One Last Fight

by Brenda Kennedy

  He looks around the room and adds, “Madison, you are a very lucky girl. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair and Mr. and Mrs. Grether, it is in the court’s ruling that Madison be returned to her biological parents.”

  Chelsea lets out a blood-curdling scream and Madison cries. I want to be happy, but I’m not.

  “No, Daddy. I don’t wanna go.”

  I look over and Chelsea picks up Madison and holds her close to her. I look through blurred vision as she buries her face into Madison’s neck. The judge talks, but I can’t hear him. All I hear is my daughter crying. She’s been through so much. She doesn’t need this. If she knew how much Robert and I love her, she would want to come. She would want to be with us. But she is crying. She’s scared and frightened.

  I touch Bruce’s hand and say, “I can’t.”

  Robert leans up and whispers to me, “What … what can’t you do?”

  “This, I can’t do this. I can’t take her.”

  I stand up and will my sobs to stop. “I’m sorry, judge.”

  Bruce and Robert also stand with me. Robert holds my arm and stands close.

  “Mrs. Grether, is something wrong?”

  I wipe my tears with the backs of my hand. I look at Madison and she is crying and sobbing. Her eyes and nose are red and her face is blotchy.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t do this to her.”

  “You can’t do what?” the judge asks slowly.

  I try to speak calmly, but nothing about me feels calm. “I waited for this day for months. I just wanted custody of our biological daughter. I wanted to love her and care for her. My husband and I bought her a bedroom suite, as well as her favorite books, toys, and clothes. We planned for her arrival like she was a newborn baby. We wanted her to walk into her new bedroom and never need anything. We wanted to show her all of the love we have for her.”

  “What’s the problem, Mrs. Grether? You do understand the courts have awarded you and your husband custody. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

  I nod. “It is. It was. But when I look over and see my beautiful daughter crying and begging Drake and Chelsea to keep her and not let her go, I know what we have to do.” I wipe away the steady stream of tears. “I know how difficult these last several months have been on us, but I never once realized how hard this would be on Madison. I love her so much, we love her so much. There is a saying about loving something so much that you let it go.”

  I cry and speak with a shaky voice. “We love Madison so much that we can’t take her… we can’t take her from the only family and home she has ever known. I can’t hurt her anymore. I would rather me suffer through my pain of not having her than have her suffer from being placed with us.”

  Robert hugs me and Bruce asks, “Are you sure, Leah? Is this what you want to do?”

  “We love her too much to hurt her,” I cry.

  “My wife is correct, your Honor. It’s not fair to Madison and we can’t let her hurt anymore.” Robert’s voice cracks and it hurts my heart to see him break. “She’s been through enough. I didn’t think it was possible to let her go, but it’s true if you love someone enough, sometimes letting them go is the only answer. It’s the right thing to do for her.” He looks at Madison and says, “Princess, we love you, we will always love you. Please always remember that.”

  Robert takes me by the hand and squeezes it.

  The judge asks, “Is this what your clients want, Mr. Myles?”

  Bruce looks at Robert and me, and we both nod. “It is,” we say in unison.

  “It is, Judge.”

  “So be it. It is in this court’s ruling that Drake and Chelsea Sinclair retain sole custody of Madison Grace Sinclair.”

  Robert holds my hand on the way home. We don’t speak about what I just did or what I just gave up. Robert understands that we love her enough we don’t want to see her hurt or to see her entire world torn apart.

  We go home and I go straight to bed. I know I did the right thing for Madison, but it doesn’t stop the black cloud from hovering over and consuming me.

  Chapter Four: Two Months Later

  Robert

  It’s been two months since our court date. I was stunned with Leah’s decision and thought that it was too much for her to deal with. When Leah explained that she loved Madison too much, I understood. Watching Madison cry and Drake trying to hold it together as he consoled her and Chelsea was almost too much for me.

