Chapter Eleven
972 Words
DAMIEN'S POV
Marcus Webb was exactly what I expected.
Mid-thirties, sharp suit, handshake that was professional but communicated clearly that he didn't like me. He sat across from my lawyer in the conference room Friday afternoon with a folder of documents already prepared, which told me Olivia had been planning the legal framework longer than she'd let on.
Smart. I respected it even when it stung.
"My client is proposing a co-parenting agreement with joint legal custody and primary physical custody with Ms. Chen," Marcus said. "Mr. Ross will have scheduled visitation beginning after the birth, with a graduated increase as the child develops."
My lawyer looked at me. I nodded.
"Mr. Ross agrees to primary physical custody with Ms. Chen," he said. "He'd like to propose unrestricted visitation by mutual agreement rather than a fixed schedule, with a formal schedule as backup if the mutual agreement breaks down."
Marcus made a note. "Ms. Chen will consider it. Financial support?"
We went through the numbers. I proposed more than Marcus asked for. He didn't look surprised, just wrote it down. Olivia had clearly briefed him on what to expect from me, which meant she'd been paying attention for eighteen months even when I hadn't been paying attention to her.
"Prenatal appointments," Marcus said. "My client is open to Mr. Ross attending, at her discretion, appointment by appointment. Not a blanket standing invitation."
"Understood."
"Birth plan decisions rest solely with Ms. Chen. Mr. Ross may be present at the birth if Ms. Chen chooses to include him at that time."
"Agreed."
Marcus looked up from his papers for the first time and looked directly at me rather than my lawyer. "My client asked me to include one non-negotiable clause. If Mr. Ross enters into any romantic relationship, Ms. Emma Zhang is excluded from that category. Any relationship with Ms. Zhang automatically triggers a full custody review."
The room was quiet.
"That's unusual language," my lawyer said carefully.
"My client's circumstances are unusual." Marcus kept his eyes on me. "Do you agree with this clause?"
"Yes," I said.
Marcus nodded and went back to his papers.
******************"*
I drove home thinking about the Emma clause. Not because I disagreed with it. Because Olivia had asked for it, which meant she was still afraid. Still protecting herself and the baby from the version of me that had existed four months ago. The version that had been so consumed by Catherine's ghost that he'd missed everything real happening around him.
The surrogacy was the thing I hadn't resolved yet.
Catherine's baby was due in four months. I'd been circling that fact all week, not sure what to do with it. I didn't regret agreeing to it in the abstract. A piece of Catherine, the woman I'd loved for eight years. But the specifics had shifted. Emma was no longer involved beyond the biological arrangement. The surrogate, a woman named Dana who I'd met twice, was healthy and well-compensated and had nothing to do with the household politics.
The baby would be Nathan, the name Catherine and I had chosen years ago for a second son.
Olivia was carrying a child due two months after Nathan.
Two babies. Two different mothers. One house that was about to become something I hadn't planned and couldn't fully picture yet.
James had said I had a pattern. I was beginning to understand what he meant. I made decisions in grief that I then had to live inside long after the grief had shifted shape.
Olivia was at the dining table when I got home, laptop open, a real estate website on the screen.
"How did it go?" she asked without looking up.
"Your lawyer doesn't like me."
"Marcus doesn't like anyone who's hurt his clients."
"Fair." I sat down across from her. "We agreed on most of the terms. The prenatal attendance clause, the custody structure, the financial arrangement."
"The Emma clause?"
"Yes."
She looked up then. "Without argument?"
"Without argument."
She studied me briefly, then went back to the screen. "Victoria sent me three apartment listings. They're all too expensive."
"Let me—"
"No." Firm and immediate. "I'm paying my own rent. That's not negotiable."
"I wasn't going to pay for it. I was going to say I know a building on the Upper West Side with a waiting list but the manager owes me a favor."
She paused. "Is it a reasonable price?"
"Market rate. Nothing inflated."
Another pause. "Send me the address."
I texted it to her. She pulled it up, looked at the listing for a moment. "It's close to a good hospital. For work."
"I know."
She glanced at me. "You looked up hospitals near it."
"I looked up the neighborhood."
She didn't push it. We sat in a quiet that was different from the hostile silence of two weeks ago. Still cautious but not armed.
"The baby moved," she said.
I went still.
"This morning. Early." She said it to the laptop screen rather than to me. "It was the first time I felt it clearly. Like a flutter." She paused. "I didn't know who to tell."
"You're telling me now."
"I'm telling you now." She closed the laptop. "Fourteen weeks. The books say it's early to feel movement but not impossible."
"Does it feel real now? More than before?"
She looked at the table for a moment. "It felt real when I saw the ultrasound. But this was different. This was—" She stopped. Started again. "This was proof they're already their own person. Already doing things on their own schedule."
"Sounds familiar," I said.
She looked at me. Almost a smile. Not quite.
"The apartment has two bedrooms," I said. "In case you wanted space for a nursery."
"I saw." She opened the laptop again. "I'm looking at it."
"Okay."
- Writer
