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I look down at my hands. Memories of him at daycare holding her, or her squealing with laughter upon her shoulders at the zoo flash in my mind briefly. It’s like it was a role he was born to play, but it’s better I take that role away now before he gets even closer.
“I don’t want him in her life at all,” I say, trying to sound confident.
“So absolutely no visitation rights?”
“No.”
“Not even supervised?”
“No.”
April nods and jots down some notes on her legal pad.
“And what about his relationship with you? Since you work for him, this can be tricky. It’s similar to a restraining order in many ways…”
The words “restraining order” make my heart stop. It sounds so serious, like he’s done something wrong.
“I don’t want anything like that. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“I understand that. I’m not saying itisa restraining order, but it’s somewhat similar in nature.”
“I just want it to go back to the way it was where he was unaware she existed.”
“Howdidhe find out about her?”
I take a deep breath, realizing I haven’t been fully transparent about everything. I look down at my hands, wondering how to go about explaining how complicated everything has gotten.
“If we want to be successful in this, you need to tell me everything, Erica,” says April seriously, her eyes narrowed.
“Marco and I became involved romantically a few weeks ago.”
April sits back in her chair and looks perplexed.
“It was only one night. The next morning, he saw a picture of Josie on my phone and put two and two together. They’re practically twins…”
“What happened then?”
“He freaked out. Told me to leave. We didn’t speak again for a little while, but then he sent flowers apologizing. We ran into each other at work and he asked to meet her. I felt bad, so I let him. We went to dinner and to the zoo, but that’s been it.”
“So, he’s had numerous points of contact with her…”
“Yes,” I say quietly.
“This makes things complicated. I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you. You’ve willingly let him in your daughter’s life and now want to take that away.”
I nod, fighting back tears.
“It doesn’t make drawing up the papers any more difficult, but as far as him agreeing to sign them, that may be a different story.”
“I understand.”
“Okay. Then let’s get down to the nitty gritty.”
We spend the next hour going over the finer details, with me not realizing how much goes into it. I thought it would be simple,but of course, nothing like this is. I leave April’s office, knowing that tomorrow I will have the papers sent to me for me to give to Marco. It’s a scary feeling knowing what I’m about to do.
Chapter 42
Marco