Mom, Don't Cry! Here comes a new Daddy!

Chapter 2

(Sabrina’s POV)

The world shrinks down to a pinprick of white-hot rage and soul-deep humiliation. Seven years of my life, my entire identity as his wife, erased in one sentence. I wasn't a life partner; only a temporary substitute.

But wait. What did he just say?

"You want custody of Jake?" My voice doesn't sound like mine anymore. It's low and dangerous, something feral clawing its way up from my chest. "I’m his mother. I carried him. I birthed him. I've raised him while you worked late and played golf on weekends and forgot his soccer games. You don't get to take my son."

"Our son…" Dustin snaps, and there's an edge to his voice now too. "Needs stability. A proper home. And let's be honest, Sabrina. How long do you think you'll keep your job? Jessica's the Creative Director now. Your direct supervisor. She can make your life very difficult."

Jessica moves to Dustin's side, sliding her arm through his.

"Dustin settled for you because he couldn't have me," she says, her voice a poisonous sweetness. "Now he can. You should have some dignity and step aside, instead of making this harder than it needs to be. If you fight us on this, if you make things messy... Well. Sterling & Co. has been looking to downsize the creative team anyway. Letting go a single mother won’t be hard.”

The threat hangs in the air between us, ugly and unmistakable. They’re using my career, the one I spent a decade building, to blackmail me out of my son.

It’s only then that I realize this isn’t a passionate mistake, but a calculated plan to ruin my life: my marriage, my job, my child.

I want to collapse, to weep, to tear the room apart, but my voice comes out lethal and controlled, fueled by the sheer injustice of it all.

“You’re still my superior, Jessica, and I will report this to the company higher-ups. Regardless of your past relationship. I am now Dustin’s legal wife. What you’re doing is called cheating,” I state, looking directly at the woman who just admitted to ruining my life.

Jessica just shrugs, unbothered, tucking a strand of her red hair behind her ear. “Divorce drama is messy, and the company won’t allow it to affect client relationships. As a low-performing employee, I can write you off anytime.”

My jaw drops. Before I can process her words, Dustin stands, clad only in a pair of shorts, his shoulders hunched. He looks like a stranger—not a trace of the man who held me in the hospital, the man whose career I quietly propelled with my own late-night creativity to be found on his hard features.

“It’s over, Sabrina,” he mutters, finally looking me in the eye, and there’s no regret there, only cold indifference. “I filed the papers this afternoon. And I’m demanding full custody of Jake.”

The blood rushes out of my head, leaving a ringing silence.

Losing the cheating bastard is nothing. Losing the job is a wound.

But Jake? My clever, sweet, five-year-old whose laughter is the only true thing left in this nightmare?

That’s not a request he’s making. That’s an act of war.

I step toward him, and he instinctively flinches, recoiling from the fire in my eyes. I slap him across the face so hard, the c***k echoes in the room.

“You don’t get to demand anything,” I say, my voice now a raw, animal growl, every ounce of my humiliation and my unrecognized sacrifice channeled into a single, unbreakable promise. “You walked out on this family for your ‘first love,’ and you think I’ll let you take my son? No. You can trample on my dignity, you can take my job, you can have her for all I care, but my son? I will never let you take Jake away from me. Now get out of my house before I call the cops on you."

Jessica gently caresses his cheek, her eyes turning cold as she turns on me. "The only one who’s going to leave is you. This is Dustin's house. His name is on the deed. Remember?"

I freeze, then go pale. When we bought this place five years ago, I'd been pregnant with Jake. I trusted him when he said having his name alone on the deed was enough.

"Think about it," Dustin says, and there's something almost sickening in his voice now, like he wants to hurt me, to get back at me for slapping him. "You can't give Jake what I can. And if you fight me on this, you'll lose everything. Your job. Your home. Your son. But if you walk away now, we can keep this civil. You can still be part of his life."

"Part of his life?" The laugh that comes out of me is bitter, broken. "I'm his mother."

"And I'm his father. The one with the resources to take care of him properly."

I look between them—Dustin with his cold determination, Jessica with her triumphant smirk—and something inside me snaps.

"You know what, Dustin? I admit I was blind and stupid to have fallen for a cheating bastard like you in the past. I should’ve never allowed your name to be the only name on the deed, no matter how much I trusted you. But everyone makes mistakes. I’ll just learn from this lesson. However, if you want my son, you will have to walk over my dead body."

"Then I guess we'll see you in court," Jessica says lightly, like she’s discussing weekend plans instead of destroying a family.

“I’ll see you both in court. For my son’s custody, and for cheating and fraud.” I warn and walk out before either of them can see me break.

I make it to the hallway before the first sob tears free. My legs give out. And I sink down onto the top step, hands pressed over my mouth, trying to hold in the sounds that want to escape, trying to hold myself together when everything is falling apart.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. Through blurred vision, I see a text from Sophia: Wine night at mine? I have news about the new campaign.

I almost laugh. Campaign. Work. As if any of that matters now.

My entire married life turned out to be a sham. Just the thought of going to work tomorrow, and seeing the faces of those disgusting excuses for humans makes my stomach churn.

But another text comes through before I can respond: Also, Jake wants to show you something. He's very excited. Says it's a surprise.

Jake.

My baby boy.

The one thing in this mess that's real, that's mine, that they can't take from me no matter how hard they try.

I push myself to my feet, wiping my face with shaking hands. I need to get out of here, to see my son and hold him and figure out how the hell I'm going to fight for us both.

Because the alternative? Losing him to Dustin? Isn’t one I’m going to allow to happen.

As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I hear them in the bedroom above—Jessica's laugh, Dustin's low voice, the creak of the mattress.

Now that their masks have been torn off, they're not even waiting for me to leave.

My stomach churns harder, nausea almost making me empty my stomach here and now.

I suppress the urge, grab my purse and walk out the front door, leaving the spilled groceries, the broken milk carton, and the shattered pieces of my marriage behind.

I know a long battle awaits me.

And I intend to make those disgusting humans pay the price of provoking a mother.