But Rick shook his head. “Want to work something out? Take me to court.”

“We would like to avoid that, for Angie’s sake,” he tried, but Rick shook his head.

“I don’t care. I want full custody.”

Lucy laughed out loud. “Over my dead fucking body.”

“Fine, we’ll see in court.”

“Yeah, we will,” Lucy snapped, her eyes blazing, and Rick’s brows pulled together, surprised. “Let’s go.”

Benji paused, though, and turned to Rick. “Are you sure? Because she’ll be on the phone with her lawyer as soon as we get in that truck.”

Rick just glared, shaking his head. “Fuck you. You know nothing about me. I’m loaded now, and I’ll hire the best lawyers to get my daughter—”

“We’re done,” Benji said, turning his back and leading Lucy to the truck, but Rick was apparently not done.

“You won’t get what you want. Who is going to let you stay around a kid when you’re an alcoholic? A sleazeball, washed-up hockey player? They would be stupid to—”

But before Rick could finish, Benji slammed her door shut, and Lucy couldn’t hear Rick since Benji had the music up. She watched as Benji went around the car, Rick still yelling. But Benji seemed unfazed as he got in, slamming the door behind him. Putting the car in drive, he pulled away, his grip on the wheel so tight, his veins started to pop up.

“I’m so—”

“Don’t,” he said sternly as he stopped at the intersection. Turning in his seat, he looked back at Angie. “You all right, sunshine?”

“Yeah,” she answered, her voice full of despondence. “My dad wouldn’t take me to hockey yesterday. Coach Adler is gonna be so mad.”

“No, not at all. I’ll call him, don’t worry,” Lucy said quickly. She turned in the seat as Benji took off. “Or Benji will call since they’re friends.”

Angie didn’t look up as she shrugged. “He grounded me because I screamed at him for wanting to go. Then he wouldn’t let me call you and I cried, and he screamed at me that I was a baby. Then Nina and Heidi got to go shopping and to Chuck E. Cheese, but I had to stand in the corner.”

Lucy’s heart stopped. “The corner?”

“Yeah, ’cause I’m bad.”

“You’re not bad,” Lucy said, rubbing her daughter’s knee. “You’re perfect.”

“I don’t know, Mommy. He was so mean to me and wouldn’t let me do anything. I told him I wanted to go home, and that only made him madder.”

“I’m sorry.”

Still not looking up, Angie shrugged. “I don’t know why he has to be mean.”

“I don’t either.”

“But Grandpa did call me,” she said, looking up then, and her sweet face was flushed, visibly upset. “It was nice to hear from him.”

“Yeah,” Lucy said, reaching out and rubbing Angie’s face. “Maybe he’ll come to the game Saturday.”

“Cool.” Then she looked to Benji. “But you’re leaving tomorrow, so you won’t be there, huh, Benji?”

“No, I won’t. I’m sorry, but maybe I can get your mom to FaceTime me?”

Angie smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Me too,” he said, flashing her a smile in the rearview mirror.

Looking back at Lucy, her eyes welled up as she let out a long breath. “I don’t want to miss hockey, Mom, but Dad said he won’t take me.”

Rubbing her thumb along her daughter’s cheek, Lucy fought back tears. “I’ll see what I can do. Maybe I can talk him into letting me get you.”

“I just don’t want to go back,” she said, the tears spilling over her cheeks. “I hate it there. All he does is yell at me, only Nina and Heidi matter. And now Nina doesn’t even really talk to me. Heidi took her out all weekend. I just don’t want to go back. Don’t make me go!”

When she balled herself up, Lucy panicked, undoing her seatbelt and climbing in the back. Wrapping her arms around Angie, she kissed her the top of her head as her own tears started to fall. She couldn’t promise she wouldn’t have to send her back to Rick’s. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but one thing was for sure, she was going to fight Rick Hart tooth and nail. No one made her baby cry.

“How about we go get some ice cream? Wanna go to Chuck E. Cheese, Angie? Maybe shopping?” Benji asked and Angie peeked her head up, wiping her face. “I’m leaving tomorrow, and I need to spend the whole day with my girls. So how about we go have some fun?”

She nodded. “Really?”

“Yeah, us three? You gotta dry up those tears, okay? Know that Mommy and I will get everything fixed, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, wiping her face as her little lip wobbled. “I don’t want you to go, though.”

“I know. Me either, sunshine. That’s why we’ll have so much fun today that it will last for the next two weeks. Okay?”

She nodded and looked up at Lucy. “Want to, Mommy?”

“I would love to,” Lucy said, her tears begging to fall. As Lucy kissed her head, Angie leaned against her chest and Lucy slowly shook her head. What the hell was she going to do? How was she supposed to let Rick have her? This was going to get worse before it got better, and crap, Benji was going to be gone the whole time.