Chapter 9
Connor
At some point after our sex on the couch, we ended up in my room.
By the grace of God, tonight was the night Faith decided she wanted to sleep, and she left us alone for the most part.
That is until the loud pounding on my front door.
I turn, finding Maddie in my arms, where I want her to be, and I sure as hell don't want to get out of bed.
But if whoever is at the door keeps it up, Faith will be awake, and she will not be a happy camper, and Maddie will wake as well.
I get to the door, flinging it open, intent on giving whoever has decided to wake us up today a piece of my mind.
On the other side is a woman who looks vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember her name or place her if I tried.
Though she stands there like she expects me to know her and recognize her or she's waiting for me to acknowledge her, I still have no clue who she is.
Eventually, she rolls her eyes at me like she honestly cannot believe that I don't know who she is.
"Wow! You really don't recognize the mother of your daughter?” That's when it clicks. This is Faith's mother and my one-night stand. Even though I know I should keep things civil for Faith, for some reason, she just grates on my nerves and my little dig slips out.
"Well, considering I was drunk and that night in my head I was with someone else, no I don't." That statement seems to irritate her for just a moment and throws her slightly off-kilter.
"What do you want?" I ask, not even attempting to hide my irritation.
"I want to be a part of my daughter's life, a part of your life," she says it all sweetly, as if she's trying to flirt. But I'm not buying it.
"No, you abandoned my daughter on my doorstep after not telling me about her. Who the hell does that? Have your lawyer contact my lawyer."
With that, I close the door and find Maddie standing in the hallway. She has an odd look on her face, and I have to wonder how much of that she actually heard.
"Was that her?" she asks, almost like she doesn't want to know the answer.
"Faith's egg donor. Yes, that was her, unfortunately," I say unable to keep the irritation away.
Maddie takes a step forward and places a hand on my arm and that simple touch calms me. How she knew it would, I'll never know. Taking a deep breath, I pull her into my arms.
"Call your sister and let her know. I'm pretty sure you did the right thing, but there might be something going on in the background we don't know about," Maddie says into my chest. Though I know she's right, I want to hold on to her for just a moment more before I let go and call my sister.
When I get Megan on the line, she's awake. Judging by the sounds in the background, I think she’s on her way to work.
"I didn't think you were ever up this early, but with a newborn, I guess it makes sense. How are things going?" she greets almost a little too cheerfully.
I fill her in about Faith’s mom's visit.
"You did the right thing. I'm honestly surprised she showed up. Even though she was just served with the notice papers, I really did not expect to hear from her since she had already signed her rights away. I just thought this would be an easy process."
"So, what does this mean now?"
"Honestly, it means that we will be in court. Let me see if I can pull a few strings and get us a court date as soon as we can arrange it. I'll talk to you later."
When I get off the phone with Megan, I don't feel much better than before I called her. But at least we’re on top of the situation.
I find Maddie in the baby's room, sitting in the rocking chair, feeding the baby her morning bottle. Faith's little hand is gripping Maddie's finger as she drinks her bottle and stares up at her.
A few weeks ago, I never could have imagined this or how I'd feel about it. But standing here today, I couldn't imagine starting my morning off without it. I know I will use everything I have to fight for this little girl.
Maddie looks up at me and gives me a smile, and it's as if she can read my thoughts.
"You have a lot of evidence on your side. All the stuff she left you in the folder, the letter, just all of it. Let’s not stress until we hear back from Megan, okay?"
Easier said than done, but I just nod and agree with her. It's going to be hard not to stress, but it's not going to do any of us any good if I do.
Maddie
Today is our court date, and I have no clue how Megan got us a date so soon. She must have more connections than she lets on. Of course, the way the judge looks at Megan when he steps into the courtroom might be a clue; though he regains his composure really quickly.
It's been three weeks since Faith's mother showed up at Connors's door wanting shared custody. We haven't heard a peep from her since, but apparently, Megan has been in contact with her lawyer.
I'm sitting in court with Faith and am directly behind Connor and Megan.
Right beside me are Connor's parents, who have taken every chance to spend time with Faith as possible, allowing us quite a few date nights over the past few weeks.
Though Connor still finds it hard to spend time away from Faith, which I think is absolutely adorable.
As the proceedings start and the lawyers begin giving the information about why we are here today, something about Faith's mom just seems off.
Even though she has a direct eye line to the baby, she hasn't looked over at her once.
For someone who wants to co-parent and swears she misses this child who she hasn't seen in going on almost two months, you would think she'd be trying to catch any glimpse of her she can.
Hell, I'm not even Faith’s mother, but if I hadn't seen her in even a few days, I'd be trying to catch any look at her I could. That alone doesn't sit right with me. Throughout the entire proceedings, every time Faith makes a noise, her mom doesn't react. Acting like she doesn't even hear it.
As her mother's lawyer talks about how his client wants to co-parent and in return wants child support, something begins clicking in the back of my head.
Megan has a solid case about her abandoning the child, the letter signing over the rights.
All of it. How she had absolutely no contact until the papers were served and then all of a sudden, she wants to be a mother again.
Megan shows the doctor's report from when Connor took her to the doctor the first day, stating the baby was underweight and using that as a probability that Faith's mother hadn't been taking care of her properly.
The judge asks if a DNA test has been done and those papers get submitted. I swear it feels like he spends hours looking over all the papers and everything that has been submitted by both lawyers before he speaks again. In reality, it was probably only a few minutes.
"I'm going to have you do some mediation and see if you can't settle this outside of the courtroom. In the meantime, the child is to remain in the sole custody of the father. A social worker will come to both homes to determine that they are both child-friendly and appropriate places for the child to live. Also that the child is being well taken care of in the father’s custody as the mother seems to have some questions about that.
" A few more orders are given, and then we are dismissed. Sitting there, I’m in disbelief that they had the nerve to say that Connor wasn't taking care of his daughter.
On the way home, I can't seem to shake this nagging feeling that's been in the back of my head since entering that courtroom. But Connor already has enough on his plate and enough on his mind after the judgment hearing, so I don't dare bring it up.
By the time we get home, Connor isn't even trying to hide how stressed out he is, and of course, Faith picks up on it.
"I've got her. Go take a hot shower, relax, and regroup for a few minutes because she's picking up on your stress." He hesitates for a moment like he's going to say no, before he nods and kisses me on the forehead, heading off to take a shower.
I give Faith her bottle and wait until I hear the shower running before I call Megan. When I share my thoughts, she agrees, and we chat a bit about how that could possibly help the case.
Later that night after Faith is in bed and asleep, I curl into bed with Connor, and he pulls me into his arms. We sit there together neither of us speaking right away.
"I can't lose her, not even part-time." he whispers, and I take his hand in mine.
"I know." I don't want to give him any false hope, but I wish I could comfort him more, too.
"It's like you each have a half of my heart and I can't live without either half. I love you both too damn much to be away from either of you." I'm not sure he realizes what he just said.
I pull away to look back at him and there are tears just on the surface of his eyes and he gives me a shy smile.
"I love you, Maddie. It’s crazy that I can't think of anything else. But it’s a don't want to be away from you even for one night kind of love."
My heart races. We said these words way back when, but it never felt like this. It's like throughout all these years our feelings took a back seat and grew without us knowing, only to push forward again when we were back in the same space.
"I love you too, Connor. So damn much." My lips crash into his, and this time he slowly spends the night making love to me as we get lost in each other when the rest of the world is too much right now.