Chapter 9 - When the Conflict Left the House
The case widened because it had to.
Blythe’s obstetrician documented the assault and her postpartum condition.
The pediatrician examined Arlo again and recorded that he remained healthy.
The family-law court received competing requests regarding temporary parenting arrangements.
The criminal case continued separately.
Nobody solved anything in one afternoon.
Blythe learned to live inside waiting.
Waiting for calls.
Waiting for paperwork.
Waiting for Arlo to sleep.
Waiting for her own body to heal.
Damon’s attorney proposed professionally supervised parenting contact if approved.
Blythe hated the idea emotionally.
Her lawyer reminded her that the court’s decisions would focus on Arlo’s safety, not punishment.
Blythe agreed to follow professional recommendations.
That choice surprised Ellis.
“You’re okay with him seeing the baby?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“Because ‘I hate him’ can’t be my parenting plan.”
Ellis looked at her for a long time.
Then nodded.
It was one of the first moments Blythe felt like herself again.
But her credibility was challenged almost immediately.
Damon produced old messages in which Blythe described herself as “crazy,” “falling apart,” and “unable to handle anything.”
Blythe remembered writing them during pregnancy.
To Damon.
After arguments.
She had used careless language because she believed she was speaking privately to her husband.
Now the phrases looked ugly on paper.
Her attorney did not dismiss them.
“We address them honestly.”
So Blythe did.
She had anxiety.
She had felt overwhelmed.
She had cried.
She had also attended every medical appointment, maintained employment until pregnancy complications reduced her schedule, prepared for Arlo’s arrival, and never harmed herself or anyone else.
Being distressed was not evidence of being unsafe.
Then her attorney showed her one of Damon’s filings.
He described himself as the parent who had “consistently encouraged mental-health treatment.”
Blythe stared at the sentence.
Damon had never encouraged treatment.
He had mocked therapy.
He once told her that “people who need therapists shouldn’t raise babies.”
Loretta remembered that conversation.
So did Kara.
The contradiction became important.
Damon was not merely interpreting Blythe’s anxiety differently now.
May you like
He was rewriting his own position.
And to understand why, Blythe needed to know what he had told his mother before anyone else knew there was going to be a custody fight.
