Chapter Ten
Emily went through the next few days in a miserable fog. Her lawyer was cautious about rushing headlong through the process; he didn’t believe it would be easy to have Jeff’s rights taken away based solely on her accusations and concerns. He explained that many divorces turned ugly and parents often claimed the other parent was “unfit,” which could be impossible to prove. His cautiousness worried her. She had to try, though. Jeff was spiraling more out of control.
She missed Caleb horribly. Sometimes caught sight of him when she was out running, and sometimes she caught glimpses of him out of her front windows when he was walking or running by her house. Could he truly love her? It gave her hope and peace despite the worries over Jeff. Jeff wasn’t answering her phone calls or texts, and as Friday night approached, she prayed that she was stressing over nothing. She had no clue if he would show up or not. He’d rarely shown up, unless it was for a photo op or to give her a hard time. She was committed to fighting him now, yet if she lost … She couldn’t let herself go down that black hole.
Krew was missing Caleb as badly as Emily was. On Friday, she decided she couldn’t risk her son being home if Jeff did indeed show up. If Jeff got physical with her, she’d deal with it. She couldn’t deal with him taking Krew away or Krew getting in the middle of a fight.
She walked Krew over to Mylee’s about three that afternoon. Her friend hugged her and reassured her that Krew would be safe and Mylee and Vance would be right here if she needed help with Jeff. Emily bravely told her she’d be fine. No matter how irritable or ornery Jeff had gotten, he’d never physically hurt her. Yet in the back of her mind, she was petrified. Jeff had changed so much from the man she’d married.
She went back home and busied herself to pass the time. She finished up some work projects, straightened up the house, dusted, vacuumed, and scrubbed the kitchen and the bathrooms. She read a book for a while but couldn’t sit still, so she started working on artisan bread dough that could sit overnight, and then she started assembling freezer meals.
The doorbell rang, and she froze. Jeff had come. Washing her hands, she pulled off her apron and put on some lip gloss. She didn’t care what she looked like for Jeff, but she wanted to be confident. Rubbing some lotion into her hands to keep them from trembling, she walked on unsteady legs into the foyer. It would all be okay. She’d explain that Krew wasn’t here and that she’d started the process to take away Jeff’s custody visits. If he wanted to be reasonable, they could do it in mediation and save lawyer fees and exposure to the media; either way, she would stop taking his child support, so he should like that.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door open. Jeff stood there, glowering at her. Caleb was a big, strong guy, but he wasn’t as big as Jeff. Jeff’s broadness and height suddenly made him more intimidating than he’d ever been before.
“Where’s Krew?” he demanded.
“Not here.” She folded her arms across her chest and kept her gaze steady on him. She prayed that the gesture made her look strong, and that he couldn’t tell how she was clutching her arms to herself to keep from shaking. “I’m working with my lawyer to take away your unsupervised custody, Jeff, and I’m going to stop taking your child support. We can do it easily with mediation and keep the media out and expenses low. If you want to fight me, I’ll smear your name to any reporter who’ll listen.” She’d just thought of the last sentence, but considering how obsessed he’d always been with his career and his image, she thought it might work. Yet on Monday he’d said he didn’t care about bad publicity. He was such a roller coaster she had no clue what might work to keep him from hurting Krew.
His eyes narrowed. Instead of talking things out, he pushed into the foyer and stormed past her. “You’d better get my son here. I’ve still got custody rights, and I’m going to exercise them.”
Emily stayed by the open door, not caring about the cold air pouring in. He could storm around the house and tear it apart. She wasn’t going to chase after him, and she wasn’t going to let him see how he intimidated her. She did pull her phone out and clicked on the phone app. If she had to, she’d dial 911, though she’d prefer dialing Caleb’s number.
Jeff thumped around the house, calling Krew’s name; then he stomped back to the foyer, getting right in her face. “Get me my son!” he yelled.
“No.” Emily tried to remain calm as she tilted her chin up imperiously.
Jeff knocked the phone from her hands. It went skittering across the foyer and out of reach. He grabbed her arms and squeezed, shaking her until her teeth rattled. “I want my son right now, woman!”
“You let me go,” she demanded.
Jeff’s face went red, and he shoved her to the floor. She banged her knee, and it instantly throbbed. “Stay down!” he yelled as if she were an opposing player and he’d tackled her during a play.
Emily sprang up, wincing slightly as her knee took the impact, and backed away from him toward her phone. “Get out of my house.”
He lunged at her. Emily dodged out of the way, but he caught her hand and yanked her so hard she fell to her knees again. She cried out in pain and fear. Grabbing her around the neck, he jerked her face up to look at him, bent down, and growled, “You’ll stay down there if you don’t want me to beat you like I should’ve done long ago.”
Emily’s stomach rolled with horror, and her neck hurt from the pressure of his large palms squeezing tight.
“I’ve tried to be nice to you, but I’m through.” His eyes grew calculating. He could snap her neck easily. “You’re going to play dead like a possum and stay right here.” His lip curled. “Or maybe I’ll make sure you don’t move again.”
She tried to squirm free, but he was gripping her so tightly that her neck seemed to stretch as she pulled away.
“Don’t move when I let go,” he said quietly. “I’m going to walk over to Mylee’s and get my boy.”
“No!” Emily cried out.
“Let go of her,” a cold voice barked from the doorway.
Emily’s eyes darted over, though she couldn’t move her head because of Jeff’s vice grip. Caleb stormed into the entryway and filled her vision, and she sighed. She hadn’t wanted to involve him in more of this battle, but he’d chosen to come for her. She was done cowering to Jeff. Caleb would fight to protect her, and now, because of Jeff’s assault, she could press charges and keep him away from Krew.
Jeff released her, and she caught a full breath. He straightened to glower at Caleb. She scrambled to her feet and dodged away from Jeff and closer to Caleb.
“You’ve been cheating with my wife,” Jeff snarled, “and now I’m going to tear you apart.”
“I knew you were slow, but the fact remains that Emily is not your wife.” Caleb chuckled easily. “And I’d love to have youtryto tear me apart.”
“You want to cross me, Jewel?”