Chapter 172

ROBERT'S POV

The living room felt too small, closing in on me with every anxious step I took. My thoughts raced faster than my pacing feet. I knew I should be calling my law firm, getting them to assign me a lawyer to fight this custody issue with Margaret, but the very idea of a custody battle felt like plunging into a sordid nightmare.

Margaret. Just thinking about her name made my stomach churn. A custody battle would be dirty, and I didn’t want to drag Nate through that mess. I stopped by the window, staring out at the garden Ariana loved so much. The roses were in full bloom, vibrant and alive—I thought amusingly that her devotion to this garden used to irritate me in our first year of marriage. Everything about Ariana irritated me then. But here was I. In love. Hopelessly.

More pressing than the legal fight was Ariana. I had to talk to her first, and had to make her understand everything. And Josh—I owed him an apology too. Despite our differences, he’d been there when Ariana