“So where was she last night, Amber?”
“Jesus, is this an interrogation? Last time I checked, it’s still my half of the summer to have custody, so Candace’s whereabouts aremyconcern. Not yours.”
“She’s my daughter. Of course her whereabouts are my concern!”
“Half-custody, remember? Do you want to have no custody? If not, I suggest you mind your damn business. The courts trusted my parenting. Why won’t you?”
“Because I know you better than the courts do!”
“Anything else you need, Brenton? I was just making a dentist appointment for Candace before you interrupted. Mind if I get back to that?”
“Fine.”
“Oh, and don’t forget, it’s your turn to pay for it. Also, you still owe me this month’s child support payment. I would hate to tell the courts that you were late.”
“Bye, Amber.”
“Buh-bye!” Amber hung up and I threw my phone into the couch.
Unbelievable. Amber was a narcissistic gold-digger. I realized it too late in the marriage, but now that I knew, I’d do everything in my power to get my kids away from her. At this point, I was convinced she was only in it for the child support. She almost managed to get half of TruFruit in the divorce settlement, but Charlie was able to stop it. Instead, she gets monthly payments from me because I make a higher income than her. If she weren’t getting those payments, I knew she’d hand over custody of the kids. She wanted nothing to do with raising them aside from the money.
I paced my house in rage as I thought about my next move. I’d send this phone call to Charlie and see if he could do anything with it, but I was sure she danced around my questions just enough to come off squeaky clean. Maybe I could call Candace back and get her to reveal more, while I recorded the call for evidence.
As I was pacing, I noticed movement among the trees in my backyard. I rushed to my back door, convinced this day couldn’t get any worse. I had a feeling I was about to be proved wrong, though.