“Oh, good idea,” Lucy said quickly, pulling her dad’s number up. “Mom, River, love you. See you at the bakery.”

Hitting send, she heard Benji saying good-bye as the phone rang. When her dad answered, her stomach dropped. “Hey, honey, how ya doing?”

“I need you to tell me you can call my fucktard ex-husband’s lawyer and demand I talk to my daughter,” she barked into the phone.

“What’s going on?”

She explained the whole thing, what had been said yesterday, and what was said just minutes before she called him. Her father listened. She could hear him taking notes, and he only asked a few things. But other than that, he let her do the talking. She was standing beside Benji’s car when he walked up, leaning beside it and watching her. He was just as nervous as she was; she could see it all over his face. While that pleased her to no end, it also worried her. Was this the beginning?

The beginning of the fucking end.

Shutting her eyes, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what to do, but I’m pretty sure shit’s about to get nasty.”

“Yeah,” her dad muttered into the phone. “I’m looking over the parenting plan now, Lucy, and I really don’t think he has to let her call you.”

“What?” she roared. “Dad, I’ve got to talk to my daughter. I have to make sure she is okay.”

“I must have missed this part when we were going over all the details four years ago, or maybe I just assumed he wouldn’t be an asshole and not let her talk to you.”

A tear leaked out of her closed eyes as Benji’s fingers locked with hers. “Dad, please tell me what to do here.”

“I’ll call his lawyer, scare him a bit, see what I can get done. But I don’t think he’ll go along with it, especially since I told him to take a flying leap at the beginning of the week.” He paused, the sounds of paper being moved around coming through the phone. “Lucy, what are you thinking? What are you wanting to do?”

“I don’t know yet. I want to talk to Angie.”

“Okay. Well, let me call the lawyer, see what I can do. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay, um, er, thanks,” she muttered and then she hung up quickly, feeling dirty for even speaking to him. “I hate that I fucking need him right now,” she cried, shaking her head. “I hate that I have to depend on him, but I know he’ll get it done because he loves Angie.”

Looking up, she found Benji watching her, nodding his head. “I know, baby. Come here,” he said, bringing her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. “I’m sorry this sucks right now.”

“I just want to talk to her.”

“Can you try calling Heidi? Surely, being a mother, she’d understand.”

That was another great idea. Her lips quivered as she nodded, pulling out of his arms to call Heidi. She answered right away. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey! Are you by Angie? Can I talk to her?”

“Oh, no. She’s at home with Rick. She got in trouble this morning for mouthing off or something, I don’t know. So she didn’t get to come with us.”

Lucy began to shake. That liar. “What did she mouth off about?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“I really don’t know. I was in the shower.”

Covering her mouth, she closed her eyes, shaking her head. “She had a hockey game this morning.”

“Oh? Rick said it was canceled.”

I hate him. I hate him so fucking much. Clearing her throat so she didn’t sob into the phone, she said, “Can you have her call me when you get home?”

“Sure, but just call Rick. He’s home with her.”

“I’ve been calling all morning. He won’t answer my calls,” she bit out, seeing red as everything inside her burned. She wouldn’t bring Heidi into this. As much as she wanted to cuss the woman out and tell her to fix her stupid husband, she knew she wouldn’t. Heidi was a doormat. She was worthless and did whatever Rick said. She wouldn’t side with Lucy. Lucy was pretty sure Heidi wished Lucy and Angie would just disappear. But she saved face, tried to be nice, even though Lucy knew she didn’t give two shits about her. Hell, she heard the shit that woman had talked about her and Angie, saying they were a problem since the very beginning.

When, really, Heidi had been the one who was the problem.

“That’s odd. Did you guys get into it again?”

“You can say that.”

“You guys need to stop all this fighting.”

“Yeah, well, he needs to work on that.”

“Or you do,” she said and Lucy paused.

Taking a cleansing breath, she snarled out, “Can you please have her call me?”

“I’ll try.”

Exactly. Clenching the phone in her hand, she opened her eyes to meet Benji’s gaze. “Thanks,” she snapped and then hung up, shaking her head. Opening Rick’s text conversation, she typed out a message quickly.

Lucy: You are a liar and you best hope my daughter is okay.

Rick: Be real, she’s fine. Wait, are you threatening me?

Before she could type back what she really wanted to say, Benji’s hand came over the screen and she gawked up at him. “Let it be. He is baiting you.”

“Fucking shit!” she yelled, moving her phone out and typing him back.

Lucy: Can I please talk to her?