Consequences

cause loving you had consequences.

A meeting with a lawyer. Demi had never felt the need to have a lawyer. But here she was sitting in a prestigious Los Angeles sky rise building with one of the best custody lawyers in the entire country after being released from the hospital merely a day ago. They kept her for four days, mumbling about investigations and internal bleeding and fractured ribs. They wanted to make sure that she was physically and mentally okay to be back on her own, even though she had assured them that she was. This was the second time she had ended up in the hospital at the hands of Trey but she had actually endured much worse. A fractured ankle and a sprained wrist really were nothing compared to what he used to put her through.

Kasey Simmons was one of the best custody lawyers in the country. After she decided that she wanted to press charges against Trey for the first time since this whole ordeal happened, Charlotte had suggested a lawyer to handle her custody agreement. Since her and Trey weren't married, they didn't have a formal custody agreement. He just pretty much got to see Aiden whenever he was able to. But things were different now. The image of Aiden reaching towards her in hysterics as Trey carried him out of her house played like a loop in her brain, and she couldn't allow Trey to be in Aiden's life anymore. In her life anymore.

"This is an open and shut case, Demi. No judge in their right mind will agree to let Mr. Neverson see Aiden at all. Not after what he did to you," Kasey explained as Demi's casted fingers curled into a fist.

Pictures were taken of all of her bruises. She still had to sit down for an interview with a few detectives to really establish the case. The custody hearing would be soon. Basically everything that she didn't want to go through was happening, but a part of her knew that this was inevitable.

When she found out that she was pregnant and she told Trey that if he didn't let her live on her own during her pregnancy theb she would get an abortion, he didn't flinch. He didn't fight for her to stay. He let her go. But he didn't truly let her go, because he knew that as long as she was pregnant with his child, he would always be in her life. He would always have some semblance of control over her. He would always be there. And that made her sick to her stomach.

"Demi?" Kasey said, interrupting Demi's thoughts and causing her to look up from the paperwork that Kasey had given to her in a manilla folder and instead lock eyes with the older woman.

"Is there anything else we need to discuss? Are you clear on the plan?" Kasey asked, causing Demi to slowly nod because there was a still a dull ache in the back of her head. Perks of having a concussion.

"Well, if there's nothing else that we need to discuss, I'll see you next week for our next meeting," Kasey said, pushing her chair away from the conference table and standing up. Demi wished she could move that fast. But with the state that her body was in, every move had to be calculated, carefully executed to ensure the least amount of pain possible.

"Thank you, Kasey," Demi said as she slowly stood up, feeling her body protest before she was finally upright, and she felt a hand on the small of her back to steady her but she pushed it away. When she looked up at Kasey, she was looking at her with sympathetic eyes, and Demi ran her tongue over her teeth to keep her eyes from watering.

"Thank you," she repeated before gathering the files and her purse in her good hand and turning to leave the conference room. She was back in a boot and she had purposely left her crutches in her bathroom, so walking wasn't the easiest thing in the world either.

Drake pressed the button for the elevator and they waited in silence as it came up to them. When the doors opened, he allowed her to walk in first before he walked in behind her, pressed the button for the lobby, and then they rode in silence down 30 floors all the way to the main level.