Chapter 4: The Father Who Wanted Control
Marcus ended the call and smiled as if he had reclaimed the room.
“You should contact a lawyer.”
“I already have one.”
“You came prepared?”
“I spent eight years learning not to stand unprepared in front of you.”
Sophia pulled my sleeve.
“Mama, can he take us away?”
My breath caught.
Marcus answered before I could.
“A judge decides where children belong.”
Noah moved beside Sophia.
“We belong with Mama.”
“That isn’t your decision,” Marcus said.
Something inside me gave way.
My knees weakened, and I gripped the chair.
Olivia wrapped both arms around my waist.
“We won’t go.”
Vanessa crouched in front of them.
“Listen to me.
Nobody is taking you anywhere today.”
“You cannot promise that,” Marcus said.
Vanessa rose slowly.
“Then I’ll make sure a judge hears what you said five minutes after meeting them.”
The doorbell rang.
Marcus opened it to a tall man carrying a leather case.
“Graham, she admits she never informed me there were four.”
Graham removed his gloves.
“Are you the mother?”
“Yes.”
“I represent Marcus.
I advise you not to leave Colorado until parentage is addressed.”
“You don’t control where I travel.”
“No, but this might.”
He removed a document from his case.
Marcus took it and held it toward me.
“Emergency petition.”
“You filed that in ten minutes?”
“I began preparing it last week,” Graham said.
I looked at Marcus.
“Before you knew the children existed?”
Graham’s hand stopped above his case.
Patricia stared at her son.
“Marcus?”
Marcus folded the document.
“It was a precaution.”
“Against what?” Vanessa asked.
He didn’t answer.
A knock sounded at the side entrance, and Dana stepped into the room with snow on her coat.
A silver-haired woman followed her.
“Mom!” Ethan ran toward Dana.
Dana hugged him, then looked over his head at me.
“You stopped answering.”
“Marcus called his attorney.”
“So did I.” Dana gestured to the woman beside her.
“This is Grace Bell.”
Grace offered Graham a business card.
“Family law and corporate litigation.”
Graham read it twice.
“You came from Austin?”
“We arrived on the second helicopter.”
Marcus looked through the window.
“There are two helicopters on the lawn?”
Dana smiled.
“Your invitation said family dinner.
We brought support.”
Grace took the petition from Marcus.
“This requests temporary control of the children’s financial interests.”
I turned to him.
“Not custody?”
“The children may be Reynolds beneficiaries,” Marcus said.
“Their assets require protection.”
“They are eight years old.”
“And apparently their mother is wealthy enough to arrive by helicopter.”
Grace’s finger moved down the page.
“This filing lists the children by name.”
Silence settled over the room.
Marcus glanced at Graham.
I stepped closer.
“You didn’t learn their names today.”
Graham closed his case.
“Marcus, we need to speak privately.”
“No,” Grace said.
“We speak where my client can hear.”
Dana unlocked her tablet.
“We found the delivery records from the hospital envelope.
Marcus signed for it himself.”
Marcus laughed once.
“A courier receipt proves nothing.”
Dana turned the screen toward him.
“It proves where we should start.
But this is what proves you never disappeared.”
She tapped an audio file marked eight years earlier.
Marcus’s own voice came through the speakers.
“Make sure she believes I changed my number.
I want reports on every appointment.”
Patricia sank into a chair.
May you like
I could barely form the words.
“Who were you paying to watch me?”
