38. Alex
Alex
My hands clench with every step as I try to tame my temper. After watching what went down in that courtroom, I don’t know if I will ever be calm again.
How someone can look in the face of a person who’s been abused and tell them their experience isn’t real is the true work of evil.
Letting that be the deciding factor for the welfare and safety of children is incompetent at best. An entire system failed them today, and I don’t intend to let that stand.
As I reach the hall again, I see their mother still standing there as I hoped. She is staring down at her phone, a gluttonous and disgusting grin on her face. I have to take a big breath before I approach, and even then, I can’t help the sneer as I look down on her.
“Can I help you?” she asks before looking up.
When I don’t respond, her eyes meet mine and widen. Then she has the nerve to add heat to them and lift the corners with a grin.
“Aren’t you Chanice’s man?”
That doesn’t stop her from snaking her hand up my arm. I quickly remove it and try to swallow the bile that rose up my throat at the touch.
“I was hoping I could make you an offer,” I say.
This gets her eyebrows to rise as she looks at me hungrily. I stifle the repulsed growl at her unabashed desire. As if she hasn’t done enough today, she thinks above all else that she can seduce me away from her daughter.
“What kind of offer?”
“If you want to know, meet me at this location in an hour.” I pull out a paper with an address and hand it to her. Before I change my mind about my chosen method of persuasion, I turn and walk away.
I don’t look back, and I don’t stop until I am seated in a booth at the back of the restaurant.
I could have just brought her here with me now, but I need time to think this through and find the right way to approach the situation.
I also need to breathe and let go of some of my rage. But how can I?
Watching the woman I love ball her eyes out while she told all of them how her life was growing up broke something in me.
She showed all of us, in so many words, all of the ways her mother has hurt her in a plea to save her siblings.
While that was happening, those kids were crying in my arms, practically shaking in fear.
All of them so clearly displayed signs that should have been enough to take away their mother’s control over them.
It was obvious to anyone watching what their fear meant, but apparently not to the judge or to the social worker who fought to do more harm.
To them, the stories of neglect and abuse were just the opinions of a child.
So they ignored the facts and made the incorrect decision, and I couldn’t do anything. I just had to watch as they made it clear that the entitlement of parenthood dictates that the circumstances of the children’s lives are secondary to an adult’s claim of rights.
Well, now that the system has failed, I intend to take matters into my own hands.
I order a Scotch straight with no chaser, then I steel my nerves while I wait for her to be shown to my table.
I made sure to choose a discreet location and a private room to limit the chances of us being seen together.
Not that it will matter if we are. The weight of my wealth and connections won’t result in anything anyway.
A load I, for once, am happy to bear as I plan to use it to my advantage.
If things go how I want, then it won’t even come to that.
The way she smiles when she is sliding into her seat, I know that she will fold.
Still misconstruing the situation, she flips her hair and bats her eyelashes like I’m here for her.
There are traces of her daughter in her face, and in another life, if the years were easier on her, she would have been beautiful. But she is nothing but the beast who haunts the nightmares of the people I love. If I can’t slay it today, I plan to make sure it never returns.
“So, what’s this about?” She tries to wrap her fingers around my wrist, but I move them away from her and place them in my lap. Undeterred, she twirls her stringy hair and continues to smile.
I go right to the point, not wanting to delay this conversation any longer.
“We both know that the children are better off in Chanice’s care.”
“Excuse me!” Already incensed, she slams her hand on the table.
“What I don’t understand is why you want them. I don’t know if you think you can extort your daughter, since money is the first thing you asked for from her when you first called. But even with that and government assistance, it would be more expensive to have them than not to. So what is it?”
“I want them because they are my damn kids. I love them.”
“Do you?”
“Fuck you.” She goes to stand, so I grab on to her wrist.
“Please sit. I think I have something you might want more.”
“I don’t want anything more than my kids.” The way she eases back into the seat says enough.
“I’m willing to offer you any amount of money you want to walk away.”
Her eyes widen as she looks me up and down, taking in my suit, my watch, and the clear distinction of my demeanor. She is weighing her options, and that is enough to tell me she doesn’t actually love them.
If it were Chanice, or even any mother in this city struggling to get through each month, they would have thrown my drink in my face and walked away.
But she is doing the math, and that just adds up to the fact that she doesn’t deserve them.
There is no price you can put on those kids that would make their sister give them up.
But for her, there is, and when she names it, I fight back the urge to throw up.
“What if I said fifty thousand?” She licks her lips and her eyes dart around the room as she leans in and whispers.
“Then I would say you can have it by 12 p.m. tomorrow when you sign away your rights.”
Her eyes go big, and she can’t help her smile. “Well, I didn’t agree to that amount. I was just throwing a number out there.”
“Well, let me throw a number out there. I’ll double it, and that’s the most I’ll do.
If you try to increase it again, the offer is off the table.
If you blow through it in a month and try to come back, the choice won’t be this one.
This will not turn into a blackmail attempt.
This is it, and if you ever try to turn it into anything else, I will not be as kind. ”
Her nostrils flare, but quickly she goes back to breathing normally. “You’re really going to give me one hundred thousand pounds? Just so I give my kids to her?”
“Yes.” I take a sip of my drink, trying to wash down the guilt that she will be walking away from this day with anything. But it’s better that it’s money than them.
Her eyes scour my face before she blows out a breath of air. “You really want to know why I want them?”
Despite the fact that it doesn’t matter, I do. She leans back in her seat, getting comfortable.
“Because no one loves you like your kids. I deserve that after everything I’ve been through.”
I don’t know why I’m surprised that the reason is selfish.
What else would it be? Still, it gives me a little insight into my own parents.
I know they needed me to carry on the name, and that’s the whole reason I’m here, but maybe my mother wanted to stay in my life after I took over the company because she also needed that unwavering love I always offered her.
Whatever life did to make her the way she is, part of her still needed to be needed.
The thing is, both of these women could have had it all if they had just given some of it back.
“You can pick up the cash here after we have confirmation that you relinquished your rights,” I say, handing her another card. She quickly takes it, then taps it against the palm of her hand. When it’s clear that our business is done, she still doesn’t stand.
“You know she’s not worth it.”
All the calmness I was able to gain quickly evaporates from my body due to the heat of my anger.
“She’s worth more than you deserve. She is every good thing in this world wrapped up in a beautiful package.
She is the epitome of love, and it still wasn’t enough for you.
I don’t know what dark hole exists inside of you, or what your own parents did to put it there, but despite her constantly trying to fill you up, you still weren’t able to take everything from her.
“You don’t see her value, but I do, and I plan to spend the rest of my life showing it to her until she knows she is priceless.”
Her lips peel back as she crushes the paper in her hands. This time, she’s not able to tame the monster inside of her, and it truly shows how green she is.
Even though all Chanice has ever done is love her mom, this woman hates her, and she will spend the rest of her life hating her while knowing I will be countering it with all my love. But that’s not my problem, and it’s no longer Chanice’s.
I stand up and take my leave without looking back. When I get a call the next day saying she picked up the money, I hope that her kids will never look back, too.