Bittersweet Irish Cream Ch. 20

Jack grimaced at him. "I would never hurt the mother of my sons. I just need her to sign some papers so I can protect my family, and then she'll never hear from me again. But you? I'd fucking kill you in a heartbeat. I told you not to touch my husband again but you didn't listen. Now you have one chance to get out of this alive. You give me what I want, and I give you your life."

"This is fucking loco, cabron, you-"

Jack cocked the gun and moved it back to the center of his forehead. "The next words out of your mouth better be a fucking address or you'll be of no use to me," he said slowly and calmly.

Carlos glared at Jack but he was afraid. He remembered Ethan's words a long time ago: If he sounded dangerous to you then he will be...He'll do anything to protect his family. Jack was way too calm and Carlos knew he was in danger. So he spoke.

"1903 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia P.A. Apartment 14D."

Jack stared at him a little longer, the dark side of him disappointed that he didn't get to shoot Carlos in the face. Then he remembered why he was there and his promise to Liam, and slowly got off Carlos before he took the gun off his head.

Carlos quickly jumped up standing at the bottom of his bed, breathing hard, pissed but scared. "You better not hurt her."

"I told you the truth," Jack said, still pointing the gun at him. "I will never hurt Trish. I just need her to sign paperwork for Jamie over to Ethan fully, so we could end this nightmare."

"And you had to put a gun to my head to do it?" he asked angrily. "You could have just asked me with more respect."

Jack smiled nastily. "I could have. But this was more fun."

"So you wasn't going to kill me!?" he yelled.

Jack moved his hand slightly to the right and fired. The bullet grazed the side of Carlos's head, making him scream and fall down, and shattered the picture of Carlos and Ethan on his shelf.

"Cono ma ticon!" he yelled and held onto his head.

Jack raised the gun a little higher and fired again at the painting. He left a hole in the center of the figure of Carlos's skull.

"Of course I would have killed you," Jack said impassively. "And that will be a reminder. I meant what I said. Keep your fucking hands and your lips off my husband. I made a promise to someone tonight which is why you're still alive. Don't give me a reason to finish the job tomorrow."

Jack put the gun back in his waist began to walk out of his bedroom. "You're a fucking psychopath, you know that," Carlos said from the floor, still holding onto his bleeding head.

Jack paused in the doorway. "Yea. I know."