  We both left the courtroom in tears. Leah said we will recover a lot faster than Madison would have. She’s right. I still miss Madison although we never really had her. I miss the thought of her and what we could have been as a family. Like Jamie, Madison’s room is left untouched. Madison’s absence doesn’t feel like it did when we lost Jamie, but it’s still painful. Madison will always have a special place in our hearts.

  Since the court date, I have been working out like a warrior, so Leah says. She sank into a mild depression but was able to come out of it on her own. I no longer consider her fragile; my girl is a warrior. She’s back to work full-time and Bethany and Dove are still there helping her out. Gracie is becoming a permanent fixture there as well. Mom and Sue offer to keep her, but Leah likes taking her to work. I guess it’s a perk to owning your own business. You can do things like that.

  We pull up to Leah’s shop and a big sign is over the doorway to the adjoining empty space: “Jamie, Madison, and Grace’s Dad’s Warrior Fitness and Training.” On the sign is a pair of red boxing gloves after the word “Training.” A plastic sign over it reads, “Coming soon.” I stop the Hummer and put it in park. I watch Leah as she looks from her sign to the neighboring sign. I smile.

  Leah looks at the sign and says, “Robert?”

  “Yes?”

  “Is that…?” she says pointing to the sign. “Did you… are you?”

  I laugh. “Yes, yes, and yes.”

  “When?” she asks, still looking confused.

  “I’ve been thinking about it for some time. I called the morning you and I saw it was empty.”

  “Why?”

  I open my car door and say, “I wanted to be closer to Jo’s cinnamon buns when I retire.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s very simple. Jo makes the best cinnamon buns in the state of Florida and I wanted to be close enough to eat them every day.”

  I get out of the car and get Gracie from the back seat. When Leah still hasn’t moved from her seat, I go over and open her car door for her. “Are you ready, Sweets?”

  “Wait a minute,” she says in confusion. “You rented the space next door?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because when I retire, I’ll need something to do. This is a good business opportunity.”

  “So, when you retire, you’ll open a fitness center next door to where I work?”

  “It’s not a fitness center. It’s more of a training and fitness center for warriors,” I tease.

  I see a hint of a smile touch her lips. She asks, “Who will help you?”

  ”Gus, Dad, and Tim will help me.”

  “My dad?”

  “Yes, and my father, and Gus.”

  “Can we go inside and talk about this?”

  Gus, Dad, and Tim pull up in a pick-up truck beside us. I toss them the only set of keys I have for the building. “I’ll be over in a minute,” I say, walking a very stunned Leah out of the parking lot. Holding Gracie, I walk towards Leah’s shop and she turns in the opposite direction.

  “I wanna see what all the hammering and noise was all about,” she says. I think she may be coming out of the shocked state she was in just moments ago.

  Dad opens the door and Leah walks into the large open area first. When I rented the space, the first thing I did while Leah was working was cover the windows so she couldn’t see inside. I didn’t want her to know it was us in here working. We would use the back entrance so she wouldn’t see us coming and going. I wanted to surprise Leah. I thought she would be ha
ppy, but now I’m not so sure. We walk around the massive space and she wanders to the back of the room where the restroom and two offices are. We put in new drywall, and stronger beams in the ceiling that could hold the heavyweight bags we’ll use for training purposes. Dad also installed a locker room, complete with showers, in the back. When this is all done, I plan to train here instead of going to Upper Cut.

  “You have two offices?” she asks.

  Gracie and I walk back to where Leah is. The building is completely empty. We are expecting a delivery here today for some supplies. That’s why I needed to show her that I rented the space. With the delivery coming in, it’ll be too hard for me to hide this from her.

  “Well, I have two rooms: one office and Gracie has her own room.”

  She looks at me and smiles. “Gracie has her own room?”

  “For sleep or play, whatever she wants to use it for. This wall here,” I say tapping on the newly painted cream-color wall. “This is adjacent to your office. I thought we could open it up and make a doorway for us to use.”

  “You’re really going to retire after your fight with Kennedy?”

  “I am, as promised. On May 2nd, “I’ll be here training future contenders.”

  “And warriors.” She hugs me and says, “Thank you.”

