“You have been unstable, Ava.”
The words came so easily that for a second she almost admired him. No stumble. No shame. Just a clean cut, delivered with the confidence of a man used to having other people bleed quietly.
“You cry constantly,” he continued. “You barely sleep. My mother saw the house in terrible condition. You missed a pediatric appointment—”
“I rescheduled it because Theo had a fever and the nurse told me not to bring him into a crowded clinic.”
“You see?” Callum said, turning slightly toward his attorney. “She becomes defensive immediately.”
Ava looked at Elise.
The other woman’s eyes were fixed on the table.
Callum followed Ava’s gaze and placed a hand lightly on Elise’s shoulder.
“Elise has offered to help care for Theo,” he said. “She has experience with children. She’s calm. She has a stable home. And soon Theo will have a sibling.”
The courtroom went quiet in that strange way public places go quiet when something cruel happens too plainly to ignore.
Ava heard someone at the back shift their weight.
Meredith’s face revealed nothing.
Ava’s pulse beat once, hard, against Theo’s warm little body.
“You brought your pregnant girlfriend to court,” she said slowly, “and you want me to sign away custody of the baby I gave birth to twelve days ago so she can help raise him?”
Callum’s jaw flexed.
“Don’t make it sound ugly.”
“It is ugly.”
“It is practical,” he snapped. “You are not thinking clearly. You just gave birth. Your emotions are controlling you.”
Ava almost smiled.
There it was.
The sentence he had been rehearsing.
She could see his entire strategy now, bright and naked under the courthouse lights. He would not be the cheating husband. He would be the worried father. Elise would not be the mistress. She would be the stable future. Ava would not be the abandoned postpartum mother. She would be the unstable woman too emotional to protect her child.
He had built a story.
Unfortunately for Callum, Ava had built a record.
Before she could answer, the side door opened and Judge Helena Morris entered.
Everyone rose.
Ava stood carefully, one hand supporting Theo’s head.
Judge Morris looked to be in her late fifties, with dark hair pulled into a neat knot and a face that had no patience left for theatrical suffering. She sat, opened the file in front of her, and scanned the first page.
“This matter concerns temporary custody and emergency support,” the judge said. “I understand there is a proposed agreement.”
Victor stood. “Yes, Your Honor. My client has presented a temporary arrangement intended to protect the minor child while Mrs. Voss receives appropriate care.”
Judge Morris looked over her glasses at Ava.
“Mrs. Voss, have you reviewed the proposal?”
“I have, Your Honor.”
“And do you intend to sign it?”
“No.”
Callum exhaled loudly.
Judge Morris looked at him.
“Mr. Voss, this is not a theater. Control yourself.”
His face flushed.
Meredith rose. “Your Honor, before any pressure is placed on my client to accept this proposal, we ask the court to review several exhibits relevant to Mr. Voss’s credibility, the child’s best interest, and the origin of these so-called concerns.”
Victor sighed. “Your Honor, opposing counsel is attempting to turn a custody conference into a marital blame session.”
Meredith opened the navy folder.
“No,” she said. “I’m attempting to show the court that Mr. Voss created the emergency he now claims to be solving.”
Judge Morris leaned back. “Proceed.”
Callum turned his head sharply toward Ava.
For the first time that morning, he looked uncertain.
Ava did not look away.
Meredith placed the first document on the table.
“This is the hospital admission record from the night Mrs. Voss went into labor,” she said. “She arrived by ambulance at 2:18 a.m. with elevated blood pressure and complications requiring immediate monitoring.”
Callum stared at the paper.
Meredith placed the second page beside it.
“This is Mrs. Voss’s call log. She called Mr. Voss twenty-one times between 1:02 a.m. and 2:09 a.m. He did not answer.”
Victor stood. “My client was attending a business dinner.”
Meredith turned one page.
“No. He was at the Elysian Hotel, checked into a suite under his assistant’s corporate card.”
Elise’s head snapped up.
Callum whispered, “Meredith, don’t.”
The attorney’s name sounded almost intimate in his mouth, like a warning issued at home.
Meredith ignored him.
“This is the hotel receipt. This is security footage showing Mr. Voss entering with Ms. Arden at 11:43 p.m. This is a copy of the text he sent Mrs. Voss at 3:16 a.m. claiming he had been unreachable because of a client meeting.”
Judge Morris took the papers.
The courtroom stayed still.
Ava remembered that night with terrible clarity.
The bathroom tile cold beneath her knees. Her phone slipping in her damp hand. The pain coming in waves so strong she could not speak between them. Callum’s voicemail again and again and again.