Chapter 1
I was checking our family vacation tickets when I realized there were only four names.
Mine, my wife’s, and our two daughters’—but my 11-year-old son’s ticket was missing.
We were supposed to fly from Dallas to Hawaii the next morning.
I checked the confirmation email again.
Nothing.
“Melissa,” I called. “Where’s Tyler’s ticket?”
My wife walked into the kitchen without looking worried.
“He’s not coming.”
I thought I had misheard her.
“What do you mean, he’s not coming?”
She folded her arms.
“This trip is for us and the girls.”
Tyler was my son from my first marriage.
Our daughters, Ava and Grace, were the children Melissa and I had together.
I stared at her.
“You booked a family vacation and left my son out?”
“He’ll stay with your sister for a week.”
From the hallway, I heard something fall.
Tyler was standing there with his backpack in his hand.
His face had gone completely blank.
“Dad, it’s okay.”
No child says “it’s okay” like that unless it isn’t.
Melissa sighed.
“See? He understands.”
I grabbed my boarding pass from the counter.
Then I tore it in half.
Melissa’s eyes widened.
“What are you doing?”
“If my son isn’t part of this family vacation, neither am I.”
She snatched the remaining tickets away.
“Do you know how much this cost?”
“Apparently not as much as making my son feel unwanted.”
Tyler looked down.
Then he whispered, “She told me last week I wasn’t allowed to tell you.”
I turned toward him.
“What else did she tell you?”
Melissa immediately stepped forward.
“Tyler, go to your room.”
He didn’t move.
Instead, he pulled a folded paper from his backpack.
“She said after the trip, I might not be living here anymore.”
My stomach dropped.
I opened the paper.
May you like
It was an email Melissa had printed from a family-law attorney.
And the subject line read: Removing Stepson From Primary Residence Before Custody Filing.
