Chapter 7: The House
Conrad left at four in the morning to go to his own office.
He didn't sleep.
I knew this because he texted Petra at six with the name of a judge he trusted and the outline of an emergency motion.
Petra showed me the screen over coffee while the babies slept upstairs and Alaric sat in the guest room with the door closed.
I had told him to sleep there.
He hadn't argued.
"Conrad says the house transfer is almost certainly unenforceable," Petra said.
"You're on the deed.
He can't move that without your signature."
"He got my signature on the waiver."
"That was buried in another document.
A straight property transfer would need to be its own instrument, notarized, with your name on it explicitly." She wrapped her hands around her mug.
"He would have needed you to sign it knowingly.
Which means he hadn't gotten to that part yet."
"He was going to."
"Yes."
I looked at the baby monitor.
Three green lights, all steady.
"He had a whole timeline," I said.
"The letter.
The waiver.
The guardianship document.
The house.
He was going to do it in stages."
"It looks that way."
"He cried at the ultrasound, Petra.
When the doctor said there were three.
He cried."
She didn't say anything.
"Was any of it real?"
She set her mug down.
"I think some of it was.
I think he got in over his head with her and then the pregnancy worked and he panicked and she pushed him toward a plan instead of a conversation." She paused.
"That doesn't excuse it.
But I don't think he started out wanting to hurt you."
"He ended up there."
"Yes.
He did."
At nine o'clock, Alaric came downstairs dressed for work.
I was feeding Grace in the kitchen.
Luke was in the bouncer on the floor.
Thaddeus was asleep in the bassinet by the window.
Alaric stopped in the doorway.
"I'm going to the office to get the document," he said.
"I'll bring it back and give it to Conrad."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because it's the right thing to do."
"That's a new position for you."
He absorbed that.
"I know."
"Does she know you're handing over the documents?"
A pause.
"I called her this morning.
It's over between us."
"Was that your decision or hers?"
He looked at Grace in my arms.
Something moved across his face.
"Mine," he said.
I didn't respond.
"Nevaeh, I know there's nothing I can say right now that—"
"Then don't say anything." I adjusted Grace against my arm.
"Get the document.
Give it to Conrad.
And then we need to talk about what happens next, because I am not living in this house with you while lawyers sort through everything you built behind my back."
"Where will you go?"
"That's not your concern."
"The babies—"
"Are staying with me." I met his eyes.
"That is not a discussion."
He nodded once.
Picked up his keys.
Walked to the door.
He stopped with his hand on the frame.
"I told myself it was because you'd stopped needing me," he said.
"That you only needed a baby, not a husband.
I told myself that for two years." He didn't turn around.
"I was wrong.
I know that now.
I just wanted you to know that I know."
The door closed.
Grace finished eating.
I held her a moment longer than necessary, her weight warm and solid and entirely real.
Then my phone rang.
It was Conrad.
"Alaric's attorney called me twenty minutes ago," he said.
"Before Alaric called me himself."
I went still.
"What did the attorney say?"
"He said Alaric came to the office this morning and removed something from his desk.
The attorney didn't know what.
But he's concerned enough that he's withdrawing from the case."
"The attorney is withdrawing?"
"Effective immediately.
He cited a conflict of interest." Conrad's voice was careful.
"Nevaeh, if Alaric took that document to destroy it rather than hand it over, that changes things significantly."
I looked at the front door.
"How long ago did he leave?"
"Twenty minutes, you said?"
"He just walked out.
Five minutes ago."
A pause.
May you like
"Don't let him back in without me present," Conrad said.
"I'm on my way."
