“No, Blake. No one gets everything they want,” she told him. “That’s not an argument. It’s simply the truth.”
He just threw her another smile, one making it clear that her words hadn’t put him out one bit. It seemed that nothing she could do or say would throw him off the high horse he always rode. When he stood up, she waited for his next assault, but instead of coming toward her, he began moving away.
“What are you doing now?” she asked when he looked to be exiting the room.
“I’m done for the night. We’ll discuss this more tomorrow,” he said and he kept on walking.
Before she was able to say another word, she heard the front door open and close. She went slowly toward it, in shock once she realized he’d left. With shaking knees, she proceeded down the hallway, found what had to be her bedroom, and sagged onto the bed, not bothering to change, not bothering even to open her eyes again once they drifted shut.
Blake Knight had reappeared in her life with a hurricane-like force, disrupting everything in his path. But he wasn’t going to grow weaker as he continued on his path, much less calmly drift back out to wherever he came from. No. That wasn’t his style. He would return again and again until he got what he wanted.
For now, that appeared to be her. And there was nothing she could possibly do to stop him.
Chapter Eight
Jewell looked fuzzily at the clock near her head. Six in the morning, it said, and she wasn’t tempted to throw it against the wall. She’d finally slept, and it had done her some good. Instead of feeling defeated, she jumped out of bed and almost danced into her large new en-suite bathroom. She even added an extra little wiggle in her hips. When she’d been at Blake’s place three months ago, he had installed video cameras everywhere to monitor her actions. He might or might not have done the same thing here, but she just didn’t care. If he wanted a show, a show he would get.
When she last looked in the mirror, she’d felt hollow, drained. But not now. Today, she had a purpose. Blake might think he owned her, and in a way he did, but in the end she and Justin would be reunited and the two of them would run to the farthest reaches of the planet, and no one would be able to separate them again.
She showered quickly, threw on a robe, and then searched the phone book, made several calls, and found an attorney who could see her that afternoon. Thank goodness for free consultations! She would be paid well by Ms. Beaumont, but for now she had next to no money. Not that she would admit that to the lawyer. And she’d be very careful this time. She wasn’t the wide-eyed innocent that she was when the last lawyer took her for a ride.
After finding the walk-in closet crammed with clothing — a whole new wardrobe — Jewell dressed and put on makeup, then stood before the full-length mirror and smiled.
“Today is going to be a good day,” she told herself. All she had to do was make sure she exuded confidence. It would all be good. She left the apartment with a spring in her step. The attorney would tell her exactly what she wanted to hear. She was sure of it.
An hour later, Jewell wasn’t feeling nearly as positive as she sat back in the stiff leather chair and listened to the man speak.
“The court asked for a visible change in your circumstances, Ms. Weston, a sign of stability. You don’t have a positive employment history, and though you say you have money coming in, a one-time settlement won’t show Judge Malone that you are ready to be responsible for this child. Since you lost the last battle with the courts — you didn’t make it to the second hearing — you’re in an even more vulnerable position.”
“How could the courts possibly think it would be better for my brother to be raised by strangers who don’t care about him at all?” she gasped.
“It’s not a matter of who will love your brother more. It’s very black and white, and they don’t want to see this child bounced around for years until he ends up as yet another child in the juvenile-justice system.”
Jewell did not like this man, not one little bit. He was cold and he definitely wasn’t saying what she wanted to hear. “I disagree with you, Mr. Sharp. I think my brother is much better off with a sister who loves him and will do whatever it takes to ensure his safety.”
“I have been doing my job for a long time, Ms. Weston, and I won’t take on a case that I’m sure to lose. I’m telling you now that this is a losing case.” The way he said those words wasn’t exactly cruel, but still they cut her to the bone.
Her stomach sank as she looked into his almost sympathetic eyes. That was all she needed — pity. She’d have felt better if he’d sported a sneer, because his expression told her that she didn’t have a chance in hell of winning this case on her own.
Dammit! That out-and-out bastard Blake Knight. He knew all of this. That’s why he had so much confidence when he told her she would do whatever he wanted.
Power.
It was that word again. It was something that Blake Knight had, and something she would never achieve. How she hated this constant sense of helplessness, of inevitable defeat.
“You are sure that there’s nothing else I can do, Mr. Sharp?”
She didn’t want to hear the attorney’s next words, but she braced herself for them anyway.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Weston, but at this point, you don’t have a winning case. If your life doesn’t undergo drastic change, there’s no reason for you to even try to reopen this case. Sadly, that means that your brother could very probably be swallowed up by the system.”
Once again, she heard that depressing pity.
“What do you mean by drastic?” There was nothing she wouldn’t do at this point.
“This is strictly off the record, but the courts want to see stability. They want to see two-parent households, and they want to know that household will remain intact and welcoming to the child. No more disruptions. You need a home, you need security, and you need a lot more than you are showing right now.”
Jewell fully understood what he was telling her. She’d be on solid ground if she could tell the court that she had a husband, that she was a happily married woman who would provide a stable home for her brother. They didn’t see an unemployed college dropout as someone suitable to raise a child.
She nearly laughed aloud at her own thoughts. Sure, it was a bitter laugh. She thought she’d already reached the point of hysteria, but as she saw the last of her hope slip away, she realized she hadn’t seen anything yet.