“I have no clue, but you can bet your ass if he doesn’t call me, I’m going to show up at his work tomorrow. I don’t give a shit anymore.” He doesn’t say anything as I rant and rave about them. “Where are you going?”
“Hailey’s,” he says. “I’m almost there. I left right after shift.”
“Are you excited?” I ask him, and he says yes. We talk for a bit more until he arrives.
I hang up the phone, and the doorbell rings. I walk to the door and open it. A man stands before me with a clipboard in one hand. “Samantha Schneider,” he says, looking at the paper and then up at me again.
“Yes,” I say with one hand holding the door. His hand reaches out with papers folded in his hand. My hand reaches out to get them.
“You’ve been served,” he says and turns and walks away. I close the door as my hands shake, holding the letter.
I turn it over in my hand, unfolding the pages, and I don’t even realize I’ve hit the floor when I do.
I see nothing except the names at the top corner of the plaintiffs—Judy and Adrian Schneider—and then my name under the defendant. And what I see under that stops my blood cold.
They are suing me for custody of the girls, deeming me unfit and alienating their affection.
The sob rips through me, and my hand moves to my chest. I run to grab my phone and call Elliot first, and he doesn’t answer. “Please call me back,” I say between sobs. “Please.”
I then call Judy, and I’m sent straight to voicemail. “Judy, you need to call me back,” I whisper as I sob.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who to call, so I call the only lawyer I know. When the secretary answers, I ask to speak to Mr. Feldman. I’m transferred right away, and he picks up. “Mr. Feldman, this is Samantha Schneider. I’m calling because I got served papers today from my in-laws.”
“I’m aware,” he says, not shocked at all. “I suggest you get yourself a lawyer.” He then hangs up on me.
I look up in shock at the phone. What the hell am I going to do? I sit here, and for the first time in my life, I regret the day I fucking met Eric.
Opening the computer, I google family lawyers in the area. I call the first one my eyes land on and make an appointment for the next day. The whole day is spent with me reading and rereading the papers I was served. I hide them away before I get the girls and try to act as normally as I can. My phone beeps, showing me Elliot responded to my text.
I’m sorry.
It’s the only thing he says, two words. He didn’t even have the fucking balls to pick up the phone and call me. That night, I make the girls sleep with me, hugging both of them while they sleep, and I cry silently, kissing their heads.
I ignore the call from Blake and the texts. He has enough going on right now. The next day when I walk into the lawyer’s office, he reads the paper and looks up at me. “It is very rare that the grandparents are awarded custody when one of the parents is still alive.”
I fill him in on the whole double life that Eric led. He tells me what I don’t really want to hear. “You need to find a character witness who can confirm all this,” he tells me, and my shoulders slump. I leave the lawyer’s office with a list of things I need to do and papers that need to be filled out. When the girls come home, I again try to pretend everything is normal, but Lizzie senses something.
I let them sleep in their own bed that night and then pick up the phone and dial the one person I know who can help me—Blake.
He answers after two rings, a little breathless. “Hey,” he says, and I lose whatever I was holding in me, letting go of everything.
“Samantha,” he says, “breathe for me, baby, just breathe.”
I listen to his words as I try not to hyperventilate. “I need your help,” I tell him quietly.
“Anything,” he answers without hesitation.
“I need you to be a character witness,” I tell him and wait for the next question I know is coming.
“For what?” he asks, and I say the words I dreaded all day long.
“My in-laws are suing me for custody of the girls,” I say quietly and then cry. “They are going to take my babies away from me.” He doesn’t say anything else.
“I’m on my way,” he says and disconnects, and I don’t know why, but I suddenly feel like everything is going to be okay.