Sizzling Hot Apple Cider

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  I giggled at their teasing. “And you?”

  “Me?” Bryce straightened with a smirk, letting me go as he straightened his posture, overly confident in himself. He winked at me. “I perfected the right speed to make a woman feel like she’s my world. Not too fast, not too slow, just right.”

  “Oh, God, someone gag him,” Dayton said.

  I broke out into a fit of laughter as they continued to tease each other about how good they were at being a boyfriend.

  “All set!” Lawson said, plopping back down in his seat.

  “Really?” I asked. “Did you flush the toilet? Wash your hands.”

  “Yes,” Lee answered, climbing into his seat. “I made sure.”

  “Good man,” Dayton said, and they high-fived each other.

  The guys walked us back to my apartment once brunch was over.

  “Will you be okay?” Koen asked once I unlocked my apartment door.

  “Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

  He raised his eyebrow, telling me I wasn’t fooling him. “Because of tomorrow.”

  That completely deflated me as all the bravado I’d been holding on to escaped. My smile slipped down into a frown, and once again it felt like the weight of my future landed on my shoulder with an extra thump to stress that everything could change in a mere twenty-four hours.

  “Maddie.” Koen’s voice broke me. It was full of sympathy and pain for me, for what I had to go through. Before I could move away from him, he pulled me into a hug.

  He tucked his head into my neck, lips grazing my skin. “It’ll be okay. I know you’re probably tired of hearing it, because nothing short of tomorrow passing will make it better, but you are okay. Your stepmother doesn’t have a chance. There is no reason at all to take the twins away. I know everything feels impossible right now, like they’ll slip away from you, but it won’t happen. I won’t let it. Neither will you. It’s going to be okay because I’m going to make sure it is.”

  I wrapped my hands around his waist, taking in a deep breath. Desperately, I clung to the comfort he was willing to give me. It was exactly what I needed.

  “You aren’t alone in this. You’ll never be alone,” he whispered.

  His promise was filled with so much absoluteness that I believed him. Deep down in my soul, I was able to believe in him.

  Tomorrow was going to suck, but I had a lot of people on my side.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  My phone was in the middle of exploding, texts coming in rapidly from people like Koen, Bryce, and Kenni promising to be there for me, or Dayton reminding me he was there in spirit and promised to protect the twins. Supportive clients also felt it relevant to let me know they were there and they were ready to prove I was amazing.

  My army was officially organized. The battle was on the horizon.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to give them their marching orders. My morning consisted of burying my head in a toilet, throwing up. Dropping the twins off was the hardest part so far. Then I made it to the courthouse with time to spare, so I spent more time familiarizing myself with their toilet. I was pretty sure they owed me dinner after how close we became. It was the least they could do.

  The texts came, I cried, trying to breathe, and trying to keep my stomach from seizing up. Food had been impossible all day, so when I did lose the battle, there was nothing but bile. It was painful, horrifying, and made it all so much worse.

  I could practically feel time ticking, eating up the seconds and minutes to the final battle.

  Everything was okay. It had to be.

  Koen: Where are you? Are you okay?

  Leaning against the stall door, I stared at the text. It had been sent about ten minutes ago.

  Me: No, I’m not. I’m pretty sure the toilet stole all my guts. Can I live without my innards?

  His response was instant. Which set of bathrooms?

  Me: The one near hell.

  Koen: Come out.

  Me: No, thank you.

  Koen: I will come in there if I have to.

  Me: Pervert.

  Koen: One.

  Me: Two.

  Testing the waters with Koen probably wasn’t a good idea, so I jumped to my feet and dove for the door just as it began opening.

  “I’m coming out,” I said.

  “Three,” Koen said as I stepped out.

  “How did you know I was here? What if I was in a different bathroom? You would have been labeled a pervert.”

  “Hell.” Koen pointed down the hall to the doors to the court that held the fate of my world in its palms, ready to crush it.

  Smart man. Definitely hell.

  “Are you ready? It’s almost time to head in. Everyone is waiting.”

  “Nope. Not at all.” He inched closer to the courtroom, forcing me to move along if I wanted to keep talking to him. Suddenly, I didn’t like how smart he was.

  “Madison?” I whipped around at my name to see my father making his way down the hallway toward me.

  My mouth dried at his presence as fear became very real.

  “What are you doing here?” The question was blurted out before I could stop myself.

  He paused a couple of feet away. His shoulders slumped as I glanced around, waiting to see Olivia. She wasn’t around, probably already in the room, trying to build sympathy and support.

  Dad’s attention landed on Koen briefly before he cleared his throat and asked, “Can we talk in private?”

  We moved far enough away to not be heard.

  “What is going on?” I asked, hugging myself. If Dad was here, it couldn’t be for a good reason, right? Was he going to throw his weight around for his wife? He had to be here for moral support, right?

  “I talked with your lawyer.”

  I widened my eyes. “You paid him off? No way! Why would you do that? How could you? Did you get him to promise to make this case turn out in your wife’s favor?” Disgust dripped into my voice, and he flinched, taking a step back.

