Chapter 14 - CincinnatiRuth hated the idea of meeting Nathan.
Marsha hated it more.
Leah hated that she needed answers.
They agreed to a controlled meeting at Marsha’s office with two attorneys present, Ruth in the room, and Jonah safely upstairs with Simone.
Nathan arrived looking destroyed.
Leah hated that part too.
It would have been easier if he looked like a villain. Instead he looked like a man who had sold his soul in installments and only now realized the interest rate.
He sat across from her.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Leah said, “Cincinnati.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Who sent you that?”
“Answer me.”
He rubbed his hands together.
“Two years ago, I invested in a development project with a friend from college. It was supposed to be quick. Renovation, sale, profit. I used savings. Then credit. Then money from Mom.”
“How much?”
“By the end? Almost two hundred thousand.”
Ruth’s jaw tightened.
Leah whispered, “You told me we were saving for a house.”
“I know.”
“You told me the overtime was for us.”
“I know.”
“Don’t say you know like that fixes anything.”
He flinched.
Marsha leaned back, silent but watchful.
Nathan continued. “The project collapsed. My friend disappeared. There were liens. Tax issues. Mom paid to keep my name out of it.”
“In exchange for what?”
“At first, nothing. Or I thought nothing. Then when you got pregnant, she changed.”
Leah’s stomach turned.
“She said our apartment was too small. She said your mother was too far away. She said you were emotional. She said I owed her the chance to make sure her grandson was raised properly.”
“Her grandson.”
Nathan nodded miserably.
“She hated the name Jonah.”
“She hated everything she didn’t choose.”
“She told me if I fought her, she’d expose Cincinnati. I could lose my job. We could lose the apartment. She said you’d leave me.”
Leah laughed, but it came out broken.
“So you decided to help her take my baby instead?”
“No.” His voice cracked. “No. I thought guardianship meant she’d help temporarily if you were overwhelmed. I swear I did not know she meant forever.”
“You signed.”
“I signed some paperwork before Jonah was born. Cooperation paperwork. I didn’t know she would attach it to an emergency petition.”
Marsha spoke for the first time. “Did Malcolm Price explain the document?”
Nathan looked down. “He said it was a contingency.”
“Did you read it?”
“No.”
Ruth muttered something under her breath.
Leah stared at the table.
“You let them call me unstable.”
Nathan’s eyes filled.
“I was scared.”
“So was I. I still chose Jonah.”
That landed harder than shouting.
Nathan covered his face.
“I heard the recording,” Leah said. “You asked, ‘And Leah?’”
He looked up, pale.
“Because I realized she meant to lock you away.”
“And before that?”
“I kept telling myself Mom was extreme but not evil. That she loved the baby. That she loved me.”
Leah thought of Doreen in court, watching Nathan like an asset losing value.
“She loves control,” Leah said.
Nathan nodded.
“I know that now.”
“No. You don’t get to know things now and pretend the knowing repairs them.”
“I’ll testify.”
Leah went still.
Nathan straightened. “Against her. Against Price. Against Rusk. All of it. I’ll give statements. Emails. Recordings. Whatever I have.”
Marsha’s pen moved.
Ruth narrowed her eyes. “And what do you want in return?”
Nathan looked at Leah.
“To see my son someday without you being afraid.”
Leah’s throat tightened.
Someday was a word with a locked gate in front of it.
“I can’t promise that.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He nodded.
“I’ll sign supervised visitation only. I’ll submit to whatever the court wants. Parenting class. Therapy. Financial disclosure. Anything.”
Leah searched his face for manipulation and found only wreckage.
But wreckage could still cut.
Marsha ended the meeting after forty minutes.
As Nathan stood to leave, Leah said, “Why Oliver?”
He froze.
“My father,” he said quietly. “Mom said if we named him Oliver, she’d forgive the debt.”
Leah looked away.
Nathan whispered, “I hate that I considered it.”
After he left, Ruth said, “He may be useful.”
Leah looked toward the upstairs room where Jonah slept.
“Useful isn’t the same as safe.”
“No,” Ruth said. “It is not.”
That evening, Nathan sent Marsha a folder of files.
One video stood out.
Doreen in her own kitchen, speaking to Malcolm Price.
“We do this cleanly,” she said. “Leah gets labeled unstable, Nathan gets managed, and the baby grows up where he belongs.”
Malcolm asked, “And if Leah fights?”
Doreen smiled.
“Women without money rarely fight long.”
Leah watched the clip once.
Then again.
May you like
By the third time, she was no longer shaking.
She was planning.
Related Stories
