by Zuri Day
After securing a rental, she plugged into Bluetooth and tapped a number on her screen.
“Hey, Dad!”
“Hey there, babe. How you are you doing?”
“Good. But I’d be doing even better if you say you’re not busy tonight and agree to meet me for dinner.”
“You’re here in LA?”
“Yep.”
“For good?”
“Maybe. I’m meeting with two new clients and have an appointment with a Realtor.”
“Is Trey with you?”
“No. He’s with his dad.”
“The prince is over here, in the States?”
The feeling of discomfort Sam had shaken during the plane ride returned and rumbled in the pit of her gut. Moving back to California wasn’t the only thing she needed to share with her dad.
Marcus spoke into the silence. “It’s a shame that child barely knows his grandfather.”
“We need to change that. I’ll bring him with me next time, promise. Where do you want to meet?”
“Hmm, there’s a Mediterranean spot that opened up not far from here. I’ve been meaning to try it out.”
“Text me the address. I’ll meet you there.”
Sam pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant anchoring a small strip mall. She spotted her dad’s pickup and parked beside it. Inside, she saw Marcus right away.
“Hi, Daddy.”
He stood to greet her. She melted into his embrace and was surprised to find herself fighting tears.
“You all right, baby girl?” Marcus asked after the hug.
Sam sat in the chair Marcus pulled out for her. “Life’s a little crazy, but overall I’m good.”
The first few minutes were spent perusing the menu while talking about family and mutual acquaintances. After they’d placed their orders and received their drinks, Sam felt her father’s eyes boring into her.
“Why are you staring? Has it been so long you’d forgotten what I looked like?”
“Damn near.” He shook his head. “Hard to keep up with that fast lane you’re living in. I still don’t know what happened with you and the prince.”
“Just didn’t work out, Dad.”
“Was he violent? Did he hit you?”
“No.”
“Was he a good father?”
“A great deal of his time was spent on royal duties. I don’t doubt that he loves Trey, but he wasn’t hands-on.”
“I never understood why you married him in the first place. If you ask me, everything happened too fast. At least your mom got to see you wed.”
Sam nodded. That her mom got to see her walk down the aisle was the best that could have happened.
“You came back from Africa, had barely unpacked your bags before moving to Nevada and now you’re coming back here? Sam, what’s going on?”
It was a dicey question. As far as her parents knew, Sam and Oba had met, fallen in love and enjoyed a whirlwind romance before her “unexpected” pregnancy led to a grandiose albeit hasty wedding. It was time to tell her dad about Nick.
“You remember why I moved to Las Vegas, to work on a specific project?”
“With the casino hotels.”
“Specifically CANN International. It’s owned by the Breedlove family. I worked on the project with one of the sons, a guy named Nick, whom I’d briefly dated in the past.”
“Oh, Lord. Don’t tell me y’all got into it and you lost a good job.”
“No, the contract for what I worked on is over. But not me and Nick.”
“You just got out of a marriage, honey. Now, I’m not one to tell you what to do but you might want to let your heart heal.”
“Nick is Trey’s father. He’s my son’s biological dad.”
“Something tells me that for this story I might need something stronger than that cola I ordered.” Marcus flagged down a server. “Miss!”
Sam gave her father the condensed version of what happened. Even with her father’s questions, she wrapped up the story before the entrées arrived.
“What about getting more work down there, close to his father? It can’t be healthy moving Trey around so much.”
“There’s more work here. Nick can visit often. It’s a short flight. Plus, we’d be closer to you. Kids are fairly resilient. Trey seems to adapt easily. I think he’ll be fine and you said it yourself, he needs to know his grandpa.”
“He needs to know his daddy, too. The one he just met.”
Sam thought her father would be thrilled about her move back to LA. Instead, having dinner with him brought up questions she’d thought resolved. When she boarded the plane Sunday night, however, her decision to move back to Los Angeles and reclaim her life held firm.
Sam arrived back in Vegas to a text from Nick to pick up Trey after Monday’s preschool. She quickly unpacked her luggage and placed an order with her favorite Chinese restaurant for delivery an hour later. She turned on the water to fill the jetted tub, then walked back into the bedroom to undress. The zipper of her jeans was only halfway down when her doorbell rang. Sam looked at the clock and frowned. Surely that wasn’t the delivery guy already. She’d just placed the order.
After rezipping her pants, she strode to the door and looked out the peephole. The man on the other side looked like a delivery guy. She opened the door.
“Yes?”
“Sam Price?”
“That’s me. But I just placed my order five minutes ago.”
The man reached into what she now realized was a pouch containing several types of mail. He pulled out a large manila envelope and held it out.
She took it. “What’s this?”
“Those are papers that required a personal delivery. You’ve been served.”
The man hurriedly turned and began walking away.
“Wait, who are you? What?”
“Have a nice evening, Ms. Price!” he yelled over his shoulder.
