Chapter Twenty-Eight

ETHAN

“Thanks for taking Riley at the last minute like this,” I say to Mom as I get ready to leave for the day. I’d originally been planning to leave Riley with Nathan, but after he filed paperwork a few days before to try to get my own daughter away from me out of spite, I’d agreed with Lara’s idea that he needed to face the consequences. Neither of us would include him in Riley’s life, and Lara was doubling down on that by not taking his phone calls.

“We’re happy to have her,” Mom says, smiling at me. Dad comes into the living room, leaving Riley to finish her morning sleep in the guest bedroom.

“We wanted to tell you, we’ve made arrangements with our lawyer,” Dad says. I raise an eyebrow at this.

“What?” I can feel the low dread starting up in the pit of my stomach, at just the mention of a lawyer.

“After you told us what Nathan had done, we contacted a lawyer of our own,” Mom says.

I cross my arms over my chest.

“And just what are you trying to do?” My sense of how awful this is going to be deepens.

“We’re going to counter-sue, basically,” Dad explains.

“Connie says that we have an argument for disregarding Alexis’ final wishes. Since Lara’s father is trying to get full custody for her as Riley’s guardian, with him attached as a caregiver, we’re going to sue to give you full custody, with no visitation rights for either Nathan or Lara that you don’t grant,” Mom says.

For a second, I just stare at the two of them. What they’re saying is insane. They’re suing Nathan, but for Lara to lose custody or visitation? Lara was the one who came to me, right away, when her Dad filed paperwork.

“What the hell?” I shake my head. “No.”

“Yes, Ethan,” Mom says.

“Your mother and I want to make sure that your rights as Riley’s father are intact, and this is the best way to do it,” Dad adds.

“No, this is the best way to guarantee that Riley is going to be stressed out and pulled in a hundred different directions before she even turns three,” I tell them.

“We need to settle this once and all, and we need to make sure that Nathan doesn’t get away with his petty little attempt to punish you,” Mom counters, her voice firm.

“So why involve Lara in it at all? Why not just press the case that Alexis’ last wishes need to be respected?” I shake my head again. Whatever I’d had planned for today is going totally pear-shaped in the face of this.

“Lara might have let you know about her father’s stupid legal maneuvering, but ultimately the only way to make sure that you keep primary custody of Riley is to cut her out,” Dad tells me.

“That’s what Connie told us,” Mom says, nodding along with him.

“No. What you could do is let Lara and I sort this out. You could have at least consulted with us, with me if no one else, before you took a step like this. How are either of you any better than Nathan right now?”

“We’re reacting to his stupidity. If he hadn’t pulled that bullshit with the lawyer, then we wouldn’t have had to do this,” Dad says.

“You still didn’t have to do this,” I counter. “You could have acted like grown-ass adults and let Lara and me handle it.”

“Do you really think she’s not going to go along with her father? She hates you, Ethan. Not that I can entirely blame her, considering what happened between the three of you.” Mom pins me down with that look, the look I hate under the best of circumstances.

“I know I can trust her because she’s been above-board the whole time,” I say.

“As far as you know, you mean,” Dad says.

“She’s been completely above-board, and I know she has,” I insist.

I close my eyes and clench my teeth. I know my parents are trying to look out for me, and for Riley, in their own weird way, but this is just going to make everything a million times worse.

“We wanted you to know because the court is probably going to want to hear from you, and I’m sure they’ll want to hear from Lara too,” Mom tells me, and she’s using that gentle tone she always uses when she wants to convince me to do something.

“I’m definitely going to talk to Lara about this. Thanks for throwing a monkey wrench into an already screwed-up engine,” I say, shaking my head again. “I need to head out. I can’t believe the two of you.”

I turn and leave without saying a proper goodbye, because while I’m not furious with my parents, I don’t actually know how I feel exactly. I’m frustrated, but I know they’re just trying to do something they think will protect me.

I get my phone out of my pocket as I climb into my car and wait until I get to a place where I can stop for a couple of minutes before I dial Lara.

“Hey, Lara. Listen, we need to meet up like… right now. I don’t know what you’ve got going on, but shit is going down,” I say, as soon as the call connects.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Lara sounds like she might have had to pull over to take my call and I remember that normally she actually goes to the office. Her day’s about to get as screwed up as mine has become.

“My parents counter-sued,” I say.

“What?” The word comes over the line as almost a shriek, and I hold the phone away from my ear cringing.

“Yeah. That’s why we need to meet up. Can you come over to my place?”

“Fuck. Yeah, give me like… thirty minutes. I need to call work and let them know.”

“Me too,” I say. We don’t say anything else, but both get off the phone, and I call my boss. I tell him that something’s come up with Riley, which isn’t a lie, but it’s only part of the truth, and that I can’t come in today. He tells me that he’ll get my work for the day covered. He knows there’s been a lot of shit going on since Alexis died, and I think he’s just grateful I haven’t gone off the deep end.

Before too long I’m driving back to my house, trying to think through the mess that my parents have just made a million times worse. How the hell are Lara and I going to figure this shit out? How in the world are we going to make any of this work, and how can we keep Riley from finding out how much her grandparents are screwing with her life?