Chapter 31
LIZA
Iwas thrilled. Genuinely, completely, stupidly thrilled as we drove back to the estate. Darek had one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding mine. Daisie was in the back seat singing some song she’d made up about water and whales and going home.
The custody battle was over. Daisie was staying with Darek where she belonged. I was so happy for him. He deserved to be happy. More importantly, Daisie deserved to be happy, and being with Derek was where she would be the happiest.
And I helped make that happen. Life was wild.
When we pulled into the driveway, Darek lifted Daisie out of the SUV and carried her on his hip as we walked toward the house.
It was clear he was afraid to let her go.
She was perfectly capable of walking, but he was holding on tight.
I could only imagine the elation and relief he felt.
He was going to be holding on to her pretty tight the next few days.
“I’m hungry!” Daisie announced.
“Way ahead of you, kiddo.” Darek pushed open the front door and the smell hit me first.
When he invited his lawyers and Melody back to the house to celebrate, I was expecting we would order some pizza and open bottles of champagne.
But that was not the plan. I could smell bacon and maybe onions. Whatever it was, it made my stomach growl.
“What is that smell?” I asked.
Darek grinned. “Our celebration.”
We walked through to the kitchen where several people were bustling about. Through the glass doors, I could see the patio had several platters of food set up on tables.
“Did you plan this?” I asked.
“Figured either way, we would need it. But I’m a lot happier eating victory food than defeat food.”
“There’s defeat food?”
“It’s the same food, just sadder.”
I laughed and shook my head. He put Daisie down. “Go wash your hands. Then you can eat whatever you want.”
“Even cake?”
“Even cake. Today is special.”
She ran off, and Darek pulled me close. “Thank you. I know I keep saying it but thank you.”
“You’re welcome. But can we stop thanking each other and start eating? I’m starving. And I know you have to be famished.”
“I am so damn hungry.”
We stepped onto the patio and I was seriously considering running through the trays face first. I was so hungry and it all looked so good.
Sandwiches, little apps that I didn’t know what they were but they were wrapped with bacon.
Fresh fruit. At least twenty different kinds of cheeses and an assortment of sliced meats.
There were several bottles of champagne chilling in buckets.
And on one table was a large cake with pink frosting. When I looked closer, I saw there was an image surrounded by the pink icing. Whales. Several whales that looked airbrushed.
“Now that was a risk,” he said with a laugh. “I told them to toss it if things didn’t go my way.”
“But they did and I think that cake looks amazing.”
By the time Melody and the legal team arrived, we had already started on the food. They walked in looking relaxed and happy, a stark contrast to their tense professionalism in the courthouse. Aaron immediately grabbed a champagne flute.
“To whale science!” he declared, raising his glass. “May it always be relevant in custody disputes!”
“To whale science!” everyone echoed. I felt my face heat with embarrassed pride.
“Seriously though,” Brittany said, coming over to where I stood near the dessert table. “That was incredible. I’ve been practicing family law for eight years and I’ve never seen anything like it. You just stood up and shouted about whales and somehow it worked.”
“I didn’t plan it,” I admitted. “I just saw those whales in the background and my brain went ‘wait, that’s wrong,’ and then suddenly I was on my feet yelling.”
“Well, your impulsive whale knowledge saved the day.” She clinked her glass against mine. “Darek’s lucky to have you.”
“I’m lucky to have him too.”
“I wish all our cases could be won with whale science,” Aaron joked at one point. “It would make my job so much more interesting.”
Everyone laughed, and I found myself grinning so hard my face hurt.
“I’m not billing you for this time,” Aaron announced with a laugh.
“And I won’t bill you for the bottle of Dom you’ve put away,” Darek shot back.
I grabbed a plate and loaded it with sandwiches, fruit, and several of those bacon-wrapped things that I still couldn’t identify but tasted incredible. Daisie appeared beside me, her hands freshly washed, eyes wide at all the food options.
“Can I really have anything?” she asked, like she was confirming Darek hadn’t been joking.
“Anything you want,” I told her. “It’s a special day.”
She carefully selected items, building a plate that was mostly fruit and cheese with one sandwich cut into triangles. Then she looked up at me with those big, curious eyes.
“Liza, why does everyone keep talking about whales?”
My hand froze halfway to grabbing another sandwich. I glanced around, but the adults were all clustered near the champagne, laughing about something Aaron was saying.
“I got to talk about them today. At the courthouse. It was pretty cool.” I wasn’t lying, exactly. Just severely editing.
“Did you see real whales?”
“Not today. But I saw pictures of them.”
“Oh and you told them about the whales?”
“Yep.” I smiled and nodded. “Let’s find somewhere to sit before your dad eats all the good stuff.”
I steered her toward one of the patio tables, successfully distracting her from the whale questions.
The last thing I wanted was to explain the custody hearing to a seven-year-old.
That was Darek’s job, whenever he decided she was ready to hear about it.
Or maybe he’d never tell her. Either way, it wasn’t my place.
Darek spotted us and immediately came over, his own plate piled high. “Room for one more?”
