Free Inseparable: A New Adult Erotic Romance by Bella Chal

they had feared.
    The words spilled out of the phone quickly. "She fucked me. She filed some extra paperwork and didn’t deliver it to my attorney until this morning. Instead of what we agreed to, she went for full custody, child support, the works. The judge didn’t want to hear anything my lawyer was saying and ordered it done. My wages will be garnished; I’m going to barely have enough..."
    "Wait, wait, slow down, Jack. One thing at a time. What did she do?"
    He took a deep breath. "We had worked out a shared custody schedule, just like I told you. She would keep the girls during the week, I’d have them over the weekends and we’d split the holidays. Today she filed for sole custody with monthly visitations for me. She claimed I was unfit and had statements from people I thought were my friends." He choked up crying and cleared his throat to get himself under control again.
    "I was in pretty bad shape before I met you. We’d been split up for a few weeks and our friends had seen me slide into a bad place. I was drinking every day, missing work. Some of them wrote detailed accounts of my behavior. Very detailed."
    She remembered that first night, how he might have been thinking about doing something foolish. That was why she had stayed at first. "I see."
    "You and I have kept to ourselves. None of my friends have seen me in a few weeks. Now I see why Sophie was encouraging me to spend more time with you, saying she had been concerned and liked your influence on me. This morning she even complimented your work in the girls’ room, and let the girls get all excited about staying there this weekend. That fucking bitch, she knew the whole time! I won’t get to see my girls again until next month!" His throat closed as he choked on his pain.
    "I was afraid of this. I’ve been sick all morning worrying about you. What were you saying about your wages? I thought she got most of the money from the sale of the house?"
    "That was just the asset split, but I basically gave her everything she asked for assuming I was going to get dual custody. Now she has the largest part of our assets and will get over half my paycheck until the girls are eighteen. Julie, I’m so fucked, I'll barely have enough for rent and food at this point."
    "Hang on, Jack. Let’s talk tonight. I’ll bring over something and cook for you for a change. Just get through the day at work and we’ll figure something out."
    "Thank you so much for standing by me during this. I don’t know what I’d do without you."
    "It’s no problem, I’m happy to help you. Just promise me you’ll be careful, Jack. I don’t think she’s done yet; I still have a bad feeling."
    Julie arrived after picking up some groceries to find him sitting on the steps outside the front door of his apartment. He looked as bad as that first night, with a bottle of whiskey on the ground between his feet, swirling a low glass of the amber liquid in his hand. He didn't even smile as she greeted him.
    "What’s wrong?"
    "I lost my job." The numb way he said it pointed to the depth of his pain.
    "Oh, shit," she said, kneeling down in front of him. "What happened?"
    "I was accused of inappropriate use of corporate funds. You know I sell oilfield equipment, right?" he started to explain. "Pumps, valves, all kinds of industrial supplies. When we take buyers out, we always pick up the tab, even places like bars and strip clubs. It’s expected. It’s how you have to sell into this market, no matter what our corporate policy says. It’s an open secret that the sales guys put the charges on their corporate cards and turn in the expense reports with vague descriptions of what we spent the money on. Well, someone provided the itemized receipts to accounting for my last few sales trips."
    "Someone?" Julie already knew the answer.
    "Yeah, no one will tell me exactly how the receipts from my old home office made it to the accounting department. While it’s technically true, if they fired all the