  “The delivery is here,” Gus yells.

  I kiss her back and run my thumb over her bottom lip. “Well, I guess it’s time for both of us to get to work.”

  We walk back out into the large empty room. Dad, Tim, and Gus are removing the brown paper from the windows. The room is clean and bright and very large in size. She kisses my dad, her Dad, and Gus on the way out. She looks out the window at the large delivery truck. “You still have five months until you open. Why do you have a delivery so early?”

  “So I can start training here. I had to get the building while it was available, so I thought I should at least get some use out of it.”

  She takes Gracie from me and kisses me. “I didn’t realize you were so brilliant,” she says, walking away.

  I just stand there with a smile as I watch her hips glide side to side as she walks away. She’s wearing a long-sleeve black flowing dress and red heels. Her legs are bare, firm, and tan.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I yell after her. Like I’m sporting a hard-on right now.

  She looks over her shoulder and smiles. “You might want to cover that thing up. My dad’s in that building watching you.”

  Maybe she does know everything there is to know about me. I look down at my hard-on and quickly think of beating Kennedy’s face in. My dick slowly returns to its pre-Leah’s size. I yell inside that I’ll be right back. I run over and quickly set the bistro tables and chairs out on the side walk. I’m stalling for my dick to go down. Leah hands me four cups of coffee, three cinnamon buns, and one bran muffin before I leave. The bran muffin is for me. I’ll be glad when the fight’s over. The first thing I plan to do is eat a dozen of these cinnamon buns. Scratch that, the first thing I plan to do is make love to my wife, then I’ll eat a dozen of these.

  Once the truck is unloaded, Gus, Dad, and I begin hanging the heavyweight punching bags from the ceiling. The boxing ring we ordered hasn’t arrived yet. That will help fill some of the empty space. Tim starts putting the desk together while we finish up with the punching bags. Culligan comes and brings in two water coolers for me and one for Leah. We carry the extra five-gallon jugs of water back into the office. I would be happy just leaving them beside the water cooler. But, I know as soon as Leah sees the water jugs sitting around, she’ll make me move them out of people’s sight.

  The next day, after my visit with Jamie and my workout at Upper Cut, I shower and meet Gracie and Leah at the shop. Gracie is taking a late nap in her Pack-n-Play in Leah’s office. Dove and Bethany left to do some Christmas shopping and I’m putting away supplies. The bell over the door chimes, alerting us to incoming customers. I’m glad the bell is there. I would hate for Leah to be here alone and someone walk in. She would never know of their presence.

  “I’m sorry, but we’re closed,” Leah yells from behind the counter. I look up from the bookshelf and watch as Drake, Chelsea, Madison, and Caden walk further into the shop.

  “Do you have a moment?” Drake asks.

  Leah looks at me and I look at her. “Yes, please come in.”

  I climb off the ladder and walk with Leah in the direction of the overstuffed couches in the sitting area. “I’m sorry, maybe we should have called,” Chelsea says, softly.

  Leah signals for everyone to sit down as I walk over and lock the front door. “Is everything all right?” I finally ask.

  “It is,” Chelsea says taking a seat. I look at Madison and my heart aches. I try not to stare, but I can’t help it. She’s beautiful. She looks like Gracie and Caden looks like Jamie.

  “I’m sorry; everything’s already put away, but I do have cherry tarts still out,” Leah says, nervously. “It’s all I have to offer.”

  “No, we’re fine. Thank you,” Drake says as he takes a seat beside Chelsea. Caden sits on his lap and plays with a stuffed Minion.

  I take a seat beside Leah and rest my hand on her shaky legs. She gets shaky legs only when she’s nervous, and I have noticed that she is nervous around the Sinclairs. She takes my hand and tries to smile.

  “Thank you for what you did for Madison at the court hearing,” Chelsea says.

  I nod. I hope they aren’t here to rub it in our faces.

  “Since then, things have calmed down and have almost returned back to normal. We have talked honestly and openly to Madison about the mix-up at the hospital.” Chelsea takes a deep breath and says, “She knows you are her biological Mom and Dad, although she is still confused about all of this.”

