The Way Back | ✓

9.3

Dressed to impress, Andrew stood outside the court, heart pounding in his chest.

Talia would not go down without a fight. It had been over eight months since he'd filed for sole custody. She was making it too difficult for him to actually parent and see his own child. At first he had a pretty solid argument and thought he could win this case sooner but custody battles had an indefinite length. Some took weeks, others took months and some even took years. He'd done his research.

But Talia was not exactly a neglectful parent, nor was she a bad mother. She was restrictive, both to Andrew and Aurora. She manipulated situations to her self gain and she made it as hard as she could for Andrew to spend time with his daughter. Even on the weekends that Andrew made it to Ipswich, she'd take Aurora out for a play date because maintaining connections with the parent committee was a good thing. Andrew had never denied that but why couldn't Talia do that during the weekdays? It was obvious that she wanted to cut Andrew from Aurora's life.

The last eight months had worn him down. Between the travel and his work and his fight for his daughter, he barely had time to breathe. But, at odd moments of solitude, sometimes late at night in bed, his thoughts didn't let him sleep. Most thoughts were either worrying about Aurora and winning the case, or work, but sometimes the box he kept locked away cracked open, as if the darkness of the room allowed for some vulnerability to be shown because everything was cloaked.

He thought of London. He wondered how she was doing, if she looked the same or she'd done something to her hair. He wondered how she was doing at work, at Tollerz, a place she could easily call her second home. Most of all he wondered if she was happy, or if she was as sad and lonely as he was without her. Or if she'd met someone. If he made her happy. 

That box wouldn't stay open for long because the fatigue from the day eventually kicked in and drew him into sleep.

At first, Andrew tried to settle the issue of custody through his lawyer but money only seemed to drive Talia's motivation and instead of settling as he'd hoped, she hired her own and now they stood in the middle of a custody battle.

Seeing her outside the court, dressed as formally and impressive as he was dressed, didn't ignite any flames of anger within him. He was surprised, too, for not feeling so despite all the fight she'd put up as well but it only made him acknowledge her sense of duty to be a mother.

"Getting you to quit is impossible, isn't it?" he said as he walked to her, an easy-going smile on his lips.

She huffed, letting out a puff of smoke before she dropped the cigarette she was smoking, snubbing it out with the foot of her navy blue heels. She looked like a stunning business woman and the more Andrew looked at her the more he realised how relaxed she was. He expected her to be jittery — he certainly was — but there she stood, cool as a cucumber, her breath stale from the recent smoke. He watched her open her purse and take out a mint, popping one into her mouth before her red-painted lips shot him a smile.

"You ready to go down, Andy?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Ever so confident," he commented, shaking his head.

She laughed, throwing her dark hair over her shoulder, her eyes catching his. "Don't forget that I know you. I know that you're putting on a show, that this demeanour of calm and collected is just a facade, nothing real. Inside your heart is pounding—" her face neared his and the smile on his face dropped instantly at the look in her eyes "—you're nervous. You know you can't win this. You know the judge is in my favour."

"Just because you're her mother—"

"No," she sliced in, her eyes determined, "It's because I'm the superior parent."

He sighed, shaking his head at Talia and taking a step back. He needed his personal space and she was way too in his bubble for him to think without things erupting into a fight right outside of court.

"I have never thought of myself as the superior parent," he told her earnestly. "You were a good parent, Talia—"

"Were?"

"You know, if we keep cutting each other off I don't think we can keep this conversation civil much longer," he tried to joke, chuckling a little but his words were met with raised eyebrows. Shrugging, he replied to her earlier question, "I said what I said."

"What do you mean I was a good parent?" she questioned. "Are you saying that I'm not one anymore?"

He felt like he was being interrogated. "Talia, you know what I said. Stop going in circles. Plus, we don't have to have it out here. We can save it for in there," he resigned, pointing towards the building which they currently stood on the steps of.

"What makes you say that I've lost my touch for parenting?" she persisted, and her tone was frankly beginning to grate on his already anxious nerves.

He looked at her, hard and long, silently asking her if she really wanted to know his thoughts now out of all other times. When she looked back at him evenly, eyes expectant, brows poised in that well-out-with-it sort of fashion, he sighed, nodding his head.

"All right," he said, clasping his hands together in front of him. "You were a good mother. Then you started cheating, having sex with your fiance, with your daughter right down the hall, without the door even locked. Oh, that's not even the worst and trust me, this isn't me being bitter. Ever since the divorce your priority has been yourself. Focusing on yourself is never bad but do you ever ask Aurora how she feels? She tells me she wants things to go back to the way they used to be sometimes because you don't pay her enough attention. The only attention you give her is when you try to put all this space and distance between her and me. You put so much energy in that. Imagine if you put that energy into your relationship with your daughter?"

Talia swallowed, her eyes glistening with premature tears and Andrew felt bad for saying what he had just uttered but there was no use hiding the truth.

"She loves me," Talia fought back.

Andrew smiled softly at her. "I never said she didn't. Of course, she loves you, Talia. You just haven't been—"

"Oh and you're the perfect dad?" she shot back, angry with the reality of his words.

"No," he shook his head. "No parent is perfect. We all just have to give our children the best we can, and that's what I want to do. That's what I'm fighting for and that's what I want the judge to see today."

She stared at him and for once he couldn't read what hid in that steely expression of hers. "You're not going to leave with my daughter," she said, her words icy.

He simply smiled and motioned for her to go inside. "We'll see about that. After you, Talia."

Entering a custody battle was the most exhausting thing he'd ever had to do. The last eight months had been emotionally and even physically draining. In the end, it would all be worth it.

One thing was certain and that was that he'd fight for his daughter until his very last breath. He had an end goal in mind and he would not give up until he achieved it.