Deke called back an hour later. “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news,” he told Adam.

“Bad news first, I guess.”

“I guess the bad news is that Brittany now has an attorney, although she still doesn’t seem to put any importance in the divorce proceedings. I’d sort of hoped that she’d stay clueless until the settlement offer expired.”

“In a way, I did too,” Adam agreed. “But in spite of everything, I wanted to be at least a little fair with Brittany. I mean, I’d really rather she doesn’t wind up as a bag lady out on the street somewhere, although it wouldn’t surprise me if she did. So this Blue is going to be handling the divorce?”

“I guess, although I don’t think much of him as an attorney, which is good news. He’s pretty young, not long out of law school, and doesn’t have much experience down in the trenches, which is good for us. Oh, he’ll do some posturing. He tried it with me, and it didn’t work. I gave him a general outline of the settlement proposal, along with the existence of the prenuptial agreement, and that sort of took the wind out of his sails. I’m shipping a copy of it over to him so he’ll know where the bread really is buttered.”

“How about Matty?”

“That’s what he was really after. I got the impression that Brittany was there, maybe not in his office but sitting outside. That’s what he wanted to spend his time talking about, until I told him that until the divorce is settled, it’s not a topic for discussion. I sort of implied without promising anything that you might be a little more flexible if Brittany agreed to the settlement.”

“While I can’t speak for Mary, I wouldn’t be opposed to a brief meeting in a neutral location,” Adam replied. “But I’d want to be careful about it.”

“I’d be damn careful about it if I were Mary, and like I told you last summer, not in the states and definitely not in this state. Although Blue didn’t come out and say it, she isn’t going to be happy with anything less than full custody. I expect she hasn’t given up on that.”

“Me, either.”

“She’s not going to get it, especially without a hell of a fight in the Canadian courts, and that fight would have to include her record as a mental patient. If she pursues it, it could get stinky, but she’ll mostly just piss people off. In general, Canadian courts tend to not think much of Americans coming in and throwing their weight around. That’s part of why I told you to tell Mary to keep the kid in Canada.”

“So what happens next?”

“Mostly we wait. It’ll probably take Blue a couple days to digest the settlement proposal, and who knows how long before she signs it. That assumes she and Blue don’t decide to contest the proposal, which brings us right back to the prenuptial agreement. I hope he has the sense to realize that we have her between the proverbial rock and the hard spot and accepting the settlement is the best deal for her. I’m just glad you had the good sense to get this set up properly. It would have been hard to do on the fly.”

“I’m just glad I have you to hold me by the hand on this. Anything else?”

“Not really. Just keep your head down, and remember to route any discussion from Brittany or Blue through me.”

After a few more minutes of nothing in particular, Adam hung up the phone. It was a damn shame things had to end like this, but it was going to go in this direction sooner or later anyway. He’d tried for many years – too long – to keep things together; much of that time had been for Matt’s sake. Mostly it had been a failure; this proved it.

He glanced up at the picture of Matt on his office wall. “I’m trying to do right by you,” he said in a low voice to the memory of his son. “I really am.”

The next few days were quiet. Adam spent his days on paperwork in the office and had completed everything he needed to have done by the time the second long holiday weekend rolled around. Things would be busier after the first of the year, but again, it was nothing he hadn’t done before.

The long New Year’s Day weekend was . . . long. Once again it was tempting to head up to Winchester Harbor for the weekend, but he didn’t want to make a pest of himself to the Lewis family. Mostly he sat at home, reading and watching TV. He was no great football fan, but it was something to watch. Most of his attention went into books on sailing he’d bought at the mall; he’d pretty well cleaned them out of anything they had on the subject. Before the weekend was over with, he sat down at his home laptop and ordered several more books he’d found online, mostly at random. He was still uncertain if he wanted to put that much interest into sailing when he finally had the time for it. It was moderately interesting reading, and the only thing he found over the weekend that would hold his attention.

His phone was quiet, mostly because he left his office cell phone turned off. He’d gotten a throw-away cell phone, but only a few people had that number, Marcia and his father heading that list, which also included Deke. That meant Brittany couldn’t call him, which was fine with him in more ways than one; he was certain she had no idea of where he was living, and at least for the time being he wanted to keep it that way.

All in all it was a most unsatisfying weekend, although he was used to that happening. He’d been used to relatively dull weekends, and didn’t dare think about starting something more interesting, at least until the divorce was behind him. Whatever else may have been murky, one thing was clear: he didn’t want to get involved with another woman anytime soon – and perhaps not ever. He’d had more than enough woman trouble to hold him for several lifetimes.

