Trying Not To Love You

Part Fifty Eight

Chapter Fifty Eight

Sonny had punched the wall...several times, and it hadn’t worked, he was still a mass of anger. He wanted to punch Carl and Stephanie, but that was playing into their hands. Since they’d left all he could think about was Martha, and the fact that bastard had sent her a legal letter wanting Ethan. That just hours after he’d threatened Sonny himself. One thing was right this WAS all his fault. Did Oldbury have a leg to stand on legally? Sonny’s trust in the judicial system was enough to raise his panic levels. He was a jailbird, going to prison, albeit unjustly, for a violent crime. And whilst he protested his innocence over that, he had done more than enough prior to going to jail to deserve the conviction. He wasn’t a good influence on Ethan, and once anyone started to investigate then they’d soon see that.

He needed to see Martha; he was in a horrendous mood. Paul, reliable as ever had arrived early, Tim and Sam the two young workers were due any moment.

                “You mind if I shoot out for five minutes, literally?”

Paul looked up from the table he was laying in the window, “no one due for twenty minutes, I’m sure I’ll cope.”

Sonny gave a half smile, amazed that he’d been so sceptical of the other man when he’d first seen him, “I have to drop home, I won’t be long, I swear.”

Paul grinned as he left, pulling a jacket over his suit.

                “Where is she?” Carl was in the kitchen making coffee, as he looked around Sonny spotted Stephanie in the lounge.

                “Upstairs, putting Ethan to bed.”

He ignored the words from the older man, and stormed past him to the stairs.

Standing in the doorway to her bedroom, he watched Martha reading to Ethan, taking on different voices and making the boy giggle.

                “Ok, that’s the end, sleep now.” She tucked him in, giving him a big kiss, then snuck out straight into Sonny. “Hey Carter.”

She offered a smile, but it didn’t travel from her lips to her eyes. In fact they were red, puffy; it broke his heart that she’d been crying.

                “What’s happened?” he asked taking her hands in his.

Shrugging she tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her, lifting her chin, he met her eyes, with a sigh she stared at him, knowing that tears were starting to fall, “Michael...he wants custody of Ethan, he said he’ll take me to court.”

Using his thumbs he brushed the tears away, “we won’t let that happen, surely you know that?”

                “All those years I spent away to avoid this happening. That family...”

He shook his head as she fell against his chest, his hands holding her close, “it won’t happen. I’ll go and speak to him if I have to. But I won’t let him win.”

                “It’ll cost thousands, even if we beat him it’ll bankrupt us fighting him,” she sobbed, “how the hell can we stop him?”

                “Sometimes I doubt the justice in this country, but the one thing I do know is there’s not a court in the land that would take Ethan from you, and they’d never give in to him, I swear.”