  Raising his hands, he tried to interject himself, but I wasn’t willing to let him. No way did I want to hear about him throwing his weight around to get the outcome he wanted. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d done that, especially with me involved.

  “So much for trying to change. Why do you have to stick your nose into this? Why couldn’t you just stay away? I’m good for them. I take good care of them, and I refuse to let you or Olivia or the courts tell me otherwise. I don’t care what strings you pulled, I won’t let it work.”

  “Madison!” my father barked, his voice echoing down the hall.

  I jumped at the sharpness of it. Koen was ready to intercede, but I shook my head. Even if he wanted to support me, this was between my dad and me. This time, I wasn’t going to let him bulldoze over me.

  Dad blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re misunderstanding me. Let me finish talking before you start throwing accusations at me. If anything, as an adult, you should know better.” He gave me that gaze, the one that said he was completely disappointed in me. When he realized I wasn’t going to respond, he said, “What I was trying to say is that I talked with your lawyer and gave him some needed information about Livvie.”

  “Olivia?” I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to figure out where he was going with this conversation.

  “Yes. I’m trying to right a wrong here. Everything is a mess and it shouldn’t be. It’s pretty clear what needs to happen, and I’m making sure it does.”

  “What? Are you not siding with Olivia?” What was that flare in my heart? Was that hope?

  “I’m siding with the twins.”

  “What does that mean exactly?”

  He sighed and glanced over at Koen briefly before giving me his attention again. “It means that they belong with you. Maddie, I am proud of you, and what Livvie is doing isn’t right, not by a long shot. She isn’t doing right by Miranda or the twins by doing this. I don’t agree with her. Would I love them living with me? Yes. Do I think they�
�re going to suffer because they aren’t? No. In fact, I think they are thriving. I saw it when we had dinner together. They’re happy. They’re making it through a difficult time because of you. We neglected them. They don’t even know who we are. What right do we have to take them away from stability just because we think we could potentially do better? And how had we done better with Miranda or you? You don’t even talk to us if you don’t have to, and we managed to alienate Miranda. It’s too late to make it right with her, but I’m not up to it being too late with you or the twins.”

  Tears collected in my eyes, and I had to blink them away. “You stand by me?”

  He nodded. “I do. I never told you this, but I am proud of you. I’m proud of the woman you became, the strength you have, and how you’re able to face everything. I never did right by you, I know that. Because of that, you carved your own life in this world, and it’s a pretty darn good life. I wish I could say it was because of me, but I know it isn’t. Maybe it’s despite me, you were able to do this? Either way, you and the twins have something good going, and I won’t let Livvie destroy that.”

  “What did you do?” I asked in a small voice, feeling like I was reverting back to that little girl who used to yell out for her daddy, even as she watched him walk away repeatedly in her life.

  “I gave your lawyer the information he needs to end this. I imagine he’s rallying everyone and you won’t make it into the courtroom before he’s pulling you aside.”

  “Dad.”

  “Madison, if there is one thing you know about me, it’s that I’m good at digging, at finding secrets. I only did that now. Olivia doesn’t have a case. Those twins are yours. And I hope once the dust settles, we can reconnect.” With that, he shoved his hands into his pockets and turned and walked away.

  The slump in his shoulders revealed his defeat. Or was it exhaustion. Something was up with him, and I didn’t know what it was, and I was afraid of the answer if I bothered enough to ask.

  “Is everything okay?” Koen stood at my side.

  “Let’s go.” After releasing a slow breath and gathering all my courage, I faced the doors. The steps were hard to take, my heart pounding double time the closer I got. We were only a few feet away when the door opened wide and my lawyer, Mr. Hayes, came through.

  As soon as his attention landed on me, he grinned. “Good, you’re here. Come on, we’re meeting with Mrs. Hansen and her lawyer in a conference room.”

  I pointed at the doors. “But aren’t we starting soon?”

  Waving his hand around dismissively, he said, “Not anymore. They wish to meet us privately. We may be able to settle this outside of court. Don’t worry, it’s a good thing. Trust me.”

  Koen nudged me forward. “Go. I’ll make sure the others know what’s going on.”

  Without much of a choice, I trailed after Mr. Hayes. He led us down another hallway, up a set of stairs and through a double set of glass doors. On the other side was a small lounge area that then broke off into two hallways. We went right, and into the closest door.

  Olivia, her lawyer, and someone else were already waiting.

  If there were ever a time to think everything was going right with the world, that moment would be it. Olivia sat in her chair, slouched forward, head down, looking absolutely defeated. William Taylor, the hotshot lawyer, sat straighter, but it was obvious he wasn’t happy. The other man looked plain annoyed.

  “Have a seat, Miss Daniels,” the man said. “My name is Emilio Reyes. I’ll be overseeing this discussion to help finalize the outcome.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Mr. Hayes pulled out my chair for me, and I settled in, feeling like I was on a whirlwind of change.

  “We have received information that has greatly affected the custody of Lawson and Lee Hansen,” Mr. Reyes said. He glared at Olivia. “Miss Daniels, do you know who Isiah Parker is?”

  It took some time to flip through all the names I knew. None of them were a match. “I don’t.”

