By the time Drew was back with her phone, Ken was calling for the third time.
“Hello?” Cami answered, now feeling worried.
“Took you long enough,” Ken snarled. “Having sex with your new boyfriend or something?” Cami cringed, not letting Ken know how accurate his accusation was. “In front of our daughter, no doubt. That’s disgusting. You’re disgusting.”
Ken words were slightly slurred, letting Cami know that he’d been drinking. Her apprehension soon turned to fury.
“You’re disgusting to even entertain that possibility,” Cami replied, not bothering to keep the anger out of her tone. She knew that Ken’s accusations weren’t any less repulsive because he was drunk. “I thought you stopped drinking, Ken,” Cami growled. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why you’re having sex with that guy in front of our daughter.”
“You know what,” Cami replied. “I don’t have to deal with this. You know you’re not supposed to contact me this way.”
“Well, you won’t have to deal with me much longer. Pretty soon, Madison will be all mine and you and your stupid little boyfriend can forget all about her.”
“Not going to happen,” Cami replied with all of the confidence she could muster.
“Yes it will. Natalie wants a child, I’m getting her a child.”
“What?” Cami asked, suddenly enraged. “This is about Natalie? What Natalie wants is completely inconsequential. Cami isn’t Natalie’s daughter and she never will be.”
“Oh yes, she will,” Ken jeered. “We both know I’m going to win this. Then Madison will be all ours. Natalie will have the daughter she wants, and you’ll have what you deserve: nothing.”
Cami, unable to handle another minute of this conversation, hung up the phone and let out a frustrated growl.
“What?” Drew asked, having only been able to hear her side of the dialogue.
“He was drunk and being an asshole. I think he was calling just to intimidate me, but he let it slip that this whole custody battle is Natalie’s idea. He doesn’t even want Madison. He’s just doing this because his fiancée wants children and can’t have any of her own.”
Cami felt tears of frustration slip down her face, but she couldn’t stop them. She was so upset that she could barely contain herself. She wanted to punch something. She wanted to punch Ken, if she was being honest, and Natalie too.
Drew didn’t reply. He just stepped forward and pulled her into a tight hug.
“You know the worst part?” she asked.
“What?” he said softly, gently rubbing circles against her back.
“They’re going to win.”
“No, they aren’t,” Drew answered quickly and confidently.
“Yes, they are. My lawyer is complete shit. He’s the reason I got nothing in the divorce.”
“Then why are you still letting him represent you?” Drew asked, pulling away slightly to look at her, his eyebrows raised.
“Because I can’t afford anyone else,” she sobbed. “I can barely afford this. I’m picking up overtime at the hospital and my mom is selling my grandma’s expensive jewelry and we’re still barely covering the bills.”
“Oh, Cami,” Drew said, pulling her back into his arms. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why would I? It’s not your responsibility.”
Drew didn’t reply to that, he just continued to hug Cami until her sobs slowly subsided. He then helped her to the sofa in the living room. He left her there and returned with another glass of wine a second later.
“Rest here for a little bit, and drink this. I have something to attend to. I’ll be right back.”
Cami was a little annoyed that he would leave her while she was so upset, but she reminded herself that this wasn’t his problem and she wasn’t his responsibility. She was a grown woman and couldn’t rely on others to take care of her.
And so she took deep breaths between sips of wine and tried to will herself into calming down. A few minutes later, Drew returned to the living room, his phone in his hand, and sat down beside her.
“I just got off the phone with Norman Michaels,” he informed her. “He’s the best family lawyer in the state. He’s taking care of my sister’s divorce right now and it’s going incredibly smoothly. He’s agreed to take you on.”
“Drew, I can’t—” Cami began but he interrupted her.
“You can and you will, Cami. This is your daughter we’re talking about. We need to fight this with everything we can.” The word we sent waves of warmth through her body, allowing her to finally calm down a bit. “We can’t let Ken win. And now, with Michaels, we won’t. Trust me, when Michaels is done with him, your ex won’t even have partial custody. If he’s the drunk, abusive asshole he just proved himself to be over the phone, Madison doesn’t need to be anywhere near him…ever.”
