“Nathan.” Landon’s timbre dropped to a rough whisper. “His name was Nathan.”
The pressure mounted in her chest. She nodded. Nathan.
Imagine Landon as a father. He’d be such a great father. Great brother. Great husband. Oh, God, would he ever trust her again? He was a just man but she suspected he wasn’t a forgiving one.
Feeling faint and pale, Beth smiled exhaustedly at him. “You talked to Anna, didn’t you?”
“We made sure the court knew what a scumbag Hector is, but we didn’t talk to her, Beth. That was all your doing. Clearly she respects you.”
The words, somehow, seemed a compliment.
She hesitated, then edged closer, desperate to again reach places she’d reached in him before. “Do you think we’ll win?”
He continued absently staring at the crowded hall before them. “We’ll win.”
She wanted to say something, but felt emotionally drained. Still, she attempted something light and funny, even though she didn’t feel like laughing. “Lucky you, you’ll be getting rid of me soon.”
He turned to her then, and the lack of emotion in his eyes frightened her. His empty smile in no way warmed her. “Not soon enough.”
Still stunned minutes later, Beth couldn’t even hear through the noise of her blood rushing as they went back inside. The judge resumed his seat and began speaking. He mentioned foreseeing Hector having to answer some severe new accusations in the short future.
Beth heard the fateful words only barely, still struggled to swallow the sour dose of truth Landon had given her. He couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
“Custody awarded to the petitioners…effective immediately…”
The verdict gradually sunk into her thoughts. She saw the judge rise to leave and Hector’s stunned reaction. She noticed Landon shaking Mason’s hand. Beth blinked, swayed as she rose to her feet.
Had they won?
So fast? She’d waited months and had expected her misery to last days and days, and now they’d won?
The rest happened in a flurry of movement. Being hugged by the Gages, by her mother, her father, by everyone but Landon.
Outside, after a wait that felt eternal, Beth squinted as she watched a car pull over, and David stepped out, running toward her with a grin and another drawing. She glanced at Anna, who smiled at them both from the bottom steps of the courthouse.
“Anna, thank you,” she murmured under her breath, then quickly started for her son. God, was she dreaming? She wanted to sing and cry and dance.
“Mom! Mom, I made us a drawing!” He didn’t kiss or hug her but immediately showed the paper to her and pointed at the figures drawn. “You, me and dog man. See!”
Beth’s stomach clenched. The gigantic brown dog he’d drawn covered nearly half the page, and the rest of the picture contained David, Beth and Landon, holding hands while straddling the monster dog. “But sweetie, dog man…” Won’t be around for long.
She fell quiet when Landon walked up beside her. “Dog man is taller in person,” she improvised, flustered as she straightened. Her mom’s sad, sympathetic look made a lump grow in her throat. Why was it when you made one dream come true, another fell apart?
Landon remained at her side, and all she became aware of was the fact that he didn’t touch her. “Home?” he asked.
Temporary home, Beth thought, already pained to expose David to Landon’s household. He couldn’t get too settled in, could he?
Beth seized David’s hand and tried a smile that didn’t quite make it. “We’re ready.” God, that tiny hand inside of hers felt so right.
Ducking his head to meet David eye to eye, Landon bumped fists with her son, both of them smiling and doing it naturally this time. “You can sleep in Nathan’s room,” he told the child.
The generous offer only made Beth’s misery complete. For she, better than anyone, knew how zealously Landon had guarded that room. Before he’d known the truth about his baby.
Thomas opened the car door, and the three of them climbed inside, David excited, Landon quiet and Beth torn between excitement and despair, on their way to a make-believe home.
She and David hugged all the way.
Fourteen
The house was silent tonight.
Four months had passed, and every day of living with a fake family had been silent, wretched torture.
Landon stared out the window, not really seeing the manicured lawns outside. He was in his room, alone. Just him and the divorce papers. His bedroom had never felt so empty. The furniture couldn’t fill the space. Nothing could fill the vast feeling of loss and emptiness.
Mask and Brindle, who’d taken to sleeping with David now, were down the hall in the boy’s room.