Jack stepped out of Carlos' apartment and looked at his watch. 10:36pm. He walked out of the building, got into his car, crossed the George Washington Bridge and drove south toward Pennsylvania.

~~~

It was a few minutes after midnight and people were still walking around the streets, finding a bar or club to go to. A group of young Asian women passed him by and he thought about Ka'eo, the young woman he saved from sex trafficking a few years ago. She would be 23 years old by then. He had no idea if she was still living in Philadelphia with her family or if they all moved to a different location to keep her safe. But he knew in his heart, that she was okay, and that was enough.

Jack smiled politely and followed a couple into the building. He pressed the elevator to the 14th floor. He rang the doorbell once and Trish immediately opened it wearing a silk white nightgown, her nipples poking through the fabric, her eyes already dilated. He forgot how naturally thin she was, curvy but all legs. Her hair was frazzled like a lion mane around her sunken face.

She looked at him like she expected his presence this late at night, then she stepped to the side and let him in.

Jack came into the luxury apartment and looked around. Everything looked expensive, from the white marble kitchen to the baby grand piano in front of the picture window. He went to the couch and sat down, and his eyes immediately went to the powder line that was on the table. He shook his head but didn't say anything.

Trish sat down on the floor in front of the center coffee table. He waited for her to sniff her line, rub her nose and look up at him. "Give me the papers," she said.

"He called you," Jack stated.

"Of course he did, Carlos is my friend," said Trish. "And he told me you have a gun on you. Threatened to kill him. You don't have to threaten me, just give me the papers."

Jack reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the voluntary surrender of parental rights papers and placed them on the table. "I didn't come here to threaten you, Trish."

Trish didn't read the first seven pages. She grabbed a pen and started signing them. She stopped at the last page and read it, then she looked up at Jack. "You must really hate me."

He shook his head. "I'm just protecting my family."

"But what if I wasn't using? Then this would be a lie."

"Is it?" Jack challenged her. He glanced at the table then back at her.

She stood up angrily. "I was clean, Jack, for three years. I had every intention of staying clean."

"And yet, here you are, sniffing coke," he replied in a bored manner.

"Fuck you, you judgmental, uptight asshole!" she yelled at him.

"Just sign the fucking documents, Trish," Jack said calmly.

"You-"

"What's going on?" a voice said behind them. Jack stood up abruptly and touched his concealed weapon. He faced an older man in his late 50's.

"Um... Duke, hiiiiee." Trish walked over to him and put her arms around his neck. "I invited a friend over." She kissed his cheek.

The man looked over at Jack then back at Trish, confused. "A friend? This late?"

"Yes!" she said happily. "Well, actually, he's my ex-husband's husband." She started giggling. "Ex-husband's husband. That is so funny to say."

Jack and Duke just looked at her. She stopped laughing and cleared her throat. "But yea, Duke, meet Jack. He's my ex-husband's husband. Jack, this is Duke. He's an artist and I'm his muse." She kissed his cheek again.

"Okay, but what is he doing here so late?" Duke asked.

Jack spoke before she did. "I need her to voluntarily terminate her parental rights and give my husband sole custody so that we can go to family court in two days and stop her parents from trying to get guardianship over the baby she left behind in the hospital."

She turned to him wide eyed and glared at him. She turned back to Duke and laughed. "Jack says the craziest things. But yes, I did ask him to bring me some paperwork to sign so I'm doing that now. I'll be in in a minute." She turned his face and kissed him passionately.

Duke forgot about Jack's presence for a moment and palmed Trish's bottom. "Don't take too long," he told her softly. He looked over at Jack again and left. Trish followed him to close the bedroom door.

She walked up to Jack quickly and hit his arm. "Asshole! Are you trying to take away my meal ticket?"

He sighed. "Trish-"

"No Jack, no!" she yelled at him in a harsh whisper. "You don't get to come in here with documents calling me a lifelong addict and then ruin what I have going for me here."

"Trish-"

"You have no idea what I have been through. You think I'm some flaky, selfish, self absorbed, rich bitch but I'm a person! A person with feelings and hopes and dreams that have been destroyed since one drunken night that YOUR husband did to me. I didn't crawl on top of myself and make EJ. And I didn't crawl on myself and have that other baby either."

"Trish, I really-"

"I hate the fact that you're so fucking perfect for him. For both of them. You never fuck up and even if you do, they love you anyway. It's sickening. It sickens me how much they love you. Want to know why I stay away? That's why! You're the reason I stay away. Because I could never be the spouse or the parent they need me to be. So fuck it, you wanted them, you got them. You're the new Mrs. Starling, right? Hope you're happy!"

Jack was losing patience with a drugged up Trish. "What do you want, Trish? You want Ethan to lose custody of the baby you left with him? You want your parents to raise him? Because that's what's going to happen if you don't sign the fucking papers!"

She stood there and then walked away from him to the window. "Is he okay?"

Jack threw his hands out in frustration. "Which he, Trish? The ex-husband that you use and throw away whenever you feel like it? The boy you constantly disappoint and break his heart? Or the baby you abandoned? Which. He?"

She rolled her eyes. "The baby. How is the baby?"

"He's fine. He's happy. He smiles a lot. He looks a little like EJ with slightly browner skin and hazel eyes. He loves Ethan and Ethan loves him."

Jack saw her smile through the reflection in the window. "And EJ?" she asked.

"Pissed. Hurt. Moody. He'll probably never talk to you again."

Her smile turned into a frown. "And Ethan? Is Ethan better? Carlos said-" She stopped talking.

"Yea. He almost spiraled with the way you left him at the hospital. It triggered him, brought him back to the time that you left him with EJ. But he has me now and I'll never let that happen. They all have me now to take care of them."

"I'm sorry," she said softly.

Jack ignored her apology. "You didn't answer my question. You left us with this responsibility, this huge choice. And we made it, we decided to keep him and raise him as our own. But you also left us in this mess with your parents trying to take Jamie from us. Do you want that?"

She didn't answer, instead she said, "I named him Timothy Jamison. For my father and yours."

Jack swallowed some of his anger. "I appreciate that. But you should know we're going to change his name to Jamison Nathaniel Starling. We call him Jamie. And Jamie is completely attached to Ethan, his brother and sisters. And me too. I love him and I need us to stay together. Help me keep us together, Trish."

She walked back over to the papers and sat down on the floor again. This time she read through them, the one saying she gives up all custodianship to Ethan as his sole and legal guardian, the one that said her wish is for the baby to be raised in the same household as Ethan Junior and the last one that said she was unfit to care for him due to her ongoing substance abuse issues.

Then she initialed and signed the last page. Without looking at Jack she folded back up the papers and held it out for him. "Thank you," Jack said as he took them from her. "Thank you for putting him first. All of them."

He began to walk toward the door when she started talking. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be together." Jack turned around to face her.

"Ulysses, not Ethan," she clarified. "Ethan was never going to love me, not the way he loves you. But when I got pregnant this time, I thought, this is it. This is my happily ever after. But then he started drinking and popping zanny's and I put up with it for as long as I could, but I had to leave. I was clean for my baby boy.

"And then I thought, I could be a single mom, why not? But after they put the baby in my arms, I just knew I couldn't. I couldn't, Jack. And once again Ethan just looked like such a natural with him. It was the easiest and hardest decision I ever made, to leave him with Ethan."

"I know it was, Trish." Jack was thoughtful, then told her, "But you could have stayed. You wouldn't have been a single mom. It would have been the three of us co-parenting, I was prepared for that. Instead you let your fears get in the way and you ran. And then you let your guilt from running away lead you back to drugs. At some point you have to stop running and face all your demons."

She shook her head. "I would have never measured up to you, Jack, and you know it. I would have failed you in some way. And you would have just went back to hating me and treating me like shit," she said bitterly.

"So it's my fault you didn't stay? Is that the song you keep playing in your head?" he asked. She didn't answer him.

Jack said, "I don't hate you, Patricia. In fact I understand you more than you think. I just love my family. I love Ethan. I love EJ. And I love Jamie. I'm not perfect and I do fuck up a lot. Ethan is going to be pissed when he finds out all I had to do to get this done tonight. But I did it because I will do anything for my family. And that includes keeping you away until you get some serious help."

He moved closer to her and said, "I need you to disappear until you are ready to make amends to Ethan and your sons. I won't let you hurt them anymore. So until then, you stay away from my family."

"And what if I don't, huh?" She stood up. "What are you going to do, make me disappear with that gun of yours?"

He took a moment, then asked, "Is that what you want?"

She stared at him then said, "Maybe. Maybe just do it right now, put us all out of our misery."

He sighed deeply. "Goodbye, Patricia. I hope you find your happily ever after. Or at least inner peace."

Jack walked out of the apartment building to his car, jumped on I-95 North and drove all the way back home to Rockville.

