Faith didn’t have to ask who ‘he’ was. There was only one man who Eve spoke of with such disdain. “What’s happened?”
“I just got a phone call from my lawyer. Harrison’s lawyer informed her that he’s decided to petition for sole custody. He’s trying to take the kids from me.”
Faith’s stomach dropped. “Eve, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all because I went back to work and hired a nanny. He claims he’s doing this because he doesn’t want the twins to be raised by a stranger.” The muscles in Eve’s neck tightened. “He said I’ve abandoned my duties as a mother.”
“That’s not true at all.” From the moment Faith had started working for her, it had been clear that Eve was dedicated to raising the twins herself. She had Faith take care of the practical things so she could take care of everything that mattered. Faith might be the one who took them to music lessons, but Eve made a point of going to all their recitals. It was Faith’s job to get the twins ready for bed, but it was Eve who tucked them in and read them a bedtime story every single night. And since Eve and Faith’s conversation about Leah, her attentiveness to the children’s needs had only grown. Eve had followed through with her promise to stop pushing Leah so hard, and their relationship had only gotten stronger.
“The truth doesn’t matter to him,” Eve said. “And if he gets custody, it’s not going to be him who raises them. They’ll end up brought up by servants. Or worse, his mother, who will fill their heads with toxic ideas.”
“You can fight this, can’t you?” Faith asked.
“Of course. But this is going to be a dirty, drawn-out fight. He has the best lawyers money can buy. So do I, but my funds aren’t infinite. Most of my money is in my firm. He has all his family supporting him, and you bet their ass they’re going to help him.” Eve’s jaw set. “It’s always been me against them. And now they’ve made it their mission to take the twins away from me.”
“It’ll be okay,” Faith said. “You’ll get through this.”
“I can’t lose the twins,” Eve said. “They’re my everything. Harrison knows that. And he knows that cutting me out of their lives isn’t what’s best for them. I know he does.”
Faith felt a pang of sympathy. Although it had always been clear there was no love lost between Eve and Harrison, it seemed that Eve hadn’t expected Harrison to do something so extreme.
“He wasn’t always like this.” Eve’s voice took on a bitter tone. “When we met, back in college, he was different. Kinder. I had no reason to believe he’d turn out to be the man he was. His family was the same. When I first met them, they all seemed lovely, if not a little old-fashioned and traditional. All old-money families are like that. Mine is too, although my parents aren’t as extreme as his. They supported me going to college and making a career for myself, even if they did expect me to get married and have children one day. I wanted that for myself too. I always wanted to be a mother, and in this day and age I thought I’d never have to choose between having children and a career.”
Eve leaned back against her desk and crossed one ankle over the other. “But Harrison’s family felt differently. As soon as we got married, they started pressuring us to have children. I wasn’t ready back then. I’d finished business school, and I was moving up the ladder at my job, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that. He supported me at first. But as time passed, his family wore him down and he started pressuring me too.” She shook her head. “I should have seen that as the red flag it was. But slowly, they all began to wear me down. Eventually, I agreed to start a family with Harrison, just as long as it didn’t mean giving up my career. Harrison knew that. He understood that. Or at least, I thought he did at the time.”
Faith thought back to the conversation between the two of them that she’d eavesdropped on. Harrison hadn’t seemed like the supportive type at all.
“The truth became clear when I was pregnant,” Eve said. “I ended up in the hospital for several months with serious complications. I almost lost the twins at one point.” Her voice wavered. “It was then that Harrison suggested that for the twins’ sakes, I needed to give up my career and dedicate my life to raising them. I was so emotional over almost losing the twins that I agreed. And I convinced myself that it would be enough. That the twins, my family, would be enough. But it wasn’t.”
She looked at Faith, a hint of guilt in her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong. I find being a mother so fulfilling. But I needed something more in my life to feel whole. So when the twins were old enough, I told Harrison I wan
ted to go back to work. He said no. I tried to compromise. Said I’d work part-time, and we could have his mother look after the twins or hire a nanny. But he outright forbade it. It should have been a wake-up call for me, but with everything I was going through, I couldn’t see what was right in front of my face.”
Eve trailed off. Faith could hear the pain in her words. Was there something more there? Something Eve couldn’t bring herself to speak about?
“It took a while, but in the end, I came to my senses,” Eve said. “I separated from Harrison temporarily, and after only a few weeks, I knew that I couldn’t stay with him any longer, so I ended things. That was years ago, but the divorce dragged out, and this custody battle has just dragged out even longer. I thought our negotiations were finally getting somewhere, but this nightmare never ends.”
“Oh Eve.” Faith took Eve’s hand in both of hers. “I’m so sorry you went through all that. And I’m sorry things are still this hard.”
“I’m not sorry. There was one good thing that came out of it. Two actually. Leah and Ethan. I’d do it all again for them.” Her hand tightened in Faith’s. “I won’t let Harrison take them. His family is capable of terrible things, and I won’t let them get their claws into the twins. If they think I’m going to roll over, they’re wrong. I’m going to fight this.”
“And I’ll be right here if you need me,” Faith said. “Even if you just want to talk. I’m here for anything.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” Eve pushed herself up to sit on the top of her desk. “This all seems like a bad dream. I don’t know what I’d do without the twins. For so long, my whole life, my whole identity, has been being a wife and mother.”
“You’re not going to lose the twins. And you’re plenty of things besides a wife and a mother.”
“I’m trying to be.” Eve sighed. “I’m far too old to still be finding myself.”
“I don’t think finding yourself stops at a certain age.” Faith sat on the desk next to her. “Isn’t it just something we’re all constantly trying to do?”
“Does that include you?” Eve asked.
“Of course.”
Eve studied Faith. “You don’t seem the type to worry about that kind of thing. Who you are. Your place in the world. Your purpose in life. You’ve always seemed so free-spirited. So carefree.”
“I think about that stuff a lot. And I’m not carefree.” If only Eve knew how much Faith had agonized over their secret relationship. “My identity is something I’ve struggled with my whole life. I grew up in a traditional, religious family. My parents, they expected me to be this devout, virtuous woman who followed all their rules, from what I wore, to who I’d marry one day.” That was who , not if . Faith had never had a choice in the matter. “In the end, I just couldn’t be this person they wanted me to be, so I left that life behind. I left my family behind.” The reality was far more dramatic, but Faith didn’t want to go into detail.