Cami just nodded, still unable to wrap her mind around the rapid change of events that had just gone down.
“So Michaels is available to meet with you first thing on Monday morning. I told him you could be there at eight. That may make you slightly late for work, and I’m sorry. But it’s best to get this ball rolling as soon as possible.”
“No,” Cami said, still a little stunned. “I mean, eight is fine, no need to be sorry. My boss will understand.”
“Great. As soon as you meet with Michaels and sign the paperwork, his team will notify your old lawyer that he’s lost a client and begin building a case against Ken. Trust me, these guys are efficient. We’ll hopefully have this entire thing dealt with and over in just a couple of weeks.”
Cami nodded, more tears slipping down her cheeks. This time, however, they were tears of joy. She hadn’t felt this confident in a long time.
“Thank you,” she whispered, pulling Drew into another hug.
“Of course,” Drew replied as he held her tight. “I just wish you’d mentioned your financial difficulties sooner. We could have had this thing dealt with weeks ago. Are you okay now?”
“Better than okay,” Cami answered honestly. “I’m happy that Ken called. I’m more than happy to take some drunken verbal abuse if it leads to a victory in court.”
“You know,” Drew replied, “I doubt it will even make it to court at this point. Especially not if Ken is still drinking. All we need to do is prove it.”
“But how?”
“That’s the lawyers’ job. Let’s leave it to them and go finish dinner.”
Cami nodded, allowing Drew to help her up and usher her towards the kitchen. Reclaiming her perch on the bar stool, she watched the amazing, brilliant, gorgeous man in front of her finish dinner, hardly believing that this was her life.
7
Cami
Cami excitedly told her mom all about the new lawyer when she arrived to pick up Madison the following morning. If possible, her mom was even more excited than she was. Cami assumed this was not just because Cami had a new lawyer and thus the outcome of the custody battle was a lot more certain, but also because Cami now had a wealthy man in her life who could take care of her. That was the part of the equation that made Cami cringe and feel guilty, not sure how she would ever be able to pay Drew back. But Drew had been right—Madison was more important than Cami’s pride. Even if Cami was still constantly waiting to wake up and realize it was all just a dream.
Despite her insecurity and inherent pessimism, Cami dropped her daughter off with her mother extra early on Monday morning and made her way over to the nice part of town. Cami was quite happy to realize that her new lawyer’s office was in the same area as Ken’s. She felt like it finally put her on equal footing with her ex. In fact, if Norman Michaels was anywhere near as good as Drew claimed, she had a much stronger advantage than Ken did.
The office was just as nice, but not nearly as alienating as Gil Dubois’ had been. The friendly secretary smiled at Cami as she introduced herself, then told her to go right in because the lawyer was already waiting on her.
“Mr. Michaels?” Cami asked as she stepped into the room.
The man in question smiled warmly at her and rose to lean over the desk and shake her hand. “Please,” he said, motioning for her to take a seat across from him. “Call me Norm. Everyone does.”
Despite his smile and friendly demeanor, however, Cami found him extremely intimidating. She couldn’t help but be glad that he was on her side and not Ken’s.
“So,” Norm began once Cami was comfortable. “Drew Sloane told me a little of what was happening over the phone the other night, but I want to hear it all from you. Be as detailed as possible. Try not to leave anything out.”
“Okay,” Cami replied. “Where do you want me to start?”
“Start with the divorce,” Norm told her. “Why you divorced, how the custody was decided then, anything else you feel is important. Do you mind if I record this?”
Cami nodded, composing her thoughts as Norm placed a recording device on the table before her.
“It’s just so I don’t miss anything later, and so my team can become aquatinted with your case,” he assured her with a smile when she looked at it dubiously.
She nodded and began.
