Chapter 8 - THE DECISION SARAH COULD NOT TAKE BACK
Sarah filed to extend and strengthen the existing protection order before she left the hospital.
Her attorney, Leah Monroe, also began preparing for a custody case concerning the twins.
Because Mason was their biological father, Sarah could not simply wish him out of their legal lives.
She needed evidence.
Procedures.
Time.
And boundaries strong enough to survive all three.
She also made a second decision.
Diane would have no unsupervised contact with any of the children.
Diane reacted as though Sarah had taken something from her rather than responded to something she had done.
“You are punishing me for trying to preserve your marriage.”
Sarah looked at her mother from a rehabilitation chair.
“My marriage ended when I had to get a court order to make my husband leave me alone.”
“He loves those babies.”
“You don’t know them.”
“They’re his children.”
Sarah’s voice hardened.
“So is Noah mine.”
Diane started crying.
Sarah hated how effective it still was.
She had spent her entire childhood learning that her mother’s tears meant the conversation had gone too far.
This time she let them happen.
Mason’s attorney proposed a voluntary temporary parenting agreement that would give him limited supervised contact with the twins once medically appropriate.
Leah told Sarah refusing every future possibility without evaluation could make her appear unreasonable.
Sarah understood.
She hated it.
“Supervised only.”
“For now.”
“And Noah is not included.”
Noah was not Mason’s legal child.
That boundary was hers to draw immediately.
When Mason learned Sarah had filed, his reaction revealed his real priority.
He did not ask first about the twins’ health.
He demanded access to the house.
The crib.
The baby records.
“My belongings.”
Sarah frowned when Leah read the request.
Mason had never lived at the Grand Junction house.
He had no belongings there.
Except, perhaps, something he believed Sarah had taken from Denver.
Sarah suddenly remembered the sealed plastic file box Jenna had packed during the move.
It held old tax returns, insurance papers, and documents Sarah grabbed from Mason’s office while leaving.
She had never opened half of it.
“Leah,” she said.
May you like
“I think he’s not only trying to get the children.”
The file box was still under Sarah’s bed at the house where she had almost died.