  Drake holds Chelsea’s hand and says, “What you did for her in the courtroom was very noble of you both.” He shakes his head and says, “I don’t know if we could have stepped away like you did.”

  “But since then,” Chelsea interrupts, “Drake and I had an idea and we would like to share it with you.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” Leah says, sitting further up on the edge of the couch.

  “We know how much you love Madison and we think she would benefit from having you in her life,” Drake says.

  “What are you trying to say?” I finally ask.

  “Madison would like to get to know you both,” Chelsea says. “And I miss you, Leah.” Chelsea looks at Leah with tears in her eyes.

  Drake interrupts and says, “What if we share Madison?”

  I pause for a moment and ask, “Do you mean like you get her for six months and then we get her for the other half of the year? I don’t think that…”

  Drake interrupts and says, “No, what if we share her? We live close enough to each other.”

  Chelsea interrupts, “What if sometimes you keep her and sometimes we keep her. Christmas is coming up and although I’m not quite ready to part with her, maybe we can share the holiday with her, together?” Leah looks at me and I look at Leah. Can this work? Can two families share one child? “We would also like to go to the cemetery and visit Jamie without feeling like we’re trespassing every time we’re there. It’ll be a mutual agreement on both of our parts.”

  Leah finally speaks up and says, “This sounds nice, but what if you change your mind later. I won’t be able to handle…”

  “And you won’t. We won’t change our minds. We love Madison enough to make this work.” Drake looks me in the eyes and I think I can see honesty and sincerity in them.

  I look at Madison and ask, “Madison, is this what you want?”

  Madison speaks with a soft, angelic voice. “Yes. I like Miss Leah and you. You both are very nice. Daddy said you helped me when that evil lady took me.”

  “I did. I wanted you home safely.”

  She blinks a few times and says, “I saw my name on the signs outside.”

  “Would you like to c
ome and stay with us sometimes?” Leah speaks just as softly.

  “Yes, but can my brother come, too?” Madison looks from us to Caden. “Caden don’t like it when I leave him.”

  “Caden can come whenever he wants,” I say.

  Gracie wakes up from her nap and begins to scream. Leah begins to stand, but I stand and say, “I’ll get her.”

  I change her and carry her out to the sitting area. Everyone stands and starts to walk towards the door. “We can meet again and work out the details of the first overnight stay,” Drake says.

  “Thank you.” I shake Drake’s hand.

  “We wanted to get with you sooner about this, but we also wanted to do it on Madison’s time. She says she’s ready and we have to believe that.”

  “Do you have plans for Christmas?” Chelsea asks.

  “We usually have dinner with our parents. This is our first year with a child since Jamie’s death,” Leah says.

  Chelsea says, “Maybe we can work something out so we can all be together. We usually have a small get-together on Christmas Eve.”

  “That sounds great,” I say.

  “Good, we’ll get together and talk more about it this week,” Chelsea says.

  Leah

  Once we are home, we bathe and feed Gracie. Robert and I have dinner and talk about Madison. I am excited and can’t wait to set up a time to finalize our overnight stay.

  “With Caden staying with her, we’ll need to make some sleeping arrangements for him.”

  Robert laughs and says, “He’s a boy. All he needs is a sleeping bag and pillow.”

  He’s probably right. I call Mom and Dad early the next morning while Robert calls his parents to tell them the news about Madison. This time two months ago, I had given up on any hope of ever having Madison in my life. If it meant her happiness, it was a price I was willing to pay. I love her so much that I let her go. I am so excited to finally get to know her. I think in my subconscious I know she may never accept me as her mother, but I’m okay with that. Any relationship I can have with her is better than none.

  Robert takes me to work today, but we stop by the cemetery first. Jamie has a fresh bouquet of red roses on her grave. I remember that Chelsea told me that is the only flower that Drake buys. A small card is attached. I look at Robert and he picks it up to read it. I guess he feels he has a right to know what it says.