Selfish ~ Trevor Jackson

The Beginning III

I walked into the room with my head held high and Louis Vitton bag on my arm. My four lawyers followed behind me to out seats opposite of Chris. He had his suit on and two lawyers beside him looking like he was ready for business. We all shook hands and then got right to it.

"By law, Deanna has custody of the child. If you want to be the prime care taker while she is away, you must show proof to a Judge that you no longer smoke marijuana and that your home is stable," Ms Santiago explained.

"So does that mean I'll have to turn in drug tests for three weeks?" Chris asked.

"Precisely. And if you prove yourself worthy you may take care of the child ONLY for the time agreed upon, then Leanni has to tell a Judge what happened while she stayed with you," Mr Williams added.

"So just sign this and we can begin the process," Mr Johnson said sliding a document towards Christopher.

"I'm not perfect. Accidents happen, Deanna," Chris stated looking into my eyes, "this is the price I pay for one mistake? I gotta go through all of this just to take care of my daughter?"

"Three months, two hours, four days. I don't care, I will not allow anything like that to happen again. You're absolutely right, you're not perfect, accidents happen, and everyone makes mistakes. But doesn't every person that makes a mistake have a consequence? This is yours," I replied handing him a pen. He shook his head and handed the document to one of his lawyers to look over.

We stared back and forth at each other for what felt like hours, trying to see who would cave first. He clearly wanted to see if I felt bad at all about this and if he could use it against me. I knew this by heart and this is why we're no longer together. He was manipulative.

"Looks good, Mr Brown," one of his lawyers said giving him the document. He looked around for approval and then signed it with a little hesitation. He tossed the pen onto the table and I grinned reaching my hand out to shake. He grabbed it and shook it once then gathered his things.

I stoop up as well and made my way out of the building texting Sean that I was on my way to the studio. I shook each of my lawyers' hands and then climbed into my car. I stared taking my heels off and changing into sneakers. I unzipped my dress and pulled it off exposing my jogging bra and short shorts. I'm a working mother, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I started driving to the dance studio after tying my hair into a ponytail and just like clock work, Chris started calling me. As if I was going to answer it! I turned Justin Timberlake up over the sound of my phone ringing and let all of my worries go, I'm about to be dancing for five hours and when it's over I'm gunna miss that time desperately.

When I pulled up to the studio there were at least a million cars parked all down the street, on the sidewalk, in the grass, in the fire lane, and even in the tow away zones. I pulled into the reserved parking and then shut my car off whilst grabbing my bag. As I walked towards the entrance I noticed the wicked long line going three blocks from the front door of my studio.

There was an immediate uproar once the guys saw that it was me. I took off my sunglasses and waved at all of them politely but refused pictures, ain't nobody got time for that. I opened the door to the studio and sat my bag down in a corner. Sean welcomed me in front of the mirror and began stretching along side of me.

"So how did it go?" Sean asked stretching his shoulder.

"He was pissed," I answered, "he stared me down the entire time his lawyers looked it over."

"That'll teach him to be stupid while taking care of my baby," he replied helping me stretch my quadricep.

I chuckled, "Don't you think it's a little unhealthy that you think Leanni is your daughter?"