  “Isiah is a hacker based in New York City. He’s on some watch lists. You’ve been a victim of his. The police have already forwarded along the cases that you’ve been caught up in. He’s already been apprehended. Parker broke his parole and will be going back to jail. That’s handled. What we need to figure out is what to do with Mrs. Hansen.” Glacial brown eyes cut to my stepmother, and she wilted under Mr. Reyes stare. I didn’t pity her. “Your father has stepped forward and provided us with bank statements of hidden accounts belonging to Mrs. Hansen. There are transactions from her that were traced ultimately to Parker.”

  My shoulders slumped and relief washed over me. I was almost high off of it. Finally, my stomach settled, knowing everything really was all right.

  “The connection between Olivia and the hacker was found,” I said, staring at the table.

  “Correct.” Papers rustled before Mr. Reyes leaned back in his chair. “There’s a lot here to unpack. Mrs. Hansen has clearly proven that she did this with malice by purposely hiring Parker, knowing exactly what he would be doing. You’ve already given a clear statement of clients you’ve lost because of those phone calls, along with a copy of the contract to show your loss of income. There’s also the fact that with those rumors surrounding you, finding new clients becomes difficult. My first question for you is: would you like to settle this here, privately, or would you like to file charges against Mrs. Hansen and go to court?”

  The answer was easy. It’d be so easy to go to court, to drag her publicly through the muck, but did I really want to do that? It sounded exhausting, and I was busy enough without tying up funds and days in court.

  “Privately,” I said. “I want this over with.”

  Mr. Reyes nodded.

  The next few hours turned into forever. The direction we went was never what I expected. There was a lot of talking among the lawyers trying to make their cases and come up with something that would work.

  I didn’t understand a lot of it, but I put my trust in Mr. Hayes to get it right.

  Olivia kept the talking to the bare minimum. I didn’t know if it was because her lawyer told her that it was game over and to keep quiet, or because she didn’t know what to say at that point, but I enjoyed the peace. Both she and her lawyer knew they had lost, it was just a matter of fighting for the least amount of payback for it.

  By the end, there was a promise of a nice chunk of money to be given to me due to the loss of clients and also a public apology to be published in all major outlets. Her name was still going to take a hit for what she did. Contracts were going to be drawn up and she had until the end of the week to accept the deal or we’d go to court. I knew Olivia enough to know she wouldn’t want that.

  The one thing I loved the most about the meeting, that made me feel like a complete winner, was that the custody battle was dropped. There was no longer a fight to the death to claim Lawson and Lee. They were all mine, and my lawyer was even going to get all the custody paperwork that had been stagnant for the last couple of months pushed through.

  No one would have the right to try to take them away from me, and I had full custody over them. I got to determine who was in their lives, who wasn’t. Another mark against Olivia because right now, I didn’t want her anywhere near them and I had the right to keep them from her.

  It was a triumphant feeling, but also a petty one.

  Also, I was relieved. Absolutely relieved. Absolutely freed from the nightmares that plagued me since William Tayor first called me about custody of the twins. I wanted to laugh, to cry, to jump up on the table and dance while screaming ‘I win’ so that the whole world heard me.

  Then I wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a month.

  Olivia tried to make a run for it once we were dismissed. I may have been shorter than her, but I was also relentless, so I chased after her, figuring it was okay if no one tried to stop me. We needed a confrontation. While her silence through the whole process was welcoming, it wasn’t acceptable either. She had
hurt me deeply and she needed to confront me face-to-face, not just through some written apology printed in newspapers.

  “Olivia,” I said, and she froze.

  I moved closer, and her stubbornness still kept her from turning to me.

  “Is it too hard for you?” I asked. “To fight me head on?”

  She whirled around, a flash of anger crossing her expression. Then it melted away into sadness.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say, Madison. I did something I shouldn’t have, and I’ll pay the price for it. You won’t accept any kind of excuse that I try to use. It’s probably better if we both don’t talk to each other, at least right now.”

  “Afraid I’ll keep the twins away from you?”

  She winced when I hit the mark.

  Dad was coming up the hallway with Koen and Bryce behind him. They were waiting for us, giving us this moment to exchange words that could potentially change our future. All she had to do was say the wrong thing and I would keep the twins from her. I was petty enough to do that.

  The skin around her mouth and eyes tightened as she fought with herself. Her face paled, and I realized that she was using makeup to hide how exhausted she looked. Olivia really wasn’t coming out of this as a winner. I was doing the same—using makeup to hide my exhaustion. In that way, the two of us could relate.

  Funny how we didn’t like each other at all, didn’t share the same blood, held on to very different opinions, and yet there were similarities between us.

  “I hope—” She paused to take in a shuddering breath. “I hope that you never have to feel the pain of losing a child. No matter what your future brings, I hope this pain isn’t something you ever have to live with. No one should have to live through the loss of their own child.” She swallowed and turned sharply, walking away.

  My dad pulled her into his side and escorted her through a set of doors that would lead them out of the building. I stared after her broken form, shock acting as a cold slab resting against my chest.

  “Maddie?” Koen’s voice was soft and coaching, trying to get my attention.