“Well, Ken and I divorced three years ago because his drinking had gotten out of hand. I guess that’s not true. His drinking had been out of hand for a long time. But he started to get…not really violent, but as if he could get violent. Does that make any sense?” Norm nodded, so she continued. “He would scream and threaten me a lot. Every now and then he would push me, but nothing too forceful. And he was drunk almost every night. He was going out a lot. And I started to suspect that he was cheating on me. I brought it up, and he denied it—but that’s what made me sure of it… He just looked guilty. Plus, I’d seen the way he was acting around his secretary, Natalie—the woman who is now his fiancée. Even then, I think, something was going on between them.”
“So what was the final straw?”
“That conversation, where he denied cheating and I knew he was lying. He yelled and pushed me. It scared me. I didn’t want Madison growing up around that.”
“And so you left?”
“Yes. I left. And filed for divorce. My lawyer sucked, but he was all I could afford. And Ken’s lawyers were amazing. He had a team. I didn’t get any spousal support and barely any child support. It was fine though. All I really cared about was Madison. And I was awarded primary custody of Madison.”
“How did you manage that, if your lawyer was so bad?”
“Ken wasn’t concerned with custody at all at the time. He rarely even kept the weekends he was awarded with her. He saw her once a month, maybe, and then it was usually only for one night.”
“What changed?”
“Natalie. They became serious, so Madison started going over there more, every other weekend. But then he called a few months ago and told me that he wanted primary custody. I refused, so he filed for full custody. He called me drunk the other night and let it slip that it’s only because of Natalie. She wants kids and can’t have any of her own. He couldn’t care less about Madison himself.”
“So he’s still drinking?” Norm asked, leaning forward.
“Yeah,” Cami replied. “He claimed he wasn’t during our initial meeting—his lawyer talked about nearly two years of documented sobriety, but I had seen him drunk within the last year alone. And, of course, there was the other night.”
“Tell me about the other night.”
“Well, after our first meeting—the initial one with our lawyers—Ken called me. And I mean, right after. I was still in my car in the parking lot. And he tried to intimidate me into giving over primary custody. I don’t know if he thought I had such a slim chance of winning or what, but he just assumed I’d hand Madison over. But, obviously, I laughed into the phone and I told him not to contact me again, except about his custody weekends with Madison. Anything else he could go through our lawyers.”
“And since then?”
“I haven’t really heard from him at all. Usually, he picks Madison up from my mother’s so that I don’t have to deal with him at all. I talked to him briefly on Sunday night of last week, when I picked Madison up from his house, but that was it—until the phone call Saturday night.”
“Thank you, Ms. Hendricks,” Norm replied, leaning over to turn off the recorder. “It sounds like a cut-and-dried case. If he’s still drinking, I’ll prove it. This should be over quickly. I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll win. In fact, how would you feel about turning it around and petitioning for full custody yourself?”
“I think that would be ideal,” Cami replied with a smile. “If you think I can win, I mean. I really don’t want Madison around him at all. He’s an abusive drunk.”
“Of course not!” Norm said. “We can make that happen, I assure you. Now, if you’ll just sign some papers, we can get the ball rolling.
The best part was, Cami didn’t even have to fire her old lawyer. After the paperwork was signed, Norman’s office would contact him themselves. Cami didn’t have to worry about anything.
It really was the best Cami had felt in weeks. Her relationship with Drew was in a great place, she was still driving around in his BMW—though she had a sneaking suspicion that her car was fixed and Drew had just decided that it wasn’t nice enough for her. Even that, which probably should have seemed creepy, made her smile. He really was trying to take care of her, just like he’d promised.
And now, not only was the custody battle looking up, but she and Madison appeared to have the opportunity to get rid of Ken completely. Maybe that way, Drew could adopt Madison as his own.
“Too soon!” Cami said aloud, trying once again to rein in her imagination. It was getting harder and harder to do so, however, as the days passed.
Cami was in such a good mood that she decided to stop on the way in to work and get everyone coffee and donuts. It could be her apology for being late.