Oh, if at some point in the future the chance should arise to spend a few hours with a woman who at least acted if she liked sex, it would be nice to experience it for the sake of having done it at least once. That didn’t include Brittany; if she’d ever had any interest in sex it had only been for what she could get out of it, and even that ended well before Matt’s birth. Since then she’d occasionally allowed him to service her out of duty and taking no active part in the proceedings other than lying there. Not even that had happened in several years, and at the bottom line he’d come to accept it. It just hadn’t been worth the trouble. He had never considered himself as having a strong sex drive, not even as a teenager; these days it was mostly just intellectual interest, which was probably just as well.

Maybe someday . . . but not anytime soon. There were other things that needed to be done first.

Monday started out busily, which was a relief. Along with the routine items involving the start of the year, there was a proposal for a new part for Ford. It was not a done deal by any means; it would involve plenty of negotiation and bidding, and it was clear that Caldwell-Deerfield wasn’t the only company that had been approached. In a way, it was routine too, but it was a heck of a lot of work, since with the auto industry recovering from the stagnant last couple years new jobs didn’t come along very often. That meant dealing with the proposal was going to be a priority one item for the next several months.

Even if they got the job, there were going to be other issues to deal with, like where it was going to be done. In his own mind Adam thought the Meridian plant was a little underutilized, but not that underutilized; a couple small jobs would have to be taken out of there and spread elsewhere in the company. However it worked out, if Ford accepted the Caldwell-Deerfield bid there was likely to be some calling back of laid-off workers, and maybe some hiring. He could make some tentative plans, but until everything was in the bag there wasn’t any point in putting any real effort into it.

Toward the middle of the week Deke called him. “Well, we’re over the hump,” he reported. “I have in my hand a signed document from Brittany accepting the settlement.”

“Hell, I didn’t expect it that quickly.”

“Well, me either. Blue hinted that she’d like a reconciliation, but I told him it was something you wouldn’t consider.”

“You got that right.”

“It may come up in court, and there might be such a thing that the two of you have to attend sessions with a counselor, but I think maybe we can avoid that. I got the impression from Blue that she agreed to it so readily because she seems to think that with it signed you may be willing to get her in touch with Mary. I think that’s her primary goal.”

“You mean, custody of Matty.”

“Right. And I know what you think about that.”

“Did you promise anything?”

“No. Well, I hinted a little bit that you might be willing to consider it a little more, but that you hadn’t agreed to it. It may have pushed the settlement over the top.”

“If she’d get off her high horse about it and lower her expectations, I might be willing to try to set something up. But as long as her goal is to snatch Matty out of Mary’s hands, it’s not going to happen. I’ll go to every extent I can to prevent that from happening.”

“It would be damn near impossible for her to do it.”

“I doubt that’s going to stop her. Have you ever heard the term ‘obsessive-compulsive?’ She’s not going to give up easily. So what’s the next step?”

“I’ll have to get a court date set to hear the settlement and confirm it. Since there’s a signed settlement, it shouldn’t be much more than a rubber-stamping session. I’ll get it set up as quickly as I can. If we’re lucky, that’ll be by the end of the month. Then you’re just going to have to wait out a year before it’s final. That’s how it works with this class of divorce.”

“I knew that. I still don’t talk to Brittany or this Blue character except through you, right?”

“Not until the judge signs his name on the dotted line,” Deke smiled. “After that, things are going to be a little different, although you’re still going to want to be careful about what you say.”

Adam hung up the phone in relief. The nightmare seemed to be about over with. He’d seen this day coming for a long time, but had made up his mind to stick it out to try and protect Matt from his mother a little. Realistically, he should have done this long ago, but the time had never seemed right. Now, it was going to be good to have part of his life back again. He still didn’t have the option of hopping on a boat and sailing away like Matt did, but at least his life would be more peaceful, and he’d have that headache out of it. Then maybe he could get his bearings back and figure out what to do next.

Deke called back the next day with the news that a court date had been set toward the end of the month. “It’s the last big hurdle, but unless something comes up at the last minute, once it’s done, it’s done, with nothing to do but wait out the final decree.”

“It seems like it’s a lot simpler than I expected.”

“Well, if you’d had minor children, it would have been a hell of a lot more complicated. Sometimes those custody hassles go on for years. Sometimes the kids will be over eighteen and the parents will still be battling over it. I realize the question of Matty is still lying there between you and Brittany, but for the most part since neither of you have custody of him that’s something that’s out of the court’s jurisdiction.”

