Sophie (The Boss 8)

"Please understand, we dated El-Mudad for years before we even met his kids," I added. "And we never sought this relationship out. It happened because of who El-Mudad is and the love we have for him."

"Look, whatever you're doing in your bedroom is your business. We just don't want Olivia exposed to it," Laurence snapped, getting straight to the heart of the matter.

"What we do in our bedroom?" I asked, my hands clenched under the table. "Like sleep? Get dressed? Watch TV? Say what you mean. You think we're exposing Olivia to sexual deviance, and you wouldn't have thought that if it were just Neil and me in this relationship."

"We never said—" Valerie began.

Neil cut her off. "You never said those words. But it's clear that when you look at the three of us, you see a fetish. Not a family."

"We see you the way the court will see you,” Laurence said, far too pleased with himself.

The words hung in the air over the table like a cloud of toxic gas.

I had never seen Neil look so cold and terrifying as he did when his eyes met Laurence's. "According to my attorney, a Suffolk County Supreme Court judge disagrees with you. And as this is Olivia's county of residence, any court action would take place here."

Valerie said nothing.

"Might I remind you," he went on, "that I have considerably more money to throw at a legal battle—"

"That's a cheap shot!" Laurence shouted.

"And I will win!" Neil shouted over him. "Valerie, you have done many cruel things to me in the course of our lives—"

She reeled back in her chair. "I've been cruel to you?"

"But I never thought you'd go this far. To threaten to take Olivia from us—"

"Especially when you know it was Emma's choice to leave her with us," I blurted in my anger before I could stop myself.

Bringing Emma into the room was like taking all the oxygen out. Everyone, El-Mudad included, stared at me as though I'd crossed some mutually agreed-upon boundary. If they'd set one, they'd never told me about it.

Maybe it was painful, but damn it, I was right. This was exactly the reason they’d named us her guardians: to make sure people like Laurence never had access to their child. "Emma and Michael trusted us to care for Olivia. Do you think she would have wanted to see us all fighting about whether or not she'd made the right decision? Is that something she would have been particularly receptive to?"

The silence continued. Valerie picked up her water and took a sip. No one said anything until she put down her glass and spoke. "Emma couldn't have possibly known that you planned to bring a stranger into her daughter's life. She cared about Olivia more than anything, just as I care about Emma more than anything. And because I care about her, I need to protect her child."

"You're not a mother," Laurence added, as though it were another of my moral failings. "You couldn't understand the pain this causes Valerie."

"So, we should cause ourselves pain, then?" Neil demanded. "We should hurt those three little girls who love each other like sisters now? Sophie and I should lose the man we love?"

"I think you have a choice to make, Neil." Valerie glared at El-Mudad as she said, "A choice between your libido and your family obligations."

I wanted to slap her. Or cry. Or barf. Possibly all of those things, as they would likely follow in succession.

The door from the kitchen opened and the guy from earlier entered with a cart, followed by the girl who'd made me a cup of tea the night before. I didn't remember their names. God, what was happening to me? Were we the vapid pleasure-seekers Valerie and Laurence accused us of being?

No. I wouldn't let them get into our heads any further. I slapped my palms on the table and stood up. "This is a bad idea. I'm sorry, take all that back to the kitchen. Our guests aren't staying."

"Sophie," Neil said quietly, his gaze darting to the staff members.

Whatever. Let them talk about us if they ever found any of this conflict interesting. "No. This was my bad call, and I'm taking responsibility. Neil and I are Olivia's legal guardians. You have no right to dictate the environment in which we choose to raise her. You have no right to visitation, and you certainly have no right to traumatize her by discussing potential custody changes in front of her."

Laurence blinked in shock.

"Yeah." God, it felt good to sneer at him. "She's four, asshole. She hears things, and she repeats them. She worries about them to the point that she tried to pack up her entire room because she was afraid she wasn't coming back here."

"I had no idea—" Valerie said, truly wounded.