Chương 6
Marcus looked at the ceramic rooster.
“That thing is awful.”
Victoria followed his gaze.
“It’s watching you.”
“It has the eyes of a tax auditor.”
Against her will, she smiled.
The smile hurt.
Marcus found a clean mug, filled it with water, and drank.
“I’m staying on the couch.”
“You’ll complain about your back.”
“I’ll complain quietly.”
“You’ve never done anything quietly.”
“That’s unfair. I sleep quietly.”
“You snore.”
“That’s a medical allegation without supporting evidence.”
Lucy shifted in the crib.
Both of them stopped speaking.
Her breathing settled.
Marcus lowered his voice. “We tell the truth from now on.”
Victoria traced a crack in the table’s varnish.
“Which truth?”
“All of it.”
“That’s easy for you.”
“No, it isn’t.”
He pulled out the chair across from her.
“My supervisor asked whether I was a risk to the hospital’s reputation. Someone sent administration a screenshot saying I’m trying to take your money through Lucy.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know. But I need you to hear this: your family is not only doing this to you anymore.”
She looked at him.
“I didn’t ask you to stay.”
“No. You make sure no one can say you asked for anything.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You asked Naomi for help after you were locked out. You asked Lila after you had nowhere to sleep. You ask when the alternative is collapse.”
His voice remained even, which made the words harder to dismiss.
Victoria stood.
“I need to check Lucy.”
“She’s asleep.”
“I can still check her.”
Marcus let her go.
She stood over the crib longer than necessary, one hand resting on the rail. Lucy’s lips were parted. Her fist lay near her cheek.
Behind Victoria, Marcus rinsed his mug.
Neither apologized.
The next morning’s status conference occurred by video to prevent another crowd. Judge Alvarez appeared from a plain courtroom with dark wood paneling and no visible patience for spectacle.
She began by stating that Judge Vance’s comments were not findings and would not influence her review. She confirmed the stay on the deed and ordered that no party access, sell, encumber, lease, alter, or remove property from the Ashbourne house.
Julian’s attorney objected. Owens Urban Holdings had used the house as collateral for a commercial credit line, he admitted, and the lender had rights that could not simply be ignored.
Victoria’s stomach tightened.
Naomi muted their microphone.
“He mortgaged it,” Victoria said.
“It appears so.”
“How much?”
“We’ll find out.”
Kessler argued that the company had relied on a recorded deed and obtained financing in good faith. Judge Alvarez asked when the loan closed.
Four months earlier.
“How much was advanced?”
Kessler requested permission to supplement the record.
The judge’s face became still. “Counsel, does your client know how much money his company borrowed against the disputed property?”
Julian leaned into view. His tie was properly knotted again. “It was part of a broader facility.”
“How much is allocated to this property?”
“I’d have to review the schedule.”
Judge Alvarez ordered the loan documents produced by noon.
Then she addressed the guardianship petition.
Eleanor’s new probate attorney, Cynthia March, claimed the petition had been prepared from genuine concern and that any procedural defects could be corrected. She requested a confidential competency evaluation of Victoria and a temporary financial conservator to protect the house from litigation costs.
Naomi laughed once before muting herself.
Judge Alvarez heard it anyway.
“Ms. Bell?”
“My apologies, Your Honor.”
“I assume you disagree.”
“Profoundly.”
Naomi argued that the petition relied on distorted medical information, outdated addresses, and a deed that appeared impossible on its face. She noted that Eleanor had filed the guardianship case shortly after Victoria challenged the deed, not during the months when she claimed Victoria was most impaired.
Judge Alvarez turned to Cynthia March.
“Why was the petition filed now?”
Cynthia looked offscreen, perhaps toward Eleanor.
“The family’s concern increased as Ms. Owens rejected support.”
“Rejected support or challenged a property transfer?”
“Both may be relevant.”
“They may also be very different.”
The judge appointed Dr. Helen Saye, a licensed clinical social worker with experience in capacity cases, to conduct an independent evaluation. She denied Eleanor’s request for temporary control over Victoria’s finances. She ordered limited access to Victoria’s medical records and prohibited either side from publishing them.
Then she addressed Lucy.
“No allegation before me establishes immediate danger to the child. Nevertheless, because the petition repeatedly invokes the child’s welfare, the guardian ad litem may observe the child’s living conditions and speak with both parents. No change in custody is ordered.”
Victoria exhaled.
Marcus, seated beside her, did not.
After the hearing, he said, “Both parents.”
“You are one.”
“I know. It’s just strange to hear a judge say it.”
“You’ve always been her father.”
“That isn’t the same as having paperwork that says what happens if your mother calls child services again.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Again?”
He turned his phone toward her.
An investigator from the county child-welfare office had left a voicemail asking to arrange an interview regarding an anonymous report of neglect.
For several seconds, all Victoria heard was the refrigerator motor and the soft rattle of the heating vent.
“They did it yesterday,” Marcus said. “After court.”
Naomi called the investigator. The report alleged that Victoria had exposed Lucy to violence in a courtroom, lacked permanent housing, and suffered untreated psychiatric episodes.
The timing did not prove Eleanor had made the call. Anyone who watched the video could have reported it.
That was the usefulness of public suspicion. Once released, it no longer required an owner.
The investigator, a woman named Tasha Green, visited that afternoon. She wore a gray cardigan and carried a county tablet with a cracked corner. She did not appear impressed by expensive names or frightened by lawyers.
May you like
She checked the crib, refrigerator, formula, smoke detectors, and bathroom. She watched Victoria prepare a bottle and asked Marcus where he lived, how often Lucy stayed with him, and whether he had ever observed Victoria lose control.
Marcus answered carefully.
