Whiskey sloshes over the rim of her crystal glass when she spins back around to face me. “Child support alone will exceed that over eighteen years, so it’s understandable that we’re seeking full custody.”
“A judge willneverside with that.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Her words shoot out of her mouth like poison-tipped daggers. “Judges favor mothers. They always have. And you, Dante”—she steps closer, lowering her voice—“better learn to play fair, or you may lose more than your fortune.”
My hands curl into fists. I am furious. Not solely because of the threat, but because I now have something to lose.
Someoneto lose.
And this bitch fucking knows it.
Doesn’t mean I don’t understand my rights, though.
“If you want to go down that route, I won’t hesitate to squash you like a bug.” My words slur at the end of the sentence, and I try to shake off the wooziness bombarding me. “Even without the evidence I have, your daughter will never pass mandatory drug testing.”
“And neither will you.”
I glare at her, lost. “I don’t do drugs. Never have and ne-never will.”
What the fuck? Why am I slurring? I only had one drink—one drink that made Anna’s mother smirk smugly when I downed it.
That fucking bitch.
“You… you…” I fall forward more than I race for her. Whatever she gave me dissolved in my drink as fast as it hit my bloodstream. I’m on my ass in an instant, and the world spins too fast for me to grasp. “I’m… going to kill you. You’re… fucking dead.”
As bright lights float in front of my eyes, Anna’s mother stands over me. “If you remember this, which I highly doubt you will, before you do anything stupid, remember you filed a custody motion with the courts. If we go missing, the first person they’ll interrogate is you. I’d hate for them to have to question Camille. I had four years to tell her a heap of scary bedtime stories about her father and the men he lives with. You’ve barely had six months to change the narrative. We both know whose stories will stick with her the most.”
It’s a fight, but I work up enough saliva to spit in her face.
Her disgust is the last thing I see before the dancing lights fade to black.