Not His Wife novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Little Girl
Reed came to my door on Tuesday night, and this time he did not say babe.
He stood on the porch with his hands in his pockets, thinner than he had been on Saturday.
"Alyssa texted me," he said.
He held out his phone.
It was a photo of the little girl asleep in a motel bed, one fist under her chin, with the stuffed rabbit tucked beside her.
Under it Alyssa had typed, "Ivy signs the statement, you get her Saturday. She doesn't, you don't."
I looked at the picture for a long time.
The child had done nothing to anybody.
"Please," Reed said. "It's one page. Say you signed the deed and you two settled it. That's all she wants."
"It's not all she wants."
"She'll give me my daughter."
"She'll give you a day with her," I said. "And then she'll want the next thing."
"You don't know that."
"I've known her since I was twelve. I know exactly that."
His face worked.
"You'd let a three-year-old sit in a motel so you can win?"
"No," I said. "Alyssa is letting her sit in a motel so she can win. She's done it with you for six years. She did it with me for twenty."
He stared at me.
"Go to the courthouse in the morning," I said. "Not Friday. Tomorrow. Tell a judge the truth, every word, and ask for your daughter. A judge can give her to you. I can't, and I won't buy her with a lie."
"They'll laugh at me."
"They might."
"I don't have a lawyer. I don't have a truck."
I thought about slamming the door.
I went to the kitchen instead and wrote down the legal aid number from the card the clinic keeps by the register.
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