5. Murray
It turned out a judge needed verifiable evidence before putting in the emergency arrangement order. While my private investigator was hard at work trying to find that evidence, I had the agonizing task of returning Kelly to Jill.
My daughter was so distraught by this news, I decided to treat her as an adult and explain that if I didn’t return her, it would hurt my chances of getting sole custody. I relayed what I was trying to do and my hope that she would only be with Jill for another week or so.
“I could tell the judge what’s happening. Surely that’s proof?” Kelly had asked, her lip trembling like she was fighting not to cry. In that moment, she sounded her age. She might think she was all grown up, but she was a child, and it was my job to fix this.
My chest felt shredded then and now as we pulled up to the large house Jill paid for with the money she raked in from my company. It was a renovated Edwardian in an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of Edinburgh City.
While Kelly understood why I didn’t want her testifying, I knew she was frustrated with me for taking that decision from her. I just … I knew what it was like to carry guilt over a parent, and I didn’t want her to go through that mental anguish.
Thankfully, Jill had not been contacted regarding my application for the order, so I still had that advantage.
As much as I didn’t want Jill leaving Kelly alone, if the private investigator recorded her departing the house and not returning for a long period, it would be all I’d need to get Kelly back.
“I’ll be okay, Dad.” My daughter squeezed my hand, comforting me. “We can do this. She’s going to do something stupid to slip up.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, hating that my fourteen-year-old had been drawn into this custody war and was talking battle strategy with me.
“You just … you focus on school and your friends and let me deal with this.”
My daughter gave me a patently patronizing smile like I was the naive one and got out of the Discovery.
I followed her, my stomach sick with dread.
We’d departed from Leth Sholas at seven in the morning.
The journey to Edinburgh took just under five hours and we’d stopped for breakfast in Oban and a break at the halfway point.
It was now two in the afternoon, and if I wanted to get the last ferry back to Glenvulin, I couldn’t linger.
The powerlessness, the frustration, practically choked me as I got Kelly’s small suitcase out of the SUV and rolled it across the long drive into her mother’s house.
I couldn’t even look at the garish, lavishly decorated home as I followed Kelly inside. I left the suitcase in the grand entrance and let Kelly’s voice guide me into a massive open-plan kitchen and living area.
The gold accents and ornaments everywhere were almost blinding.
Jill was on a stool at the kitchen island and there was some bloke on the opposite side of the marble-topped piece of furniture. His oily grin was focused on my daughter as Kelly stood awkwardly in front of her mother who assessed her appearance like she gave a fuck.
“You need to stop letting her eat like a pig when she’s with you.” Jill stared past Kelly to me. “She’s put on weight.”
“Like hell she has,” I seethed.
Kelly hurried over to me, eyes suddenly dull. “I’m … I’m going to my room, Dad.” The lack of hope in her expression fucking broke me. “I’ll … see you soon.”
I pulled her into my arms and whispered, “So soon, m’eudail. Promise.”
She nodded, her breath hitching with her struggle to contain her tears.
“For goodness’ sake, she’s not a baby anymore, Mur. Let the girl go to her room if she wants to.”
Reluctantly I released my daughter, pressed a slow kiss to her forehead, and promised her again I’d see her soon. Kelly marched from the room, and I glowered at my ex-wife.
It seemed impossible to me that there was a time when I not only found Jill attractive but that I once held affection for her. After we had Kelly, I even thought I loved my ex.
Now I knew it was merely the bond over having a child.
Jill grew quickly bored with motherhood once Kelly was walking and needed more of her attention.
For years, we’d drifted apart, and I was ashamed to admit I’d stayed in the marriage for as long as I did, not just for Kelly’s sake, but for the company’s sake, knowing this viper would take a cut every month. A cut of something she had put no energy into.
When I met Jill, I’d fallen for her sad, ‘abandoned by her father, neglected by her mother’ kid act.
She’d told me her father had taken all of her mum’s money and valuables when he left, leaving them with nothing.
It was an excuse for her trust issues, for the need for a prenup.
She told me she was just looking for a home, a safe place, and the protector in me couldn’t help himself.
I’d signed away my business to prove she could trust me, naively assuming I could trust her.
I had no idea I’d let a conniving, selfish, entitled brat into my life.
I wondered if my contempt showed on my face because Jill’s big brown eyes narrowed into slits.
“What? Do you want a tour or something?” she snapped.
I jerked my chin to the lanky bloke standing in the house my daughter slept in. He had a buzz cut, eyes so dark they were almost black, and a tattoo of a bleeding crucifix on his sharp cheekbone. There was something in the air around this guy. Something seriously off. “Who is he?”
“None of your business.”
“It’s my business while Kelly is here. Who are you?”
“People call me Crux.” He gestured to his face tattoo with a smug grin, like I was supposed to be impressed.
Jill rolled her eyes. “This is Dorian.”
So, this was the fucker who made my daughter uncomfortable?
“Dorian. Right. Well, this is your only warning, Dorian. You go anywhere near my daughter, and you’ll have me to deal with.”
