His sudden outburst of emotion had caused him to raise his voice, drawing the attention of the other customers in the quiet café.
If John went on like this, he might actually start a physical fight.
I glanced at Jared, who still appeared calm and composed. He hadn’t taken John’s threats seriously, or maybe this entire situation was completely within his control.
The rest of the café’s patrons were made up of small groups of two or three people who would occasionally look over at us. They were just being a little nosy, but there was nothing particularly strange about our surroundings.
Was this the calm before the storm? I had no clue what tricks Jared had up his sleeve, but I knew one thing for sure—being too reckless might cause more trouble than we needed.
After having come to that conclusion, I reached up and pulled John to sit back down in his chair.
I forced a fake smile onto my face, softening my tone as I spoke. “You said you wanted to take this case to court, right? I’ll happily agree to that, and I’ll make sure we see this to the very end. As a lawyer, I can tell you definitively that you do have primary custodial rights as Summer’s biological father. I also know that I have a huge disadvantage due to my marital status. I’m assuming your lawyer told you all of this, too?”
“So what if they did?” Jared shrugged, unlocking his clasped-together hands and spreading his arms wide in a motion of defeat. “I’m just a doctor; of course, I have to leave these sort of things up to a professional lawyer. I might as well let you in on a little secret—the country’s best child custody lawyer has already accepted my case. I won’t lose this time, Scarlett. I suggest you turn a blind eye and back off, and stop preventing me from seeing Summer again. If not, you can’t blame me if you have to hear my lawyer reveal some particularly unpleasant things about you while in court.”
I let out a cold scoff.
The mere mention of a “professional child custody lawyer” wasn’t enough to scare me off.
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