Page 72 of Uriah's Orbit
“He splits his time,” Jace said. “Apparently, he and Angela are suddenly thick as thieves, and she’s helping him with a bunch of agenting stuff.”
“And you’re not there why?” Noah asked.
“Don’t want to get in the way.”
I patted Jace’s cheek. “You’re cute. He wants you in the way.”
He was bright red again.
Austin
Mybrain: T-plus fourdays since Valerie Boyd.
Damage control: active.
Damage assessment: none of note
My brain: Just wait, Austin. Just wait.
Aubrey was at the kitchen table, staring at the paper in her hands. She had tears in her eyes and the biggest mug of coffee I had ever seen.
My brain: Told you. She doesn’t drink that unless she’s got a real problem.
And with the size of that mug…
“Brey?”
She looked up, and the tears fell. “He’s suing for the kids.”
I dropped into the chair. “What?”
She pushed the papers at me and I could see that they were legal and full of legalese. This was not my area. I could read and write music, not law.
“He wants full custody and child support from me.”
“He’s known you’re here since this has the full legal address on it,” I said.
“I know. So why now? I’ve been here a few weeks, and he’s always known where I was,” she said. “He would send me threats and then come at me to make me move again. He never reported the kids missing so I know there isn’t a kidnapping charge. So why now? Why the legal attack now?”
The letterhead didn’t look professional. Usually these things had gold pressing on them. Or a color seal and embossing somewhere. The signature was usually in blue—this looked photocopied. It very much looked like a discount legal office, or someone who knew someone who knew a lawyer kind of situation.
As I read through the sheets, I could make out some of the information, details, demands, arguments.
Right smack in the middle of the section labeledLegal Precedentwas the answer I didn’t want to find.
Mr. Gadfeller believes his son and daughter to be in mortal peril by remaining in the company of a known sodomite.
Well, there it was. Someone had seen the article that Valerie Boyd had tried desperately to sell. It just had to be my sister’s…husband? Ex?
“Are you guys divorced?”
“He keeps refusing the papers,” she said. “I thought this was him serving me with divorce papers, which was the only reason I signed for them.”
“This is going to get intrusive.” I sighed. “We’re going to have family services in here trying to decide if you get full or partial custody.”
She grabbed my hand. “Austin. He doesn’t want the kids. Not really. He wants the money. He wants the child support. If we get divorced he’ll want alimony. He can’t have those kids. I’ll make any bargain under the sun to keep the kids away from him. Anything he wants.”
“No,” I said. “We’re going through lawyers. We’re going to work this out, properly through legal channels. I don’t want you to be beholden to a creep like this. Those kids are yours and you can recount everything he did to you and them on the record.”
