a sound she hadn't heard before

thirty-seven.

The next few weeks go by relatively uneventfully, until one day, a few days before Christmas, Taylor gets the call that she has been both expecting and dreading. A call from Tree, most likely regarding the situation with Adam.

"Hi Taylor," she says. "I have... news."

Taylor sighs. "I figured you would."

"It's not great, but it's not the worst that it could be. He does want to take you to court for partial custody. The good news is that he just wants to be able to see her sometimes, in case he does win. He doesn't want full custody, just visits on the weekends. The even better news is that you have every single piece of material to make sure that he won't even get that much."

Taylor can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He's not going to try for full custody. She knows that, realistically, there's no way he will get anything with the story that she's going to come forward and tell, but it still helps her to breathe a little bit better, knowing that he isn't even going to try to take her little girl away completely.

"What's the plan?" Taylor asks.

"Everything we've already discussed," Tree says. "The trial probably will be happening while you're in London, and with the story you're going to tell, it will probably turn into a much bigger ordeal than most custody cases, so I'm not sure if you will have to come back to the States, or what the protocol is going to be. He has Scottish citizenship, which is part of the United Kingdom, so that could change things, of course. I will work on figuring that out for you. Right now, all that you need to know is that it is happening. He seems quite upset, Taylor. You need to watch out."

Taylor sighs. She knows that Tree is right.

"Is there any other news that you have for me?"

"No. When's Ayla's last day of school?"

"After today, she just has two more days, then she's leaving at Christmas break and won't be returning. Starting in January, she'll be online." Taylor sighs. It still breaks her heart to think about this, but she knows that she's making the decision that is going to be best for her little family.

"All that I'm going to say is to please do whatever you need to to keep her safe," Tree says.

"Tree..."

"I'm worried, T. I am."

"Okay. Thank you for your concern," Taylor replies, a cool edge in her voice. She truly values Tree as a publicist, but sometimes, her advice tends to step over into the territory of parenting, and Taylor hates that. She has, since getting pregnant with Ayla, had so many people share so many opinions on how she should be raising her daughter, and the voices get loud sometimes. They make her worry that she's doing everything all wrong.

"I know that you hate when I say these things, but I have to," Tree says. "That's all that I have for you right now, but I'll call you back as soon as I know anything else, okay?"

"Okay," Taylor says. "Thank you."

The two exchange a quick goodbye before Taylor hangs up the phone, just in time to take the Christmas cookies that she's baking out of the oven. They're Ayla's favorite cookies- she's going to be so happy when she comes home from school and sees them waiting for her, along with a mug of hot chocolate and some Christmas music playing on their Alexa. Christmas has always been Taylor's favorite time of year- it still holds just as much magic for her now as it did when she was Ayla's age, and she wants to make sure that she shares that magic with her daughter.

It isn't ten minutes until Taylor hears her phone ringing again. That's weird, she thinks to herself. It's unlikely that  Tree would be calling with more information already.