You don’t have to know any secrets. Even a minor detail could get the ball rolling. He works at a construction company, right?”

“Yes. He’s been there for several years, and seems to be a pretty good employee.” She paused. “But if he was so willing to pressure Simon for millions of dollars, maybe things aren’t going so well for him at work.”

“Good point.” Aaron grabbed a pen and started scribbling in the corner of one of the files. “Do you know how he spends his money?”

“He’s kept up his child support payments,” she responded. “That seems to be the one thing he doesn’t complain about.”

Aaron frowned. “That sounds unusual.”

“Well, maybe that’s why he wanted to squeeze money out of Simon,” she said. “Maybe the child support payments have been getting to him.”

“That’s possible, but like you said, Gary complains about everything,” Aaron said. “Why is this the one area that doesn’t seem to bother him? Seems contrary to his character, don’t you think?”

“It could mean that there’s still hope,” she said. “Hope that deep down he wants to be a good dad.”

Her lawyer gave her an incredulous look and scratched his bushy beard. “I wish I could be as convinced as you, but something doesn’t add up here, Heather. Absent parents often complain about child support payments. It’s actually quite common in family law.”

“Well, what would account for Gary not complaining?” She hated asking because she knew this line of inquiry could lead somewhere even worse than she had ever imagined. But her son needed her to fight. Needed her to ruthlessly protect him like never before. She had to let go of the history they had shared together as Finn’s parents. Gary was more than likely counting on her to be softhearted, and that hadn’t done her son a bit of good. It was time to get tough, no matter how difficult it was.

“He might have tapped into another source of income,” Aaron offered. “Or maybe he got a raise that we don’t know about.”

“Gary was required to give financial information when we first worked out custody details, but maybe he’s gotten a raise. Or maybe he has a source of income that he’s never disclosed. But he’s still paying the child support. Could another source of income really be that shady, if he’s so willing to pay?”

Aaron shrugged. “There’s no way of knowing that without an investigation, but I think this detail could prove to be extremely useful to us. From what I can tell, he seems to be having some kind of issues with money. That’s the first place we can start digging.”

“Is there anything I can do to help your firm’s investigator?” she asked.

Her lawyer nodded.. “Just keep your eyes and ears open. If Gary does something questionable or unusual, feel free to report it to me the way you did when he showed up to your dinner party. Every detail helps.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Simon approach the table. He shoved his phone back into his pocket. “That was work.”

His tone sent her stress levels through the roof. She had managed to get time off for the court hearing pretty easily because she was working for Simon again, but now she was being reminded that she still had work obligations. “Is everything okay?”

“More issues with the board,” he replied. “I had originally told them about today’s court hearing, but they aren’t satisfied.”

She groaned. “They’re never satisfied. What do they want?”

He grimaced. “Agnes wants to see us tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow’s a weekend,” she said with a frown.

“Well, that should tell you how important this is,” Simon said. “Agnes has basically summoned us to her house. She wants to talk about your new position at the office. On top of all that, she wants to talk to you about Gary.”

“What? Why does she want to talk about him?”

“She didn’t want to tell me over the phone,” he said.

Aaron cleared his throat. “It sounds a bit ominous, don’t you think?”

“It does.” She glanced at her lawyer. “Do you think I should be talking about my ex-husband to one of the board members?”

“You can talk about Gary, but don’t go into specific details,” Aaron replied. “Whatever this is, you need to find a way to keep your professional life as separate from your personal life as possible. Because if my instincts are correct, Gary and his lawyer might already be conducting their own investigation on you.”