Her phone was buzzing non-stop, and she hoped it wasn’t her alarm already. Usually, she didn’t even get to hear it because Emma woke her up at the crack of dawn, but it seemed Emma was knocked out from their adventures yesterday. Gabe snuggled in behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

The vibrating began again, and he grumbled to make it stop. She felt around the nightstand until she found it and went to hit the snooze button. But she didn’t find the alarm. Instead, she found about ten missed calls from Jen and more incoming texts than she could count—texts from Jen, texts from people she hadn’t spoken to in years, and texts from numbers she didn’t even recognize.

Alex unlocked her phone and read through the texts from Jen.

J: Have you seen the news?

J: Have you checked the gossip sites?

J: Ugh, never mind, don’t check. Forget I said anything.

J: Actually, you probably need to check this out.

J: Call me if you want to talk.

She opened a browser on her phone, typed her name into Google and opened the first link she saw. The headline caught her attention immediately: “Super Stud Gabe Stevens Caught in Paternity Struggle.” It wasn’t the only story, either. “Secret Child Kept Away by Gold-Digging Ex.”

“Oh crap,” she gasped as she sat up in bed. Startled, he jumped up. “What happened?” he said as he looked around the room.

“This happened,” she said, shoving the phone in his face. His sleepy expression slowly turned to horror as he began to scroll through the stories.

She pushed out of bed and walked over to her suitcase. She grabbed the first pair of jeans lying on top of the bag.

“Alex, it’s not so bad; we can fix this.”

“We can fix this?” she growled, keeping her voice down. “How are we going to fix this? I’m the money-hungry bitch who kept your kid from you. I should have known better.”

“We can fix this,” he repeated. “We’ve been happy, all of us together; don’t let some tabloids scare you away.”

“You’re not the thieving whore the papers are writing about. You’re the victim here, according to them.” She angrily pulled a tank top over her head. “I knew we shouldn’t have come. If we had just stayed at home, none of this would have happened.”

He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. “We couldn’t hide forever. I wasn’t going to hide you both away. I’m proud to be Emma’s father, and I’m proud to be with you. This isn’t how I wanted anyone to find out, but we will fix this.”

“How, Gabe? How are you going to fix this? One day Emma will be able to read these things.”

“But she’ll know the truth from us. She’ll know that we love her and we love each other and none of the stuff written there is true,” he said, with such conviction that it stole her breath away.

I’m scared,” she said as tears filled her eyes. She started to grab her bags and pack. As she pulled her suitcase out, the large manila envelope containing the custody agreement fell out. He picked it up and held it in his hand.

Her breath stopped at what he held in his hand. She’d brought the papers, just in case, not really, she’d mainly forgotten they were in the bag, but they were her security blanket when it came to Emma. She hadn’t intended to use them, and he hadn’t seen them, and she didn’t want him to. She attempted to get the envelope from him, but he held onto it as he spoke.

“I know. I know you’re scared. I’m scared too. Not about the stupid tabloids, I couldn’t care less about them. I’m scared that all this is going to pull us apart. We have got to be stronger than all of this. I love you,” Alex jerked in his embrace. “I’ve been afraid to say it up until today, but I do. I love you, I’ve always loved you, and I love you even more, seeing how you raised such an amazing daughter,” he professed.

She nodded and once again attempted to take the papers from his hand. Not realizing what it was, he finally looked down at the envelope with a nice and neat label with his name printed on it.

“What is this?” he asked, opening the envelope, and she watched as her whole world descended into a fiery crash.

* * *

Gabe paused and looked down at the envelope that Alex seemed desperate to get back from him. His name was printed on the front and he slowly turned it over to open it.

“Gabe, please,” she pleaded. He ignored her and opened the envelope. Inside was a thick packet of papers with the big ugly words ‘Custody Agreement’ printed on the front. He glanced up from the packet to Alex and her eyes were wide, her face frozen in fear.

He skimmed the agreement. He was much better at reading these things over after years of contract sessions and not getting caught in a clause he didn’t want to agree to. He’d learned that lesson after Stargazer. However, the various terms in this agreement were some of the ugliest he had ever seen.

She wanted to maintain full physical custody of Emma, limited supervised visitation for him, no overnights, no visits to LA, nothing.

“What the hell is this?” he nearly shouted, pointing the papers at her. She moved from her bags to stand in front of him.

“They are nothing, Gabe. Those don’t mean anything.”

“Then why did you have them drawn up in the first place? Why did you bring them with you?” He made the accusation while crumpling the papers in his hands.

“I’ve had these for a long time. I had the papers drawn up when Emma was only a year old.”

“Why did you bring them here?”

“I don’t know Gabe. I was looking at them before we left and I forgot they were even in my bag,” she pleaded.

“So, this was your solution? Your ugly solution. No visitation? Full physical custody? You wanted to keep her from me?”

“Gabe, that wasn’t what I intended. I had these drawn up a long time ago when I was still hurt and angry. I thought you didn’t want us. That you didn’t want Emma. I didn’t want her to get hurt.”

“No, you did this to try to hurt me. Keeping me away from Emma would never be a good thing for her. This was about you and getting revenge when you thought I cheated.”

“Partially, yes. I admit that, but things have changed now. I would never keep you apart from Emma.”

“Then why keep the papers? Why bring them here? Especially after how things have gone with us since you’ve been here.” Was she only with him because she thought he wanted to take Emma from her? Was this all to protect against a custody dispute?

“I completely forgot about them, Gabe. Honestly, I brought them with me because they have always been like a security blanket when it came to Emma. You’ve been out being a big movie star, making millions of dollars, and it was possible you could show up out of the blue and take my little girl from me. I didn’t want to take that chance. So that’s why I had the papers drawn up,” she said, tears in her eyes.

“You thought I would try to take her from you?” he asked, shaking his head. “I thought we were doing so well and making a lot of progress in our relationship, but I was fooling myself. I thought that you knew me, Alex.”

“Gabe, it will be okay. I’ll throw away the papers right now. We can work on a different agreement. One that’s fairer,” she said, trying to calm him.

“I don’t want an agreement, Alex!” he roared. “I want a family. I want you and me and Emma to be a family. I don’t want a court order telling me when I can see my little girl. I want to be able to walk down the hallway and give her a hug and a kiss and read her bedtime stories. And I want to be with you. You said you loved me and here you are talking about agreements when it comes to Emma. That makes me wonder if I’ve just been fooling myself all along to think we could move forward.” He slumped down on the bed.

“Gabe, we can have that. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought the papers, and I do love you, but this is all scary for me.”

“You don’t think this is scary for me too? This isn’t just about us. If things go wrong, I lose both of you. That was a chance I was willing to take, but apparently, your stance is scorched earth,” he said, gesturing to the envelope he’d placed on the bed next to him.

“Gabe, please,” Alex started.

“I think you should go, Alex,” he said, looking up at her with all the hurt and anger coursing through him.

“You want me to go?”

“I want you and Emma to go back to the States. With this tabloid story and this,” he said, gesturing to the envelope, “maybe it’s better that we spend some time apart and figure out what will be best for all of us moving forward.” He got up from the bed and walked past her as he headed to the bedroom door.

“I’ll have someone get in touch with you to give you all the details about heading back to the States. And I would appreciate it if Emma and I could video chat with each other at least once a day. I’ll go talk to her at the play group and have the nanny bring her back as soon as they're finished,” he said.

“I never meant to hurt you. I’m sorry Gabe,” she whispered as he passed. A jolt shot straight through his heart. He’d had it all for a short while, and then it had all fallen apart.

“I’m sorry too,” he said as he left the room and walked out the front door.