A Woman's Place: A Novel by Barbara Delinsky Read Free Book Online Page B

this time. "I am not an abuser. Not physically. Not verbally. My children and I have a good, strong, healthy relationship."
    "How can that be, what with your business?"
    "Excuse me?"
    "Juggling everything. I've heard my sister-in-law talk about you. She thinks you're a role model for everything women can be. Me, I think she's naive in her awe. I remember when my kids were younger. Thank God my wife didn't work. I can't imagine she could have done half of what she did for the kids if she had. So how do you do it? You can't be there for them and there for your business, and what about your husband, what about his needs?"
    I drew myself straighter in the chair. "What about them?"
    "Who's meeting them, if you're working double time mothering the kids and running the business?"
    I had pleaded for a last-minute appointment and driven like a madwoman to get here on time, yes, for answers, but also to put a lid on my panic. Only Lloyd Usher wasn't making me feel better. He wasn't giving me any sense of relief, any sense of having an ally. He certainly wasn't making me like him. I couldn't imagine telling him the details of my life.
    I took a slower breath, puzzled now. "Is this the way you approach all your cases? Or is it just me?"
    There was an arrogant quirk at the edge of his mouth. "Most of the women I represent have been seriously wronged--cheated on, lied to, manipulated. Most of them have been held down--no life outside the marriage, no career. Many of them face a severe loss in lifestyle if I don't negotiate a good settlement. You aren't like those women. You have everything." "Not everything," I said quietly. "I don't have my kids. I don't have my home. I don't have the husband I thought I did two hours ago. So maybe there were problems with my marriage that I didn't pay attention to when I should have, but this court order is a travesty. I've done for my husband and I've done for my kids, and in the time that was left, I built a business. I make good use of my time. Is there anything wrong with that? I don't see how anyone can remove me from my own home and my own children this way."
    "The court can and did. It has every right. You say you've done it all. Your husband says you haven't, and the court agreed."
    "It sounds like you do, too."
    "Let's just say that I'm wary of professional women." Page 28
    Barbara Delinsky - A Woman's Place
    "Guilty until proven innocent?" I asked and saw him check his watch.
    "Look, Mr. Usher. The reason I had to see you tonight is that I'm worried about my children. I don't know what they've been told, and I don't know how I'm supposed to find out, whether I'm supposed to call Dennis or call Dennis's lawyer, and I don't even know who that is. I understand that I have to work with a lawyer of my own to put together a counter-argument to Dennis's, and I understand that that takes time. I also understand that you're busy, and that you can't just put aside everything else you're working on to work on my case, but that brings me back to the beginning. I'm worried about my children. I'm worried about doing anything to make things worse--both for them and my case. How much freedom does this court order give me?"
    He was strapping the large gold watch back on his wrist. "Not a hell of a lot. I'd make myself scarce from the family home until Monday." That wasn't the answer I wanted. "What about seeing the kids at my in-laws'
    house? Or at my son's football game?"
    He rose and began putting files into his briefcase. "Will that be in their best interest? Or will it be more upsetting for them?"
    "I don't know."
    "Well, if you don't, who will? You're their mother. If anyone knows them, you do. I certainly don't. I can only talk legal strategy. A court order is a court order. If I were you, I would heed it until you talk with the judge. Monday at noon?" He flipped pages on his daily calendar.
    "I have a hearing in Barnstable at eleven. I won't be back until two or three. We can get it continued for a couple