Page 11 of Twilight Tides
“Dad? I don’t want to go back.”
I squeezed my eyes closed and nodded to let her know I’d heard her.
I’d never felt like more of a failure. More powerless. “I’m trying.” I opened my eyes to look into hers. “I promise you,m’eudail, I’m trying to get sole custody. I’m calling my solicitor after breakfast.”
“I’ll tell the lawyer I want to live with you.” Kelly’s lips trembled as she tried to hold back her tears. “I’ll tell the lawyer that Mum leaves me alone for days and that she gets drunk when she is home and she’s always bringing strange men back because it’s true. She’s … she doesn’t care about me. She doesn’t care about anything!” Kelly jumped off the stool, running from the room.
Her feet pounded downstairs and then her bedroom slammed shut. I blinked back the burn in my eyes. There had been a lot of tears and highs and lows from my daughter lately. Iknew part of it was hormones and all the rubbish teenagers went through. But it was more than that. My kid was angry. Not just at Jill. She was angry at me for not protecting her from this.
Iwas angry at me.
Seconds later I had my family law solicitor, Andrea Raisani, on the phone. “I’m sorry for calling you out of hours.”
“Has something happened?” Andrea sounded genuinely concerned. She and her partners had tried to do everything to get me out of that dumb fucking marriage contract, but we were absolutely trapped by the ironclad clause.
“Kelly is with me for the Easter Holidays, and she’s just informed me that Jill has a boyfriend who is acting inappropriately around her. She says Jill leaves her alone for days at a time and drinks when she is at home.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that, Murray.”
“I can’t send her back there.”
“If you don’t send her back, you’ll be violating the custody arrangement and that gives Jill a better chance of appealing for sole custody.”
Which she might do just to spite me.
“Then we need to do something fast.”
“I can apply for an emergency child arrangements order if you believe Kelly is at immediate risk of harm, but we’ll need proof. Will Kelly testify?”
“I don’t want her to,” I hedged. “Can you put in the order, and we’ll find proof?”
“Bear in mind if you don’t find proof, Jill could become more vindictive.”
My solicitor knew my ex-wife well. “I know, but I don’t know what else to do. I’ll hire a private investigator to look into what’s happening in that house.”
“I would do that immediately. Also … you do know a judge would look more favorably on you for sole custody if you had atwo-parent household. And marrying someone would have the added benefit of cutting Jill off instantly.”
I let out a huff. Oh aye, like I’d be able to find a wife in the next two weeks. “Apply for the order. I’ll work on getting that evidence.”
4.London
Ramsay and Tierney were an unexpected couple in some ways. On the outside they appeared as opposites. My best friend was warm and outgoing and genuinely liked people, even though she’d seen the worst in them. Ramsay was a bit of a misanthrope, to the point of having bought an entire island to escape from other people. He was gruff and intimidating and was as warm and fuzzy as a porcupine. He was also thirteen years older than Tierney.
No, they didn’t seem like they should match. But they did. Because behind Nee’s warmth was a spine of steel, courage for days, and she and Ramsay shared a passionate sense of justice. Moreover, Nee was incredibly pragmatic, forthright, and wise beyond her years. I’d seen the way Ramsay looked at her when she spoke, and I knew he thought the sun rose and set with her. Nee and Akiva, their Alaskan malamute, were who Ramsay cared about.
But also me, I realized. I was in the small group of people Ramsay McRae would throw down for. There weren’t very many. In fact, every single one of them had been at their small, private wedding. Their wedding guests included me, Ramsay’s business partner and friend Quinn McQuarrie, Taran, Quinn’s sisterCammie, Taran’s brother Laird and his wife, and their friends Forde Dallas and Murray Shaw. There were some villagers a little put out by the lack of an invite but not entirely surprised.
I’d been pulled into this little makeshift family, and I was beyond grateful for it. To Nee and her husband. They were my safe place. In truth, Nee had always been that for me, considering my parents had never been that. Ever.
Therefore, I’d confided in Nee the day after Nick called. Not really thinking it through, I relayed everything as we stood in the B and B’s kitchen. Ramsay had joined us, which he sometimes did before he headed out to work on a small development of homes he and Quinn were building on the other side of Glenvulin.
Because I’d spent the rest of yesterday hidden in my bungalow like a trapped rabbit, it all just spilled out.
That cold, controlled wrath I’d seen in Ramsay’s eyes eighteen months ago in New York returned as Nee flushed with outrage.
“There’s no way we’ll let Nick interfere with your visa. Right?” My best friend turned to her husband.
“Let me talk to some people so we can verify whether he really does have connections to the Secretary of State.” Ramsay gave me a reassuring nod. “Even if he does, I have connections who would be more than happy to convince a member of the British Cabinet to reconsider interfering with your visa to satisfy independent foreign interests.”
