“I am going to sue you for full legal custody, Mother.”

“And if the court won’t give me full custody, I’ll take every single weekend and every major holiday.”

“I will force her to sit in my house until she learns how to respect her father.”

“You are going to pay for every single hour of legal fees I incur.”

“I will drag this out until you don’t have a single dollar left in your retirement account.”

The line went dead with a sharp click.

The kitchen returned to its heavy silence, save for the hum of the refrigerator.

Rebecca looked up from her hands, her eyes red and swollen.

“He means it, Sarah,” she said, using my name with a quiet familiarity that felt strange after so many years.

“Thomas has a friend from college who is a high-profile family lawyer in Richmond.”

“He’s been bragging about him for months.”

“Let him try,” I said, though my stomach turned over at the thought of a court battle.

My savings were modest, built from years of working as a librarian in Fredericksburg.