Puzzled, Sam watched the man until he’d reached the end of the short hallway that led to her unit and turned the corner. She eased back inside her house, closed and locked the door. She surveyed the envelope the man had delivered, then walked over to her desk, pulled the mail opener from a cup holding pens, markers and other office items, and slit it open. Inside was a stapled document of several pages. She didn’t have to go past the first one for her world to tilt. The bold, black letters at the top stole the joy from the weekend—the new client, housing prospects, reconnecting with old friends, starting life anew again.
Nick had petitioned the court for primary custody of her son. What would she do now?
Twenty
Nick walked into work Monday morning carrying a bag of guilt. He could only imagine how Sam had reacted when she got served papers from him seeking primary custody of Trey. He wasn’t sorry for filing them. He had every right to be a part of Trey’s life, to share an equal role in raising and shaping his young, spongelike mind. He hadn’t wanted to do it. His mother had suggested doing so from the time she learned she had another grandchild. He hadn’t. There was no need. The arrangements he and Sam had agreed to worked for both of them. The less involvement the judicial system had in his life, the better. The conversation on Friday changed everything. Trey’s living in California was not an option. Going from one home to another in the same town was hard enough. He would not subject Trey to commuting between states.
He’d barely fired up the Keurig in his office when Anita beeped in. “Mr. Breedlove, someone is here to see you.”
Nick sighed. “Send her in.”
He didn’t have to ask who. Today there was only one person who would arrive at his office first thing unannounced. Sam. She swirled into his office, a look of anger mixed with determination on her face, and threw the order at him.
“You have some kind of nerve.”
“I had to do it.”
“You did not have to do this. We could have worked something out!”
“We tried that on Friday. You want to move to California. I want to keep Trey here. It’s an impasse I didn’t see us getting past without third-party intervention.”
“You will not get my child, Nick Breedlove. I will do whatever it takes to keep him with me.”
“There’s no place you can run to with him that I won’t find.”
“I’ll fight you tooth and nail, and I’ll win. You didn’t even know Trey six months ago. Do you really think there’s a judge in any state in America who would assign a virtual stranger as the custodial parent?”
“Any judge would once they heard the details of how I was purposely kept out of being a part of my child’s life. And for the record, I’m no stranger to Trey. I’m his father!”
“I never should have told you.”
“You should have told me from day one.”
“We’ve already been down that road. You know why I didn’t.”
“I know what you told me. It doesn’t change the fact that it was wrong to outright lie to both me and Trey, presenting another man as the father of the child you claim to love so much.”
Sam’s gasp should have been a warning that Nick was going too far. But the horse was already out of the barn and running at a full-speed gallop.
“If that’s true, prove it. Stop making it so difficult for me to be a part of his life. Stop thinking only of yourself and think of what’s best for him.”
“How dare you!”
“The best place for him is here, in Breedlove. If you want to continue having equal access to him I suggest you rethink your relocation plans.”
“I hate you right now.”
“You’ll get over it. Or not.” Nick strolled over to where the cup of coffee that was now lukewarm still sat in its holder. He felt Sam’s eyes boring into his back and considering her state of mind right now, thought he’d be better off not turning said back.
He walked to his desk. “You’re the one making this difficult. Not me. I offered a solution. You weren’t interested.”
“Moving into your home so that we could play family? So that you could have the life of an adult while still acting like a kid who’d not yet put his toys away? How was our living together supposed to look, Nick? How would the whole revolving-door dating situation work out? And once I found happiness, which I am ready to do, where would he and I hang out? Oh, but wait. Your home is pretty roomy. Or we could expand it. Each have our own wing to do our own thing.”
“Ha! I wish you would try to bring another man into my house.”
“I’d do so the minute you brought in another woman.”
The intercom sounded. “Excuse me, Mr. Breedlove?”
“Yes, Anita. My nine o’clock meeting. I haven’t forgotten.”
“Just checking. Thank you.”
Nick reached for a folder on his desk, opened it as he leaned back in his chair. “This conversation isn’t going anywhere. Neither is Trey. You need to decide what’s more important. Your career or your son. It’s as simple as that.”
Sam said nothing for several seconds, just stared, eyes narrowed, hands clutched into fists. She took a deep breath, walked calmly over to where Nick sat, and slapped him squarely across the face. Then with head high and back straight, she walked out of the room.
Nick watched her exit, slowly rubbing the area she’d smacked. “You’re forgetting something,” he said as she reached the door.
She paused, then continued out. Nick’s eyes returned to the court papers she’d left behind. If someone tried to take his child he’d have them taken out. Given that consideration, that all she’d given him was one slap in the face, he’d gotten off easy.
Nick finished the nine o’clock meeting. He returned to his office, packed his briefcase and stopped by Anita’s desk.
“I’m going to be out for a while. If anything urgent happens, hit me up. Tell everyone else I’ll return their calls tomorrow.”
“Will do. Are you all right, Nick? When that woman left she seemed extremely angry.”
“Her name is Sam. She’s Trey’s mom.”
“Oh.”
