The Mistake of Non-Existent Love | ✍🏼

26. Custody

- Miles Cohen - 

Today was the day that I was going to fight for my daughter. She now knew that I was her father, and it had taken a little getting used to it all, but it had been a week now, and things were becoming normal. She was fitting into my life, just like I was fitting into hers. Ellery made my life ten times easier, with her easy going nature. 

She reminded me of my younger self, and it scared me a little, as did a lot of other things, but we were making progress. We still hadn't spoken about how I had given her away for a few weeks, but I think she understood, and that hurt, but it made everything better in the long run. We had gotten back into the groove of things, allowing me to have this day to fight for everything to be put back to the way it should be. 

I had called for this court hearing, and now that it was here, I was shitting bricks. The only thing that kept me standing here, was the hand that was on my shoulder. Carter had stood by my side for so long, I was surprised that he was still even here, as he carried half of my trauma on his shoulders, as I carried his half. 

"Do it for Ellery, Miles. Do it for your little girl. Don't let her get taken from us; from you" and those words were all I needed to here, before I was walking in, and facing my nightmare from high school. The same girl that had wanted to rip me to shreds, was the mother to my daughter, and I wasn't letting her get out of here, until she paid for what she had done to the both of us. 

---

"So, Mr. Cohen, you are here to press charges against Miss. Williams for abuse? The same abuse that has happened to both you and your daughter?" I nodded my head along, as I stood before the judge. This is what I was here to do, to put the nightmares of my daughter to bed, all while I kept her to myself. 

I would protect her for as long as I possibly could, and if that meant that it was to bring her mother down, then I would do it. Amelia Williams had been that girl in school that every guy had wanted to be with. Even Carter had tried, but because I wasn't interested in her, it made her all the more interested in me. 

And because she was interested in me, it meant that she could chase me home and try everything and anything to get to me. Whether it was calling the cops to school so that she could corner me into a room, to tear me apart, before I finally convinced at one of the last parties of senior year, to make out with her, it all went south. 

I was off to college, while she ran off somewhere else, in tears. She had wanted me, not me wanting her. "Yes, your honor. She would chase me and corner me just so she could speak to me. She would force herself onto me, while I tried to push her away. She continued to persist, and then I left. I later found out, that she had had my daughter, who was later dropped at the reception of my college, only to find her bleeding and covered in bruises and scars. Scars that will never heal. It was almost like I could never get her to stop bleeding. So, I am here, to ask for a change in custody for the safety of my daughter"

Tears sprung to my eyes, but I blinked them away, as I spoke about the state that my daughter was found in. The way that she had bled and bled in that bathtub should have been enough for me to want to sue anyone that had ever been in contact with her.  I should have found Amelia earlier and sued her for the hurt that she had put my daughter in all because she probably found out that it was mine, and not one of her other fuckers. 

I had been conscious and well aware of every time she had thrown herself at me, but I had never been allowed to look down at what she did to me. She had always held my chin so I was looking at her, and it always left bruises. She had even tried choking me, but I wasn't going to say that, as I had already humiliated her. 

"Miss Williams, do you have anything else to say, before the charges are laid?" I had completely zoned out after I had shared my story, so I looked across at the skinny blonde, who was death staring me, wishing for me to take every word back. I never would. As much as I would never wish to hurt a woman, this one was an exception. 

I was going to bring her down for everything that she had done to Ellery and I. The world deserved to know just how cruel of a person that she was. "Miss Williams?" the judge called again, and she finally stopped glaring at me. "No" was all that needed to be said, before I watched the mother of my child being put behind bars. 

An arm wrapped around my shoulders, and I wrapped my arms around Carter, who just held me as the tears rolled down my cheeks. At one stage, I had believed that Amelia was the one for me, but that was when she was sweet talking me and actually wanted to consider dating. When I backed off, she became hell in a person. 

She had even had the audacity to represent my father in court, the same father that she had once worked for, and had made him believe that I had run away because I had had a child with her, and I thought that my father would be disappointed. My father had been disappointed with me before I was even able to stand on my own two feet. 

I had been no Mason, and that was enough to be hated on by someone. Stepping back from Carter, I turned to see my brother, looking at me, as he handcuffed the girl that had chased me into the night, and made my father write me letters as he apologized, hoping to bring me back home. I had known it was her, as she had drunkenly told me so. 

My brother stalked over to me, and wrapped me in his arms, as I had stood in court against her, twice now. I had just gotten custody over my daughter, and I now had my brother here with me now. "Mr. Cohen, please sign the paper" at that, I pulled apart, and signed the letter that meant that my daughter was finally under my care. 

---

Unlocking the door, I bent down to my knees as a smaller body never collided with mine. I looked around, hoping to see her, but I didn't. Worry immediately filled my body as I quickly stood up, Carter right behind me, as I searched the dorm room. No one was in the kitchen or living area, so I quickly checked my room, finding both beds empty. 

"I can't find her" I then stalked across the hall, knocking on Mark's room before I burst the door open, only to find a sight that warmed my heart but broke it at the same time. "He will be home-" Mark never got to finish what he was saying to my daughter as she sprung from his arms and right into mine. 

I crushed her small body as gently as I could as I wrapped her in the hug of a lifetime. This little girl was finally mine for keeps. She was not going anywhere. She would be stuck with me, her overbearing father with 20 or so uncles. I didn't care whether she was being smothered, only that she was being loved and cared for in the right way, and if that meant I had to go to court 100000 times, I would, just to see her smile. 

"I'm home" I murmured, and she snuggled into me further, as she wiped her wet cheeks into my shirt, as I pulled her even closer to me. "I'm home and I love you" I murmured once again, as I felt her quieten down her little sniffles, and before I knew it, she was out like a light, in my arms, where she belonged. 

---

thoughts? xx

no, i am no expert on the court system, so bare with me.