The meeting with my lawyer went as well as I’d hoped. Camryn finally filed her response and asked for more money, as I expected. While my lawyer suggested I try to get her to come down and agree on a smaller settlement, I said no. I’d give her whatever she wanted as long as she let me walk away from this. It was that thought that had me walking a little lighter the next morning as I took Miles to daycare. Tessa went to visit Freddie at the hospital before work, but said she’d be home early enough to pick up Miles from school and take him to karate. She didn’t want to overwhelm me with things, she’d said, as if my child would ever be a burden to me.

“You know Daeshon with the Spider-Man book bag?” Miles asked as we walked hand in hand.

“I have no clue who Daeshon is.”

“He said his mommy and daddy live with him.” He glanced up at me, squinting against the sun. My heart thrashed in my chest. “Are you going to live with us forever?”

My heart jumped. Tessa hadn’t told him that I was his father yet. I’d been giving her time and with everything going on with Freddie it wasn’t really a priority. “Do you want me to live with you forever?”

“Yes.” He gave a nod. I loved the way he pronounced his s like sh.

“You really want me to live with you forever?” I stopped walking and lifted him into my arms with a grin. “Do you think your mom will say yes?”

“Yes.” He nodded again. “She loves you.”

“She loves me? Did she tell you that?”

“No. I can tell.”

“How can you tell?”

He shrugged. “I know Mommy.”

I chuckled, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then carried him the rest of the way to school, which was only half a block.

“Behave, learn, and be kind to everyone,” I said, setting him back on his feet and straightening his sweater. He smiled wide, giving me a nod.

“What the fuck is this?”

A cold wave of dread trickled down my spine at the sound of Camryn’s squeal behind me. On instinct, I grabbed Miles and pulled him into my chest, shielding him. I glanced up.

“What are you doing here?”

“You have a son?” she shouted. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Camryn, I’m only going to ask you this one time, please get away from here.” I made my voice as calm and clear as possible and then carried Miles against my chest until we reached his teacher. “Please take him inside.” I looked at Miles, whose eyes were wide and clearly scared. I kissed his forehead, saying, “Everything is okay, buddy, just go inside with Ms. Porter.”

She must have seen how worried I was, because she picked him up into her arms and walked right in.

Camryn continued screaming, “You thought you could hide this? You thought you could keep him from me? Who the hell do you think you are?”

I walked over to her, trying my best to keep my composure. Never in my life would I hit a woman, but with the way the rage building inside me was making me shake, I couldn’t be sure. I fished out my phone and called the police to tell them where I was. By the time they got here, they’d either have to take her or me, but one of us would leave in a cop car. I stepped out of the school gates and heard her scream some more. She looked like a lunatic, completely unlike the pacifist, well-composed Camryn I’d always known. I made my way down the street, away from the school, hoping she’d follow. The last thing I needed was to grab her by the arm and have her claim I was mistreating her.

“What is your problem?”

“My problem?” she seethed. “My problem is that I knew something was going on when you agreed to the demands I gave my lawyer, but I didn’t expect this. Whose is he?” Her voice rose with each word.

Finally, a patrol car pulled up. I waved the officer down.

“He is a cheating, lying scum!” she screamed as the police officer rushed over to us.

I explained the problem to the police officer, making sure he knew she did this in front of the students and teachers of the school.

“We’ll have to file an incident report,” he said calmly. Camryn began to cry loudly. The officer’s partner, a woman, came over and asked more questions. I answered them all—the child was mine, not hers, I was in the middle of a divorce, etcetera.

“Quite the telenovela you have here,” the officer said.

“Did she threaten the child?” the woman asked.

“No.” If she had, this probably would have ended far differently from how it was.

“Do you think she’d harm the child?” the second officer asked again, eyeing Camryn, who was now shaking as she sobbed harder.

“I don’t think so,” I said. I’d known her my entire life. She wasn’t capable of physically harming someone, least of all a child.

“You want my advice?” the other officer said, writing something down.

I looked at him and waited.

“File for an order of protection.”

“What do I do about her right now?” I glanced at Camryn.

“We’ll handle that,” the woman officer said.

“Is there any way to keep her away from the school?”

“Get down to the station as soon as you get a chance and file a restraining order.”

I stuck around to make sure Camryn didn’t lie while recounting what happened. She took the blame. Every time she got to the part where she had to talk about Miles, she broke down again. I didn’t have it in me to feel bad for her. I felt bad for my son, who had to witness that before being sent inside his classroom without so much as an explanation. Tessa was going to kill me. This was exactly what she was afraid of. Maybe she was right to keep Miles from me all this time if this was how Camryn was going to act. None of those thoughts helped the dread that sank into the pit of my stomach as I thought about having to tell her what happened.