“I’ll feel a lot more comfortable when this is over with.”

“We’re almost there, Adam. Almost there.”

“You remember the original Star Wars? Where the guy is attacking the Death Star? He was saying, ‘Almost there . . . almost there.’ Then BOOM! That’s what I think of when you say that.”

“It’s not going to happen here. Among other things, we’re not fighting it out with Darth Vader. Brittany is just not up to that level.”

“I sure hope not Deke. I sure hope not.”

In the weeks till the court date, Adam tried to not be nervous about it, but he couldn’t help but have some concerns – not for him; he knew he could struggle through whatever happened, but for Mary and Matty. If Brittany was as obsessed about Matty as he feared she was, that problem could be a long time getting solved. There were ramifications he knew he hadn’t even thought of, and unless something happened, it could drag out for years.

Adam was more than a little surprised at Brittany’s appearance in the courtroom. One of the things he had always liked about her, despite everything, was that she always had taken care of herself, and had liked to dress attractively. But somehow that had changed. While Adam had not seen her in almost two months, shortly after he’d heard the word about Matty’s birth, it seemed like it must have been ten years; she’d appeared to have aged that much. Her hair was a little straggly, and she wasn’t wearing makeup. Her clothes seemed appropriate – he remembered the outfit – but they seemed to hang off of her like she’d lost weight she didn’t have to lose. Clearly, she hadn’t been taking care of herself.

A little to his surprise, Brittany said nothing in the courtroom, letting Blue speak for her – it seemed incredible knowing how much she liked to get her word in. Her attorney didn’t impress Adam that much; he appeared to be in his late twenties, hardly older than Matt would have been. While Deke didn’t say anything, he obviously felt that Brittany could have come up with an attorney who would have been much more capable of handling the issues.

The hearing went off mostly without a hitch; the judge asked if they would consider marital counseling, but Deke pointed out the couple had been through considerable counseling in the months before the divorce had been filed, while Brittany had been a patient at Brookview. “My client feels further efforts along this line would be a waste of time,” Deke told the judge.

That seemed to satisfy him. The rest of the hearing was brief and straightforward, since the proposed settlement had been already agreed on.

It was only after the hearing that things got sticky, when Blue requested a conference outside the courtroom, but it was Brittany who had something to say. “All right, Adam, you got what you wanted. Now will you tell me where I can find my grandson?”

“No, at least not now,” Adam told her. “I don’t know where he is anyway.”

“But . . . but Howard said if this went through you’d tell me.”

“I made no such promise, not to you, not to Deke, not to your attorney,” he replied flatly. “Deke, did I ever say anything like that?”

“Not to me,” Deke said.

“But you said if this went through he might be willing to consider it,” Blue replied to Deke.

“I said he might be willing,” Deke said firmly. “That doesn’t constitute a promise.”

“But . . . but I want to see my grandson,” Brittany cried, the tears rolling down her cheek. “I want to hold him, to love him, to take care of him the way he should be taken care of.”

“Let’s get one thing clear,” Adam said firmly. “And that is, it’s not my decision to make. It’s the boy’s mother’s. In the past, Brittany, you made every effort you could to alienate and ignore Mary, like she was a person who didn’t exist. You’re still treating her like that. He may be your grandson, but the boy is Mary’s son.”

“So you’re not going to let me see him?” she said, the tears really rolling now.

“I said it’s not my decision to make. I will say this much: if I thought you weren’t going to try a custody action to take him away from Mary, and were willing to be reasonably polite to her, I might feel differently. But it still doesn’t matter, since I don’t have a way to contact Mary directly. I occasionally hear from her, not very often. At some point in the future, if I believe you’re going to be reasonable I might be willing to try to set up a brief meeting at a neutral location. But for now, I’m not convinced that you’re not going to make the same kind of scene you made every time you met Mary. Every time, Brittany. I can’t ask Mary to put up with that again and you shouldn’t either.”

“So you’re not willing to help?” Blue asked.

“Not now, and while that might change at some point in the future, I’m not promising it will. Brittany, I’ve told you for months that you’re going to have to accept the reality that Matt is dead. Trying to replace him with his son is not going to work, not now, not ever.”

“But . . . but I want to see him.”

“Brittany,” Adam said gently, “Have you talked to Dr. Preble about this? Maybe you should. He can probably be the biggest help of anyone in arranging this. It’s not going to happen the way things are now.”

