Read Online Starter House A Novel by Sonja Condit - Free Book Online Page A

Technically it’s his name on the door, not mine.”
    “And you’re my lawyer.”
    “If you retain me, yes.”
    “Really my lawyer. Not the court’s lawyer. Mine.” Lex knew about the court’s lawyers. They promised to do all they could, to help if he told them everything, but they never did. He knew not to talk to any lawyer but his own.
    “Absolutely,” the young lawyer said.
    They weren’t allowed to lie. Lex pulled the old man’s check from his windbreaker. “Mr. Rakoczy’s paying your retainer?” the young lawyer asked. He sounded surprised. Lex didn’t know why. Everybody knew the old man.
    “Can you help me?”
    “What do you want, Mr. Hall?”
    “Can I stop her?” The lawyer was shaking his head. Lex tried to make his question clear. “Can she divorce me? She’s my wife.”
    “It’s the law, Mr. Hall. She can divorce you whenever she wants. All I can do is represent you and make sure the settlement’s fair. I need information. Any kids?”
    “Theo. She’ll be a year old in October. Can she do that? Jeanne? Can she just take her and leave?”
    “Where did she go?”
    “She went to her mom’s house and she won’t let me see Theo. Can she do that?”
    “No. You have parental rights. We’ll get a temporary order. The court will appoint someone to represent your daughter. They’re called the guardian ad litem and they’ll get in touch with you.” The lawyer pulled a pad of yellow paper onto the desk and started making notes. “So she left you in the marital home. Do you own or rent?”
    Lex didn’t care about the house. He’d bought it with the money the old man gave him for the other house. Jeanne could have the house, but she couldn’t have Theo. The lawyer had to understand. “I want my baby,” he said.
    “The court usually leaves a baby with the primary caregiver. Is that you?”
    “Are you the court’s lawyer or my lawyer?”
    “Yours, your lawyer. I can’t help you by making false promises. We can go for joint custody. That’s the best you’ll get. Sole custody, not a chance, unless there’s abuse and you can prove it. That gets very ugly, very fast. I’m not going to waste your money and your time fighting for something you’ll never get.”
    Lex reached into the greasy envelope for the pictures he’d brought. There was Jeanne, with her gold-blond curls and her bright pink face that spread out onto her shoulders. Her cheeks were wider than her forehead, her neck wider than her cheeks, her chin a pink bump in the broad meat of her throat.
    “She’s a lot younger than you,” the lawyer said.
    “She’s twenty. She was always big.” Lex knew he wasn’t being clear. “I bring fruit and vegetables. She takes my money that I bring home and she eats cheeseburgers for breakfast, and she feeds my baby.” He brought out the second picture: Theo with her fluff of dandelion-seed hair, her laughing face. She wore a white lace dress. Her arms bulged out of the short sleeves, and her cheeks were round pads of fat.
    “Your wife’s unfit because she feeds the baby too much?”
    “I need to take care of her.” That was as clear as he could be. It had to be enough.
    The lawyer laid the pictures on his printer. “I’ll scan these into your file. We’ll depose the pediatrician. You need evidence. That means you need to be able to prove—”
    “I know what evidence is.”
    The lawyer gave him the pictures. “Mr. Hall, I’ll be honest with you. It’s a long shot. You’re calling it child abuse, the way your wife’s feeding Theo?”
    Lex nodded hard. The lawyer was young, but he was quick. Child abuse.
    “You’d have a better case if you’d filed on her.”
    “I was going to.” And it was true, though he hadn’t known it until he heard himself saying it. “I told her, you keep feeding my baby cupcakes and corn dogs, I’ll take her and leave you. I told her, you can’t do that to my baby.”
    “You said you didn’t want her to divorce you.”
    “What I