Jilted Wife Returns As A Billionaire Heiress novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Emotional Instability

Trent serves an emergency custody petition calling Elsie unstable and alone; she demands her $410,000 in front of the nurses, sets her terms with Darius, and Trent dares her to sue.

The envelope landed on the blanket beside Nora's foot.

Elsie did not touch it.

"I'm only the messenger, ma'am," the man in the gray coat said, and he left.

Trent set his grocery-store roses on the end of the bed and smiled at the room.

"I'd rather not have done it this way," he said. "I wanted to see them first."

"You wanted to see them with a lawyer's paper in your pocket?" Elsie asked.

"Open it, El."

She opened it.

It was nine pages, stapled, with a court stamp on the top corner.

She read the first page, then the second, and then she read the heading out loud, because she wanted everyone in the room to hear it.

"Emergency petition for temporary custody of two minor children."

Trent's smile held.

"It lists the reasons," Elsie said. "No stable home. No family. No steady income. And a pattern of emotional instability."

She turned the page toward Darius, who stood by the door with his arms folded and had not said a word.

"Emotional instability," she said. "That's me, apparently."

"It's what the lawyer wrote," Trent said. "It's just the language they use."

"You told a judge I'm unstable."

"I told a judge you were alone in a ward with no one to help you. Which you were, Elsie."

Imogen stepped between them with her hands up.

"Okay. Okay, both of you. She had two babies six hours ago."

She turned to Trent.

"Take the roses and the paper and go sit in the hall for a minute. Please."

Then she turned back to Elsie, and her face was soft.

"Don't fight him in here, love. Let him have his visits and sign whatever makes it quiet. A court fight costs more than you have."

It was good advice, and it was the kind a friend gives.

Elsie looked at the babies, and at the stamp on the page, and something in her went still and cold.

"I'm not signing anything," she said.

"Elsie."

"I'm not signing, Imogen. He had no right to call me that."

Trent exhaled through his nose.

"Fine. We'll do it in front of a judge, then."

"We will," Elsie said. "And first you'll pay me back."

His eyebrows went up.

"You'll pay me back the four hundred and ten thousand dollars."

She picked up her phone from the tray, found the photo she had taken the day he signed it, and held it up.

It was a single sheet in his handwriting, dated and witnessed, with his signature at the bottom.

"I photograph everything at the pharmacy," she said. "Every count. Every sign-off. It's a habit."

"That was a gift."

"It says loan. It says ninety days from demand, and this is my demand, in front of three witnesses."

She nodded at Imogen, at Darius, and at the open door.

In the doorway, two nurses and an orderly had stopped to listen.

Trent glanced at them, and his smile finally slipped.

"Not here," he said.

"You came here."

"You'll regret making this public."

"Maybe," Elsie said. "But you'll be the one explaining it."

Darius moved at last.

He crossed the room without a sound and stopped beside the bed, and he looked at Trent for a long time.

"Who's this?" Trent asked.

"A friend of the family," Elsie said.

"Darius Ames," Darius said.

He did not offer his hand.

Imogen studied him with open curiosity and held her own out instead.

"Imogen Crane. I'm Elsie's best friend. She's never mentioned you."

"She hasn't mentioned much," Darius said.

He shook it politely, and let go.

Trent looked from one of them to the other.

"Well. Aren't you well protected, all of a sudden."

"The lawyers can talk," Darius said to Elsie. "Mine are good and they're free tonight. You don't have to say yes to anything."

"No."

He waited.

"No lawyers from your side," she said. "I don't want your family's anything. If I use your people, it's the end of the story I've been telling myself for six years."

She turned her head toward him.

"I'll take the suite for tonight, because I can't move and the babies need a bed. I'll pay you back. And nobody uses my name in this building."

"Which name?" Darius asked.

"Either one."

"Understood."

It was the plainest agreement of her life, and he accepted it with a nod.

Trent laughed, a short sour sound.

"Nobody uses your name. That's rich, El. You've been hiding for six years, and now you're making rules."

"Get out."

"I'm leaving. I'll see the babies in court."

He picked his roses off the bed, thought better of it, and dropped them in the bin by the door.

"Sue me," he said. "I mean it. Rafferty Row has backers with better lawyers than a pharmacy tech can find."

He left, and the door sighed shut behind him.

Imogen squeezed Elsie's hand.

"I'll go after him," she said. "I'll see what he's got, and who's behind him. Don't worry about a thing."

She kissed Elsie's forehead and went out.

Elsie sat very still in the quiet.

Darius looked at the closed door for a long moment.

"How long have you known her?" he asked.

"Six years."

"Who is she?" he asked.

"My best friend."

He nodded slowly.

"I'll be by the door," he said.

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