“We’re having a bit of a disagreement. But I’m okay. Hold down the fort.”
Nick got into his Bentley Azure convertible, popped the top and sped down the highway. He was headed to the one person he could depend on in times like this. Someone whose advice was always spot-on, who gave it to him straight no chaser and suffered no fools.
Victoria Breedlove.
When he pulled into the circular driveway, he saw his father Nicholas just back from walking Ace, the newest family member. The long-haired Komondor with locs like Bob Marley, only blond, was a bit too friendly for Nick’s taste and sure enough, the moment he saw him came bounding over, tail wagging, tongue hanging, ready for love.
“Hey, son.”
Nick sidestepped the dog. “Hi, Dad.”
“What brings you by in the middle of a workday?”
“Needed to talk with Mom real quick. Is she here?”
“No, son. She and Lauren left early this morning for an impromptu shopping trip.”
“When will she back?”
“Day after tomorrow. They’re shopping on the Champs-Élysées.”
Victoria would choose this crucial time in his life for a Parisian jaunt. Exasperated, he let out a short huff.
“Something I can help you with, Nick?”
“I was hoping for a woman’s perspective, but I guess you’ll do.”
“Ha! Come in. Let’s have a cigar.”
They walked through the spotless mansion and entered Nicholas’s office. The stately room, with its high ceiling, dark woods and a lingering scent of premium tobacco, had a calming effect. Nick felt his shoulders relax as he walked over and took a seat in one of two high-backed chairs that had been imported from France and were purported to have once been in the royal palace. He watched Nicholas pull down a box from the shelf, almost reverently, his eyes sparkling as he sat and opened the lid.
“New brand?”
“More than a brand, son. This is a happening.”
Nick wasn’t that into cigars but even he was impressed with the story his father told while carefully preparing the cigar to be lit. Learning about pre-banned Cuban and Dominican leaf-wrapped tobacco that had been soaked in the most expensive cognac created, and that only one hundred boxes of the exclusive brand were sold each year, made Nick eager to taste it. Once he did, he was even more impressed. People didn’t spend five hundred a pop without blinking for one cigar for no reason.
The next few minutes were consumed in the ritual of cigar smoking, of enjoying the first puffs of the exclusive smoke in the silence it commanded. Nick knew his dad took his cigars seriously and waited for him to break the silence.
He blew out a puff and smiled at Nick. “Now, for sure, I’ve lived.”
“It’s amazing,” Nick agreed.
“Okay, son, tell me why you’re here.”
“It’s about Sam.”
“I figured as much.”
“And Trey.”
A slight frown marred Nicholas’s handsome face, an older, slightly more rugged version of Nick’s. “What about my grandson?”
“Sam plans to move to LA and take him with her.”
A slightly raised brow was Nicholas’s only reaction. “What do you have to say about that?”
“I said hell no. Trey belongs in Breedlove. I tried to tell Sam that but she wouldn’t listen. So I hired a lawyer. She got served papers last night. I’m going for primary custody.”
Nicholas nodded. “Good for you.” He tapped the cigar against a tray before placing it there. “What is your question for me?”
“Sam flew into my office fi
rst thing this morning, angrier than I’ve ever seen her.”
“Can you blame her?”
“No. She was so upset that she slapped me.”
“Is that all? Had I done something like that to Victoria I imagine she’d have come after me with something that held bullets.”
“Mom wouldn’t let anyone take us from her, which is why I feel bad for where Sam and I are now. The attorney and I discussed joint custody first. But that would involve an immense amount of travel for Trey, a disruptive school schedule, that every-other-holiday mess that would be painful as hell. I couldn’t bear to put him through that and I will not live without being a part of his life. I didn’t see any other way around it.”
“You did what you had to do, son. I would have done the same.”
“Seriously?”
“Without a doubt.”
Nicholas’s words were comforting and should have made Nick feel better than he did. He left the estate and headed to Adam’s and a horse ride to further clear his head. He believed that filing for custody of Trey was the right thing to do. Then why did it feel so wrong?
Twenty-One
Sam stayed pissed for three days. She canceled a couple appointments. Didn’t take calls. Except for texts to Danielle and her dad, calls from potential clients, and Trey of course, she didn’t speak with anyone. The situation between her and Nick was too personal. She imagined that those close to her would be on her side, just as she assumed Nick’s family had affirmed his position. In this instance, she’d seek her own counsel. After what felt like thousands of hours of thought, she made a decision and placed a call.
“Breedlove.”
“Hi, it’s me.”
“Sam, if this is about Trey, I’ve been advised not to speak with you. Communication has to go through my lawyer.”
“I’ve decided to stay.” Silence. “Nick, did you hear me? I’m not moving to California. I’m staying here.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“Trey. Not anything he said, but the decision became clear when I focused on him. I’d never deny Trey the chance of knowing and being close with his father. You were right. Breedlove is the best place for him to grow up. I’m not sure there are any affordable options for me out there, but it’s worth finding out.”