~~~~~~

"You're not going to believe this," Cindy said as they walked toward her in the hallway of the courthouse.

"Your ex-wife found me. She sent Naveed a sworn statement, notarized and everything, giving you full custody of Jamie. I received it yesterday and I just submitted it to the judge and to the Reedlin's lawyers."

"What!? What does that mean?" Ethan asked excitedly.

"Well, the judge still has to rule. But I can't see how she would rule any other way. I don't know how Patricia did it, maybe Naveed's poking around paid off? All I know is that he was waiting for me at my office yesterday morning."

Ethan looked at Jack and squeezed his hand tightly. Cindy said again, "It's not over yet. C'mon, let's head inside."

They went into the courtroom trying not to look happy. Tim was arguing with his attorneys but turned to them and approached Ethan and Jack. "Where is my daughter!?" he yelled.

Ethan shook his head. "I have no idea, Tim."

"Lies!" He shook the paper in Ethan's face. "The only way she would have done this is if you pressured her into signing away her rights to you. Just like you did with Ethan Junior."

Ethan shook his head again. "I did no such thing. Both times."

"I don't believe you. Where is my daughter!?" he yelled in Ethan's face.

One of Tim's attorney's pulled Tim away. Ethan looked at Jack and Jack shrugged. They walked to their side together and sat at the table.

The bailiff called out, "Judge Frye presiding." Everyone stood up as she came into the courtroom and then sat down again. It was quiet as she looked through her notes. She finally looked up and connected her fingers.

"I verified Patricia Ann Reedlin's signature against past documents from the custody hearings of Ethan Thomas Starling Junior. The signature is valid. Ethan Thomas Starling, it is this court's decision to grant you custody of Timothy Jamison Starling."

