Like a predator spotting his prey’s weakness, Mason jumped at her. “What is it you can’t do? Continue working for Dr. Halifax? Continue allowing this injustice—”
“All of it. I can’t do it anymore!” Her eyes welled up, and her voice broke as she continued, slightly calmer, “They promised…I’d live well for the rest of my life. As a token of appreciation from the doctor, if I testified. The nanny who testified previously is no longer working at the home. She took the money they gave her to testify last time, and now there’s just me. I’ve been promised a good education for my son, you see. He’s almost David’s age…” She trailed off and swallowed, as though the next words proved difficult to say.
“But I can’t bear to watch this anymore. The child shouldn’t be punished like he has been. David needs his mother. There’s only so much a nanny can give him, and he gets none of it from the doctor. The boy needs his mother.”
Tears pricked Beth’s eyes, and she quickly delved into her bag in search of her tissues. She hadn’t expected the nanny to come through for her like this, but then maybe, just maybe, there were more good, decent people in this world than bad ones.
Whispers spread across the room. Hector jumped to his feet and called the nanny a liar, and the judge moved his hammer as he demanded silence.
During recess, Beth wiped the moisture from her cheeks and sat with Landon on a small bench out in the hall. “I’m sorry,” she said, clenching her damp tissue in her fist. “That must have been difficult for you. Talking about Chrystine and…”
“Nathan.” Landon’s timbre dropped to a rough whisper. “His name was Nathan.”
The pressure mounted in her chest. She nodded. Nathan.
Imagine Landon as a father. He’d be such a great father. Great brother. Great husband. Oh, God, would he ever trust her again? He was a just man but she suspected he wasn’t a forgiving one.
Feeling faint and pale, Beth smiled exhaustedly at him. “You talked to Anna, didn’t you?”
“We made sure the court knew what a scumbag Hector is, but we didn’t talk to her, Beth. That was all your doing. Clearly she respects you.”
The words, somehow, seemed a compliment.
She hesitated, then edged closer, desperate to again reach places she’d reached in him before. “Do you think we’ll win?”
He continued absently staring at the crowded hall before them. “We’ll win.”
She wanted to say something, but felt emotionally drained. Still, she attempted something light and funny, even though she didn’t feel like laughing. “Lucky you, you’ll be getting rid of me soon.”
He turned to her then, and the lack of emotion in his eyes frightened her. His empty smile in no way warmed her. “Not soon enough.”
Still stunned minutes later, Beth couldn’t even hear through the noise of her blood rushing as they went back inside. The judge resumed his seat and began speaking. He mentioned foreseeing Hector having to answer some severe new accusations in the short future.
Beth heard the fateful words only barely, still struggled to swallow the sour dose of truth Landon had given her. He couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
“Custody awarded to the petitioners…effective immediately…”
The verdict gradually sunk into her thoughts. She saw the judge rise to leave and Hector’s stunned reaction. She noticed Landon shaking Mason’s hand. Beth blinked, swayed as she rose to her feet.
Had they won?
So fast? She’d waited months and had expected her misery to last days and days, and now they’d won?
The rest happened in a flurry of movement. Being hugged by the Gages, by her mother, her father, by everyone but Landon.
Outside, after a wait that felt eternal, Beth squinted as she watched a car pull over, and David stepped out, running toward her with a grin and another drawing. She glanced at Anna, who smiled at them both from the bottom steps of the courthouse.
“Anna, thank you,” she murmured under her breath, then quickly started for her son. God, was she dreaming? She wanted to sing and cry and dance.
“Mom! Mom, I made us a drawing!” He didn’t kiss or hug her but immediately showed the paper to her and pointed at the figures drawn. “You, me and dog man. See!”
Beth’s stomach clenched. The gigantic brown dog he’d drawn covered nearly half the page, and the rest of the picture contained David, Beth and Landon, holding hands while straddling the monster dog. “But sweetie, dog man…” Won’t be around for long.
She fell quiet when Landon walked up beside her. “Dog man is taller in person,” she improvised, flustered as she straightened. Her mom’s sad, sympathetic look made a lump grow in her throat. Why was it when you made one dream come true, another fell apart?
Landon remained at her side, and all she became aware of was the fact that he didn’t touch her. “Home?” he asked.
Temporary home, Beth thought, already pained to expose David to Landon’s household. He couldn’t get too settled in, could he?