“Barbara—”
She raised a hand.
“I’m opening the door, Claire. What you do after that is your responsibility.”
And that was exactly what I did.
I stopped calling Eric for sympathy.
Stopped asking him to understand.
Stopped trying to convince him that Chloe deserved a father.
Instead, I collected records.
Bank statements.
Texts.
Receipts.
Medical bills.
My lawyer dealt with the rest.
Two weeks later, formal paperwork concerning Chloe and our finances reached Eric.
His first text arrived almost immediately.
You’ve completely lost your mind.
I forwarded it to my lawyer.
Then another.
My mother has poisoned you against me.
I forwarded that one too.
For once, Eric’s anger wasn’t something I needed to manage.
There were procedures now.
Dates.
Documents.
Obligations.
Facts.
A few days later, Barbara called.
“Tessa knows.”
“Knows what?”
Barbara paused.
“Apparently quite a lot.”
Later, when Eric called her, I could hear Tessa yelling in the background.