Dorian sneered at my calm threat as he rounded the island. “You really don’t want to mess with me, mate.” He had a Liverpudlian accent. Good. Maybe that meant he’d fuck off back to Liverpool soon.
“I’m not your mate. And I’m not impressed or intimidated by you. You might think you’re a hard man. But I’m something scarier. I’m a father. A very protective one.”
Dorian caressed Jill’s thigh, grinning at me as he touched her between her legs like it would bother me beyond the fact that he was a crude bastard. “I’m not interested in teen girls.” He winked.
Rage blasted through me, but I knew from harsh experience that letting my rage rule me led to chaos.
For most of my life, I’d done a good job of holding the reins steady on what I considered the animal within.
But since becoming a father, it had gotten harder to pull back the beast when my daughter was threatened.
I took a step toward this fucker, vibrating with fury that I had to leave Kelly here.
“Did you know there are sharks in the Inner Hebrides? Well, I have a whole fleet of fishing boats there … If my daughter tells me you’ve even breathed in her vicinity, I will cut off your dick, take you on one of my boats, dangle your bleeding body into the water, and have a front seat to my first-ever shark attack.
And the only ones who will hear your dying screams are me and the sharks. Do you understand me, Dorian?”
Jill gaped like she’d never seen me before while Dorian covered the flicker of fear that betrayed him with a laugh. “Your ex is funny, babe.” He slapped her thigh before saluting me. “Nice meeting you, Shaw.” He winked at me cockily before swaggering out of the kitchen.
“Are you insane?” Jill jumped off the stool.
Shaking with the confrontation and my building fury, I waved a hand to shut her up. “I’m going upstairs to say goodbye to Kelly.”
“You already did.”
“I’m just making sure that thug isn’t anywhere near her.” I strode out of the kitchen.
“After that threat, he’ll be too scared to come back to the house, you prick!”
I smirked to myself as I took the wide staircase that curved upward onto the first floor.
I kept going, past Kelly’s floor and up to Jill’s suite on the second.
Hurrying quickly into Jill’s huge bedroom, I gave the room a sweep, curling my lip at the musky scent of sex.
Other than clothes scattered everywhere and an unmade bed, there wasn’t any evidence here that proved Jill’s incompetency as a parent.
Moving into the huge marble-floored en suite, I checked the medicine cabinet, but it held nothing but over-the-counter meds.
There was nothing.
Fuck!
By the time I made it back downstairs, I could feel the sweat soaking through my T-shirt beneath my jacket. Not from fear but from panic.
I had to leave my daughter.
I couldn’t leave her.
It would break me beyond bearing.
Jill strolled out of the kitchen as I hit the entrance.
She leaned against the doorframe, crossing her thin arms over her chest. She looked gaunt and had dark circles under her eyes.
If I felt anything soft toward her, I might be worried.
But this woman had pushed me to the point of hatred.
I hadn’t known I could feel that way about anyone anymore.
“How much?” I asked quietly.
She quirked a drawn-on eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“How much do you want in exchange for giving me sole custody of Kelly? We both know you don’t care about our daughter, Jill. So how much?”
Something like hurt flickered in her gaze before her expression hardened. “Twenty million.”
My disgust and shock were hard to hide. “I don’t have ￡20 million lying around.”
“Then sell the company. Because I’ll take nothing less.”
That temper I’d been reining in threatened to explode, but as always, I fisted my hands around the reins and tugged.
Still, I seethed as I warned her, “I meant what I said to that scum you’re sleeping with.
If anything happens to my daughter, I will make sure the rest of your life is not worth living. Do you understand me?”
For the first time, Jill appeared afraid of me, and I hated that it had come to this.
She nodded, pushing off the doorjamb. “I get it.”
With anguish roiling in my gut, I stormed out of the house and jumped into my SUV.
The guilt was crushing as I maneuvered out of the driveway, so I hit a button on the steering wheel. “Call Kelly.”
The car’s AI voice replied, “Calling Kelly.” And it began to ring.
She picked up on the third. “Did I forget something?”
My hands clenched around the wheel. “No, m’eudail. I just … will you keep me company while I drive for a while?”
My daughter sighed like a forty-year-old. “Dad, don’t feel bad. I told you I understand why things are the way they are right now.”
Her understanding only cut more. It might have been easier to deal with her anger. “I spoke with your mum and Dorian, and they promised to be on their best behavior.”
“Right. Well, in case they break that promise, I’ve pushed my dresser in front of my door as a barricade.”
My stomach plummeted, and I hit my indicator to go right round on the next roundabout. “Okay, I’m coming back to get you.”
“No!” Kelly hissed. “Dad, you were right. We have to be smart about this or I’m going to be stuck with her for the next four years.”
I took a few calming breaths and canceled my indicator. “Okay … So … school tomorrow. What’s on the agenda?”
“I have to turn in my history project, so I’m really hoping Michaela has done her half …”
I listened to my daughter, giving me deep insight into her life as a fourteen-year-old student with friends who annoyed her one day and kept her sane the next.
How they were nice, but they weren’t Anna and Lucas, her best friends on Glenvulin.
Listening to her calmed me enough to keep driving north, to stay on the path toward getting her back for good.