The Custody Battle: A completely gripping and addictive domestic suspense novel by Ellie Monago

Author:Ellie Monago [Monago, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2024-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-THREE

MADELINE

There’s no way Greg can know that I’ve been sleeping with Tarek, not for sure. He has to be bluffing.

Except what did Esther say when we last met? That Greg might have hired a private investigator already, which would explain how he (and Hugh Warshaw) knew Tarek’s last name.

I thought I was so smart. I’ve been so careful. Not careful enough, obviously.

For once in my life, I’d decided that I needed to take some risks. Playing it safe hasn’t gotten me anywhere in this divorce, and Tarek’s now the only thing keeping me afloat.

I knew he and I had a connection but I never expected it to manifest like this. We haven’t “made love” once. It’s far more raw, visceral, and pulse-pounding than that. It’s like exorcising a demon, in the very best way. I’ve never acted like this before, like a woman possessed, not even in adolescence when my friends were masturbating with shower heads and hairbrushes (anything with a handle was pretty much fair game) and I was focused on studying. Back then, I was determined to be a good girl getting good grades because that would be the quickest path out. I didn’t dream of opulence or even affluence; I just wanted to get to a place that was free of dirt, both literal and figurative. My parents’ divorce hadn’t improved either of their housekeeping. Instead, I had to go between two filthy apartments in the same nasty neighborhood, with two separate caregivers whose emotional range was from depressed to enraged. Divorce also failed to stop the shouting and the backbiting. What they each seemed to want more than happiness for themselves? Misery for the other. By that measure, they were both successes.

History can’t possibly repeat itself. My station in life is vastly different. I have resources my parents could never have dreamed of. What happened to me will never happen to my child.

Greg doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Lola’s fine. He’s probably just inventing some bullshit to elevate himself in Dr. Vaughn’s eyes, playing the role of concerned parent.

Could he possibly smell Tarek on me, though? I took a detour to Tarek’s apartment before coming here and of course I showered but could a man as territorial as Greg simply know?

All my life, I’ve followed the rules. But for the past week, I’ve been sneaking over to Tarek’s every chance I got, sometimes even creating chances. I cancelled patients so that I could have extended lunch hours or cut out of the office a little early for some late afternoon delight before picking up Lola. I just wanted something entirely my own, a bit of respite from all the stress I’m under. Is that really so wrong?

“We’re here to talk about Lola,” I say, keeping my voice perfectly steady. “And if Lola is experiencing symptoms—which is news to me—then it’s only because Greg is dragging this out, clinging to his fantasy of reconciliation, still pretending we were some perfect match. What Lola needs is to abandon hope and adjust to the reality that her parents are divorcing.

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