“Goodies!” Maggie squealed as Cami placed everything on the desk in the nurses’ station.
“What did I miss? You haven’t been slammed, have you?” she asked guiltily.
“I wish,” Maggie griped before stuffing a donut in her mouth. “It’s been absolutely dead. We’ve been out of our minds with boredom. Ashley and I have been playing hangman for the last half-hour.” She motioned to the open notepad with half a stick figure drawn on it.
“I heard my name,” Ashley chirped, walking up behind Cami. “Oh, what did you bring us?”
“An apology for being late,” Cami replied. “Though I hear it’s been dead.”
“Ugh…miserable.”
“So,” Maggie began after swallowing her donut. “How did things go with the fancy new lawyer man?”
“Great!” Cami replied, wiping the smile off her face. “But how did you know about that? I haven’t talked to you all weekend.”
“Had dinner with Drew and Grant last night,” Maggie replied. The mischief in her eyes made Cami nervous. Thankfully, Ashley spoke up before Maggie could continue.
“What new lawyer?” she asked.
“Drew hooked me up with a new lawyer,” Cami said, trying to down play it a little. “I guess he’s really good. He’s helping Drew’s sister through a divorce right now. He seemed really confident about my chances. He thinks that I could not only win, but could be awarded full custody.”
“That would be amazing!” Ashley said. “Then you’d never have to deal with that slime ball again.”
“I know. It would be so nice to have Ken out of our lives for good,” Cami responded.
“And that would leave Madison available for adoption for any man you may marry,” Maggie added. Cami shot her a look, so she added, “In the future. You know. If you met the right man.”
“Shut up, Maggie,” Cami said. “It is way too early to think about things like that.” She’d been thinking about them almost constantly herself, but she wasn’t about to admit that, even to her best friend.
“What?” Ashley asked.
“Am I missing something? Why am I always out of the loop? Are we talking about Drew? Is he back in the picture? I thought you two were done.”
“Yeah, Cami. What’s going on with Drew?” Maggie gave Cami a look, raising her eyebrow questioningly.
Cami could tell that Maggie knew more than she was letting on.
“We’ve been seeing each other again,” Cami answered.
“Since when?” Ashley asked with a frown.
“About a week,” Cami admitted, feeling guilty for keeping it from the girls. But it had still been so new and she had spent most of the week waiting for something to go wrong again. “Since last Sunday. He showed up right as my car wouldn’t start and gave me a ride to pick up Madison from Ken’s.”
“I bet Ken loved that,” Maggie said.
“Oh, it was awesome. I made Drew wait in the car but he spent the entire time glaring. Ken had the most constipated look on his face. I loved it!”
“So, then what? You guys made up?” Ashley asked, half a donut forgotten in her hand as she listened excitedly.
“Well, that night he took us to Chuck-E-Cheese. It was great. He spent hours playing with Madison. Then, the next night, he showed up and cooked us both dinner. And he’s been doing that pretty much every day since…except when we’ve gone over to his house. Oh, and he gave me his BMW to drive, which I’ve yet to give back.”
Both Ashley and Maggie were watching her with rapt attention. They looked almost as excited by the news as Cami’s mother had been.
“So, then what’s wrong?” Maggie asked.
“Nothing is wrong. What makes you think something is wrong?” Cami asked.
“You’ve just seemed rather anxious this week,” Ashley volunteered. “Not as happy as that news would suggest.”
“I…” Cami paused, collecting her thoughts. It would probably help to talk to these girls about her fears and insecurities. “I guess, I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? Up until this week, my experience with Drew has been inconsistent. He’s super into me one minute, absent the next. And…and I think I’m falling in love with him. And my daughter is half in love with him as well. That’s a scary prospect when we’re talking about someone I can’t completely trust not to turn around and break my heart.”
The Stubborn Suitor, Book Three (An Alpha Billionaire In Love BBW Romance) Page 5