“Always,” I said, scooting over on the bench.
He sat down beside me, close enough that our thighs touched. Daisie sat across from us, swinging her legs under the table as she munched on a strawberry.
“This is fun,” she announced through a mouthful of fruit.
“I’m glad you’re happy, kiddo,” Darek said.
“Are you happy, Daddy?”
“The happiest I’ve been in a long time.”
“What about you, Liza? Are you happy?”
“Oh yes,” I said. “Very.”
The party wound down eventually, the legal team heading home with promises to send final paperwork and options for going after Grant. The staff cleared the food, and suddenly it was just the three of us.
“Can we go down to the water?” Daisie asked. “I want to see if there are any whales.”
“It’s getting dark, kiddo,” Darek said. “And the whales are probably too far out to see from shore anyway.”
“Please? Just for a little bit?”
He looked at me. I shrugged. “I could use the fresh air.”
We walked down to the beach with the sun already on its way out for the day. The water was calm, reflecting the orange and pink sky. The sound of waves was soothing after the intensity of the day.
Daisie ran ahead, her earlier dress now replaced with comfortable clothes. She looked happy and free and exactly like a kid should look, unburdened by adult concerns.
“Thank you,” Darek said quietly as we walked. “I know I keep saying it, but I mean it.”
“You really do keep saying it.”
“I need you to understand. What you did today, standing up in that courtroom, using your knowledge to prove that photo was fake? You saved my family. You saved me.”
“I still can’t believe I stood up in court and interrupted things,” I said, shaking my head.
“I’m pretty sure that’s contempt or something.
The judge looked like she wanted to throw me out.
I’ve never done anything like that before.
I’m always the wallflower. I go out of my way to go unnoticed.
I think if I would have had two seconds to consider what I was doing, I wouldn’t have done it. I absolutely would have chickened out.”
“But you did it anyway. You risked contempt of court and getting thrown out and looking foolish because you knew you were right.”
“I knew the whales were wrong. That’s different.”
“You’re brave.”
“I don’t know about brave. Impulsive, maybe. Reckless, definitely.”
“Brave,” he insisted. “And brilliant.”
Daisie came running back, her hands cupped around something. “Look! I found a shell!”
We crouched down together, the three of us examining the shell in Daisie’s hands.
After walking until the sun was nearly set, we made our way back to the path that led to the house.
“It’s time for you to get ready for bed,” Darek said to Daisie when we walked into the house.
“But I’m not tired!”
“You’re always not tired at bedtime.”
Daisie sighed dramatically. “Can Liza help with my bedtime?”
“Of course she can.” Darek looked at me. “If you want to?”
“I’d love to.”
Inside, we went through the bedtime routine.
Teeth brushing, pajamas, the reading of two books instead of the usual one because today was special.
Daisie insisted I read one and Darek read the other.
I sat on one side of her bed while he sat on the other, both of us taking turns with the storytelling.
She was asleep within minutes, her breathing evening out, her hand still clutching the stuffed whale I’d given her what felt like a lifetime ago but was really less than a month.
Darek and I stood in her doorway for a moment, watching her sleep.
We went downstairs and out onto the back patio. The sun had fully set now, stars beginning to appear in the darkening sky. Darek pulled me close. We stood there looking out at the ocean.
“This morning, I was terrified I was going to lose her,” he said. “And now everything is different. Everything is better. Because of you.”
I spotted an unopened bottle of champagne still sitting in one of the ice buckets, the ice mostly melted but the bottle still cold. “We should finish what we started,” I said, nodding toward it.
Darek grinned and retrieved it, working the cork free. It popped with a satisfying sound. He poured the golden liquid into two flutes.
“To whale science,” he said, echoing Aaron’s earlier toast.
“To impulsive outbursts in courtrooms,” I countered.
“To us.”
We clinked glasses before taking a sip. The champagne was crisp and dry, bubbles dancing on my tongue. We settled into the patio furniture, the cushions still warm from the afternoon sun. The sound of rolling waves soothed my soul.
“I can’t believe this day,” I said, leaning back and looking up at the stars beginning to emerge. “This morning I was so nervous I thought I might throw up. And now we’re sitting here drinking champagne and Daisie is safe in her bed upstairs.”
“It worked out.”
I looked over at him. I could see the tension was finally gone. “You can breathe again,” I observed.
“I can breathe again,” he agreed. He took a long sip of champagne. “I don’t think I’ve properly breathed since Sasha filed for custody. Every moment felt like I was holding my breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“And now?”
“Now I feel like I can actually think about the future instead of just surviving the present.”
We sat in the quiet, sipping champagne and listening to the ocean. The evening had cooled, but it wasn’t cold.
“When I saw the way the judge looked at me—like I was some neglectful piece of shit who didn’t deserve to be a father—I thought it was over. I thought I lost.”
“But you didn’t.”
He downed the rest of his glass and got to his feet. He reached out for my hand, which I willingly gave. He pulled me in for a kiss.
“Let’s go to bed,” he murmured against my lips. “I need to properly thank you.”