She just stood quietly, looking at him while the tears rolled down her face.

“Adam,” Deke said in a low voice, “I think we’d better go.”

“Don’t think this is over with,” Blue said, the threat clearly evident.

“You know how to contact me,” Deke replied. “Come on Adam, let’s go.”

“Yeah, we might as well,” Adam agreed. “Brittany, take care of yourself. And see Dr. Preble.”

Once they were outside the courthouse, Deke turned to Adam. “I don’t think that part of it is over with yet. Expect a nuisance lawsuit from Blue. Maybe more than one. I think he thinks he’s got a cash cow and wants to milk it. He’s just a little boy and hasn’t realized yet he’s playing with the big boys.”

“You’re probably right,” Adam conceded. “But in a way, it’s not my concern any longer. Do you think he can come up with anything substantive?”

“Not really. Oh, he can harass you, but the bottom line is still that Matty is not your son, but your grandson, and the fact that he’s out of the country will complicate things immensely. Maybe I ought to make that point to him, just to let him realize he’s pissing up a rope.”

“But the question of the divorce is all settled?”

“Pretty much. Like I told you, you’re going to have to wait out the final decree, but with the settlement in place that’s so much paperwork and waiting for the calendar pages to turn. I suppose he might try to find some grounds to have the settlement thrown out, but it’s about as airtight as can be, especially with the prenuptial agreement in place. If they fought it, we could insist on falling back to the pre-nup, and that would leave her in a considerably worse position.”

“Is there anything we can do to prevent that?”

“Not really. What we’ve already done should be adequate. But don’t go winning any lotteries or declaring bankruptcy or something like that, or the whole can of worms could be opened up again. It’s almost all over now. In a year, the divorce will be final. The question of Matty, though – that’s not going to go away, and even if you were to concede on your position, she’d just try to grab more. There won’t be any appeasing her short of full custody, and there’s no doubt it would be a major disaster.”

“Boy, I know that,” Adam sighed. “I agree with Blue. This isn’t over with, not by a long shot.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Deke nodded, then said again, “I’m afraid you’re right.”

They talked for a couple more minutes, then Deke had to be getting back to his office, and Adam had to be getting back to work. Still, there was one thing he had to do, and it would be best if it were done now.

Once Adam got in his car, he drove well out of his way of the direct route back to Caldwell-Deerfield. With cell phones everywhere these days it was getting hard to find a pay phone, but he happened to know of one at a convenience store. Perhaps he was being paranoid, he thought, but he needed to say something where no possibility of it existed of turning up on anyone’s records.

Considering the time of day, Jake was probably down at the boat shed, where there was a separate phone. Adam dropped the appropriate number of quarters into the phone, and dialed the unfamiliar number.

Sure enough, Jake was there, and he’d talked to him enough in recent weeks that he had to know what was happening today. “So how did it go?” Jake asked as soon as he heard Adam’s voice.

“It went,” Adam replied, being careful with his words. “It was about like I was expecting, but she still has the bug up her ass that she wants custody of the boy.”

“Sounds like her,” Jake replied, realizing how guarded Adam was being in what he said. “Should I let his mother know?”

“I wish you would. My attorney doesn’t think it’s any real threat, but he doesn’t expect that the problem is going away anytime soon. There’s probably going to be something else coming but we’re not sure what.”

“Damn shame, but I guess that’s about what I expected,” Jake sighed. “I’ll let her know. Any chance we’re going to be seeing you anytime soon?”

“Probably not real soon. I’ve got a lot going on at the shop that needs dealing with. One of these days we’ll have to get together and go over it in a little more detail.”

“Don’t make it too long.”

“I won’t. Catch you around.”

“Yeah, see you.”

Still feeling a little silly, he made another quick phone call, this time to a purely random number – he remembered a show on TV where a detective had been able to weasel out where a call had been made to by hitting “redial.” Adam went back over to his car, feeling just a little silly about being so furtive. At the same time, though, it wasn’t impossible that Brittany and that Blue joker could have set a private detective on him to try to figure out an angle on getting to Matty. It seemed like a long shot, especially this soon after the divorce hearing, but Adam wasn’t in the mood to take chances.

He got back in his car, he knew he was even going to have to be careful about his contacts with Jake for a while, but at least reasoned that if a detective was following him, he couldn’t do it forever and might have to show his hand. Better safe than sorry, Adam thought as he started the engine.

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