Ethan let out an audible sigh. "Thank you, your honor."

She continued, "I am also ordering an addition to the court's final judgment to add Jack Nathan Frazier as the other petitioner, so that both your names appear on the birth certificate." Both Jack and Ethan's mouth dropped.

She looked at him over her glasses. "Mr. Frazier, there is no reason to open this up in an adoption court. You are both his parents. Do you agree to this final judgment?"

"I agree," Jack breathed out.

"Good. Please have your attorney send in the petition for his official name change within thirty days. I assume you will name him Jamison Starling?"

Ethan spoke first, "Jamison Nathaniel Frazier."

Jack's mouth dropped again and he looked at him. Ethan turned to him and said with a smile, "We have two Starlings already. Let's even it out." Jack let out a noise of surprise, then nodded. They grabbed hands.

The judge said, "As his legal parents, will you allow Jamison's grandparents to see him? Or are you planning on keeping him from the only known relatives in his life?"

Ethan spoke again. "No, your honor, I would never do that. They have an amazing relationship with their first grandson, Ethan Junior. There is no reason that they shouldn't have a great relationship with their other grandson." He looked over at them and said, "As long as they respect that his name is Jamie and that we are his parents, Jack and I."

Tim narrowed his eyes at him, but Mallory touched his arm. "We will, Ethan. We'll call him Jamie."

Ethan turned back to the judge. "Then I have nothing against them wanting to see and spend time with their grandchildren as much as they want."

"Thank you," Judge Frye said.

She turned to the Reedlins. "The truth is, even without this affidavit, I would have still ruled in Mr. Starling and Mr. Frazier's favor. I understand that you were upset with not knowing about your grandchild, but you cannot deny the fact that his parents love him dearly. That he was in a safe, loving environment from the moment he left the hospital.

"Mr. Starling loved your daughter enough to be there for her and to not abandon her newborn baby as she had done. And he clearly loves the boy. There was absolutely no reason to up-end Jamison's life. Mr. Reedlin, you're almost 70 years old. What were you going to do with a newborn?"

"I just wanted to have a piece of my daughter back," he said gruffly. Then he sighed and looked down, holding back tears. "She could be dead for all I know."

"She's not dead," Jack said. Tim looked up at him.

"She's using, and she's not taking care of herself, but she is alive. And she's strong. She'll come out on the other side like she always does. She'll show up in a few years calling me the new Mrs. Starling, act crazy to get Ethan's attention and kiss her sons. She always does, Tim."

Both Tim and Mallory were silently crying. The judge said quietly, "I think this is a good time to conclude the hearing. I wish you all well." She banged her gavel and rose from her seat.

As they stood up Ethan hugged Cindy. Cindy, who was not a hugger, kept her hands at her side, and said, "Alright already." Ethan laughed and let her go. "I'll get the petition to the court by the end of the day. You'll receive the final judgment in the mail in two weeks and his updated birth certificate two weeks after that."

"Thank you so much," Ethan said. "You've literally saved my family."

She held out her hand and he shook it. "Congratulations." She turned to Jack and held out her hand to him. "Congratulations." Jack shook it, then pulled her in for a hug as well, making Ethan laugh and Cindy groan. "Not you too," she murmured.

Jack pulled back and touched her arm. "Really, you were great. Thank you."

"Yea, let's see how great you think I am when you get my final bill," she told him with a wink, making them both laugh.

"Ethan," Tim's voice came from behind him. Ethan turned around. Tim had his hand out for a shake. "I apologize for my behavior over the last few months. Thank you for being an upstanding father to both of my grandsons."

Ethan shook Tim's hand back. "You're welcome, Tim. But I'm still changing his name."

Tim nodded. "You're within your rights to do that. As his father." Tim turned to Jack. "Thank you too, Jack. You've been a great father to Little Ethan. I know you will be the same with Jamie."

"I appreciate you saying that." Jack shook his hand. "And I want you to know, Jamison was my late father's name. Trish chose it because she knew it would help me feel connected with him. And it does."

"It's a good strong name," Tim acknowledged. "Jamison. Good name. I approve of it."

"Glad we have your approval," Ethan said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Mallory asked, "Can we still have them this weekend?"