The Price of a Flawless Lie and the Family That Vanished
I held my breath.
“What does it say?” I asked.
“You have temporary sole legal and physical custody,” Lydia said.
“Julian has been ordered to surrender his passport.”
“And his visitation has been suspended pending a full hearing next month.”
“If he wants to see Harrison before then, it must be fully supervised by a court-appointed social worker.”
“And he has to pay for it.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, hot and wet.
“We did it,” I whispered.
“We did,” Lydia said.
“But don’t celebrate just yet.”
“Martin Bell just filed a counter-motion.”
“He’s accusing you of parental alienation.”
“And he’s calling a witness we didn’t expect.”
I gripped the phone tighter.
“Who?” I asked.
“Isabel,” Lydia said.
“She’s prepared to give a deposition about your behavior before you left.”
“She claims you knew about the affair for months and used it to manipulate Julian’s business decisions.”
“That’s a lie,” I said, my voice rising.
“I know it’s a lie,” Lydia said.
“But we have to disprove it.”
“And she has documents, Elena.”
“Emails from your personal account that she says you sent her.”