41. Chapter 41
Iwas surprised when Iris was in Dr. Ryan”s waiting room for a session with Sophia.
”How are you, Gabe?” she asked silkily, and I felt a frisson of fear run through me. She was up to something.
I had now gotten enough information to know that Iris wanted money. She didn”t have a lot, and her parents weren”t going to fund her life either. Her lawyer had brought that up with mine, and I”d told him to ask her to go fuck herself. No fucking way was I giving more money to a woman who was hurting our child.
”I”m good, Iris. And you?” I looked at my watch. Another five minutes before Dr. Ryan would ask us to come in and join Sophia.
”I hear you are back with that woman.” She looked at her nails as she spoke. ”Looks like she”s got her gold-digging claws into you.”
”She”s never taken a dime from me, Iris, unlike you, so I don”t know who the gold digger is.”
”I”m your wife,” she ground out.
”Ex-wife,” I reminded, knowing it was futile.
Iris used to not be like this. We used to not be like this. But as our loveless marriage had continued, I think we”d both gotten bitter. The fights and arguments had escalated. She became meaner, and I became colder until I reached a point where I just zoned her out. That was the only way I could think to keep the marriage going until Sophia was not living at home. But that had exacerbated the situation, and Iris started to lose her temper at the drop of the hat. Finally, as I lay in an emergency room having someone sew a cut on my foot made by a shard of glass from a broken vase Iris had thrown at me, I realized our relationship was unsustainable.
”I”ll always be your wife, Gabe,” she said solemnly. ”I”ve only loved one man, and that”s you.”
I gave out a harsh laugh. ”And how did you show me this love, Iris? By yelling at me all day? By fighting with me all the time? By throwing things at me? By slapping me? By manipulating our child into treating someone I care about poorly? How did you show me this love?”
”By staying with you.” There were tears in her eyes, and I knew they were manufactured. ”By being honest to our vows. Don”t tell me you weren”t sleeping around while we were together.”
”Never,” I bit out. ”I never ever cheated on my marriage. And if you think that”s the kind of man I am, you obviously don”t know me very well.”
”I know you just fine, Gabe. I think you are under some mistaken notion about who I am. If you think I”m going to let you go be with someone else when we”re married, you”re mistaken.”
”And you”re nuts,” I replied, honestly shocked, ”we”re not married, Iris. You do know that, right?”
”Till death do us part, baby.”
On that ominous note, Dr. Ryan asked us to join Sophia.
She sat almost huddled in her chair, and my heart went out to her. Something was going on with my kid, and I didn”t know how to help her. She”d bounced back during the summer, but since school had started, it was like she was a shell of the person she used to be.
”Sophia has something she needs to tell you, Gabe.” Dr. Ryan nodded encouragingly at my daughter.
She looked at me with troubled blue eyes. ”Daddy, I want to stay with Mama full-time.”
I heard her, but I had trouble processing what she said. I felt like a bomb had exploded somewhere. I turned to look at Dr. Ryan, who showed no emotion, while Iris looked very smug.
”Sweetpea, can you tell me why?” I managed to get the words out of my constricted throat.
”You have Aurora, and Mama has no one. I…feel I should be there for her.”
Iris was obviously manipulating her again.
”So, if I wasn”t with Aurora?”
Sophia”s eyes went stormy. ”But you love her; you should be with her. She makes you happy. That”s not what this is.”
”So, you don”t want to stay at our place?” I couldn”t believe my heart could hurt quite this much, that it could bleed this way.
She shook her head but didn”t look at me.
”At all?”
”We can do every other weekend…when we can see Nana and Grandpa,” she whispered.
”Sophia, can you look at me, darling?” I tried to keep my anger at Iris out of my voice and stay calm.
She did, and the pain in her eyes ripped me apart. Something was going on here, and I wish she”d tell me. I”d see my baby girl once every other week for two days. Four days or so a month.
”I mean, you”re selling the house and moving. So, I think this will be for the best.” Sophia turned away, not looking at Iris or me, just staring blankly at the wall behind Dr. Ryan.
”What if we didn”t sell the house?” I asked, knowing that was a recipe for disaster, but it couldn”t be worse than this.
Sophia shrugged. ”But you”ve locked Mama out of the house, and…Aurora is there. I mean, you even had her stay there when you weren”t at home.”
”I don”t know why you couldn”t just have asked her to stay with me,” Iris piped up. ”You didn”t have to ask your whore to—”
”Iris, you need to stop using that kind of language with your daughter,” Dr. Ryan cut in.
