Chapter 3 - THE CUSTODY AMBUSH
Three days later, the doorbell rang. I opened it to find a process server holding a thick manila envelope. The moment I saw the seal of the family court, my stomach plummeted. Andrew was filing for emergency, full physical custody of Maya. As I read through the petition, my blood boiled. The document was a masterclass in fiction. It painted me as a paranoid, obsessive, and mentally unstable mother who spent her days chasing financial ghosts instead of caring for her infant. But the most alarming part wasn't the lies—it was the legal representation. He had hired Vance & Sterling, the most ruthless, expensive family law litigators in the state. Retaining them cost a minimum of a quarter-million dollars.
Andrew was legally bankrupt on paper. He was supposed to be living off a modest stipend managed by his court-appointed restructuring officer. Instead, he was bankrolling a legal war. I met with my attorney, Sarah, who looked grim. “He has a newly minted psychological evaluation, character witnesses from his old firm, and endless funding,” she warned. “If we can’t prove where this money is coming from, a judge might actually entertain his narrative.” Andrew was using the very legal system that had stripped him of his power as a weapon against me. He wanted to break me financially and emotionally. He wanted to take the only thing that mattered to me. That afternoon, I received a blocked text message: You should have taken the deal in the hospital. I’ll see you in court. I deleted the message, walked into my home office, and pulled out a burner phone. It was time to find the one person who knew Andrew's secrets better than he did.
