Hard Fall (St. Louis Mavericks 1)
Chapter Twenty-One
Wes
I’d taken a load of our stuff over to my condo, but now that there wasn’t much left to move out of Ben and Lauren’s house, reality was hitting me hard. Hadley looked completely wrecked, her eyes puffy from crying, and every time I caught a glimpse of Susan, I reached a new level of disgust. I’d known the woman more than half my life but in this moment, I fucking hated her. And I knew with every fiber of my being that Ben would be furious with his mother right now. Hadley and I had been trying to give Ben’s parents the benefit of the doubt because they had to be grieving, but this was a dick move, and the fact that the judge had fallen for it pissed me right the fuck off.
We hadn’t had time to do anything but pack and try to keep Annalise calm, so I had no idea what we were going to do, but the one thing I knew for sure was that I was going to use every goddamn resource at my disposal to beat them when we went back to court. I rarely called on my father for help in anything because I was a grown man with plenty of money and success, but this was different. My father was one of those men who often played dirty in business, one of the many reasons I’d distanced myself from him professionally, but this? This was right up his alley, and I didn’t care what I had to do to make sure Annalise and Benny stayed with me. And Hadley.
“I don’t want you to go!” Annalise stomped her foot for what had to be the dozenth time today since we’d told her we were moving out for two weeks. We’d said it was so she could spend time with her grandma and grandpa, but she wasn’t buying it and wasn’t happy at all.
“Grandma and Gramps have lots of fun things planned with you,” I told her, squatting down so we were eye level.
“I don’t like them.” She stuck out her lower lip and tears filled her eyes.
Christ. I didn’t know what to say or do.
“Don’t be silly, sweetheart.” Susan swooped in, reaching for her, but Annalise shook her head vehemently as she moved closer to me and away from her grandmother.
“You’re not nice,” she said, scowling. “You always yell. I want Uncle Wes and Aunt Hadley.”
“I’m sorry I’ve yelled at you,” Susan said slowly, blowing out a breath. “But you have to learn to behave like a little lady. We’ll work on it now that you’ll be with us.”
“No!” Annalise threw her sippy cup across the room and ran out of the kitchen.
“This is what you’ve taught her to do?” Susan asked, folding her arms. “Behavior like this is exactly the reason why we need custody of the kids.”
“We’re not the ones who yell all the time,” I said, grabbing my protein powder out of the pantry.
“Of course not. You probably don’t know the first thing about discipline.”
I opened my mouth to respond but Hadley beat me to it.
“There are more ways to discipline a child than to yell,” she said, eyeing the other woman. “Annalise knows if she behaves that way with us, she’ll go right to the corner for a time-out.”
“Time-out.” Susan scoffed. “That’s newfangled parenting, resulting in a generation of spoiled brats.”
“They’re not—” Hadley began.
“Forget it.” I squeezed Hadley’s arm as I interrupted her because this would escalate quickly if we let it, and we didn’t want to do that in front of Annalise. “Let’s just get out of here, okay?”
Hadley picked up the shopping bag she’d filled with a few of her own kitchen essentials, since she didn’t want to leave them with Patrick and Susan, and grabbed her purse.
“It’s better this way,” Susan called after us. “You’ll see that we’re doing you a favor.”
“Go to hell,” I muttered under my breath as I shut the front door behind me.
We drove to my condo in two cars—me in my SUV and Hadley in Ben’s Escalade—and I barely remembered getting there. My mind was a blur of images, switching back and forth from the judge’s order to Susan’s smug face to Annalise’s crying fit this morning when we told her we had to leave for a while. God, I’d never yearned for Ben’s counsel more than right now. What would he advise me to do if he were still here?
I had no fucking idea, and of course, none of this would be happening if he were still here.
“Hey, I’ll come down and get the rest of your stuff,” I called to Hadley as she pulled into my second parking spot. “Let’s just get everything upstairs for now.”
She hesitated but then nodded. She seemed as numb as I felt, but there hadn’t been any time to talk. Annalise had clung to her leg most of the morning, and though Benny obviously had no idea what was going on, his little arms had been outstretched, his face screwed up in a scream as I kissed the top of his head before he’d gone down for his nap.