”Fine. Girlfriend. Is that better?” Iris flung her hands up in the air. ”She didn”t have to take care of Sophia. She has a mother who is capable and able.”
”When do you want this to start, Sweetpea?” I wanted to cry. Honest to God, weep. My child didn”t want to be with me. There was really nothing to do anymore.
”Right away,” she whispered.
”Okay.” I”d talk to my lawyer, but even though I knew that someone her age could choose, I didn”t want to drag her to my house and make her stay with me if she didn”t want to.
”And…I think I don”t need to see Dr. Ryan anymore.” This time, she looked at me, and her eyes were clear but in a way that told me she”d practiced it, had fought to put emotion aside.
”Sweetpea, hasn”t Dr. Ryan been helping you?”
”She”s helped enough, Gabe,” Iris sighed. ”If you want to keep seeing her, knock yourself out. But Sophia and I are done.”
Iris rose. ”Come on, Sophia, let”s go. She”ll pack up her stuff and be outta your hair, Gabe.”
Sophia stood up, her shoulders slumped. I pulled her into a hug, and she clung to me for a long moment.
”I love you, Sweetpea.”
”I love you too, Daddy.” There were tears in her voice.
I kissed her forehead and smiled. ”You call me every night to say goodnight and text good morning. Okay?”
She nodded and gave me a pathetic half-smile.
”Sophia, wait outside. I just need to talk to your father,” Iris ordered, and my daughter left, her movements hurried.
”What the fuck have you done?” I hissed.
Iris waved a hand. ”Our daughter doesn”t like it that you”re fucking some strange woman in her home. I told you this is how it would end, and you wouldn”t listen. Now that she”s staying with me full-time, my lawyer will be in touch with you about child support.”
”Is that all this is about? Money?” I asked. I”d give her millions as long as she didn”t fuck my kid up, didn”t take her away.
”No, Gabe, this is about you learning that you shouldn”t have broken up our family. When you”ve learned that lesson, you can crawl your ass back home, and we can all be together again.”
With that, she spun around and left.
I sat down, still in shock.
”She”s emotionally blackmailing Sophia,” Dr. Ryan told me.
I nodded. I got that.
”Sophia wouldn”t admit to that. Simply said she loved you both, but her mother needed her more.”
”Iris needs money,” I clipped.
”I can see that.”
I took a deep breath. ”What do I do?”
Dr. Ryan shrugged. ”It”s hard. You can make child support conditional to Sophia”s continuing therapy. Even if not with me, then someone. She needs it. Especially now. I don”t trust Iris, and I still think you should go to a judge to petition for full custody.”
”And how would that work when Sophia will tell a judge she wants to be with her mother?”
”The judge will listen to her,” Dr. Rya agreed, ”And my testimony will be trumped by a therapist Iris puts on the stand who”ll say the opposite of what I will.”
”So, I”ve lost my kid.” How the fuck did this happen? After all that I”d done to keep her with me, keep her safe.
”No,” Dr. Ryan said firmly. ”Sophia needs you more than ever now. Iris is emotionally messing this kid up, and she needs you. So, make sure you talk to her every day, so she knows that even though she wants to be with her mother, you don”t hold it against her, blame her for how you”re feeling.”
”No way do I blame her. She”s a kid. She”s a good kid. She was getting along so well with Aurora. I don”t know what the fuck happened.”
”She told me how much she likes your girlfriend, how much she enjoys being with her. She liked baking with her.”
”Yeah, and…now I feel like because I have Aurora, I can”t have Sophia.”
”That”s how Iris wants you to feel.”
I dropped my face in my hands. I felt like everything I”d always treasured and wanted was somehow slipping away from me.
”What if I broke up with Aurora?” I asked, and the thought made me sick. This would kill her—and I”d be no better.
”Do you want to?”
”I will if I have to.”
”And get back with Iris?” Dr. Ryan challenged.
I sighed. ”That would only fuck up Sophia more. You see how we are with one another?”
Dr. Ryan nodded. ”Sophia will blame herself if you break up with your girlfriend. Your ex won”t change her behavior no matter what you do. This will continue even if you were to go back to her. That will destroy both you and Sophia.”
And Aurora!
Instinctively, I knew that, but right now, I was losing my kid, and I wanted to do something, anything, to stop that.
”What about the house?”
”Stay put until we clear this up.”
”You think we can?”
Dr. Ryan smiled sadly. ”Iris”s manipulation won”t last. This is going to blow up in her face, but the sad truth is it”s going to hurt Sophia as well. I just…wish she”d talk to us. But a mother”s voice is powerful, and Iris is a narcissist who knows how to twist your daughter up.”