3.

~ Ariadne waited outside of a simple law office in the city. She wasn't used to standing around on the streets and was starting to worry the passing people would start to notice her well made coat and jewelry.

She caught her breath at seeing the blood woman leave the law office and almost ran to catch her.
"Becky?" she called out hopefully.

Becky Lawson stopped and turned around, expecting to see a friend, not the Architect.
"I have nothing to say to you." Becky said as she stared to walk away more quickly.
"Look, I'm not here to talk about anything but Darcy. I just want what's best for her." Ariadne said as the two women walked hurriedly down a crowded street.

"I'm her mother, I'm what's best for her." Becky said harshly. "I can have my lawyer get a restraining order if that's what it takes."

"Becky, please." Ariadne said as her short legs couldn't keep stride to Becky's long ones. "I didn't press charges after you tried to kill me. Arthur doesn't know it was me that petitioned to have you put in a mental facility instead of prison. You owe me a conversation at least." Ariadne breathed.

Becky finally looked at the Architect.

"We can go to the dinner here." she said and Ariadne nodded.

~ "So, you work at the law firm?" Ariadne asked.
"During the day, yes." Becky said as both women ordered coffee. "After Darcy gets home from school I'll be home with her."

"Public school." Ariadne said without thinking.
"I went to public school. Nothing wrong with it. I know it's not as fancy as the private schools you've been sending her to." Becky said.
"No, I know. I didn't mean it like that." Ariadne said feeling foolish.
"I know you and Arthur have money and that you can buy whatever you want, but my daughter isn't for sale." Becky argued.

Ariadne said nothing as their coffee arrived.

"We're not trying to buy Darcy from you. But you have to admit, your actions over the past few years have not been a good environment for a child." Ariadne said as gently as she could.
"I know that. I know I was unstable for a long time. But I'm on a good medication routine, seeing a therapist and I know I'm ready to take my daughter back." Becky told her.

Ariadne looked at Arthur's ex. Becky did look better. She looked less manic and angry as they calmly sipped their drinks.

Ariadne made a face at the horrible coffee. Why was it she could never find a good cup of coffee outside of France?

"I'm glad you're doing better, I really am." Ariadne offered. "But Darcy hasn't been with you since she was very young. The last memory she has of you is when you hit her and tried to drown me in the bathtub."

Ariadne was proud at how calm she was being to the woman who tired to murder her in a fit of jealous rage.
"I'm not that person anymore." Becky said with a shrug. "I was off meds at the time. I came to Paris to see my daughter and talk to Arthur about getting her back. By the time I got there, I was out of control. I've had over four years of treatment and I'm doing much better."

"And what's to keep you from going off meds again? Darcy is almost a teenager. She was easy when she was little, but she's much more independent now." Ariadne said.

"My daughter is what will keep me off meds. I'm doing this for her." Becky said.
"No, that's not enough." Ariadne argued. "You beat your child, Becky. A child who didn't understand why she was being punished. Darcy is at an age now where she will deliberately drive you crazy. How are you going to handle that?"

"I'm her mother. She is my child." Becky snapped angrily at the Architect.

"I know she's your child, Becky." Ariadne sighed. "Everyday, we live with the fact she's your child. She's also a child still recovering from cancer treatments which you refused to help her with. You told Arthur you wanted her dead. You only agreed to give a blood sample after you made him promise you would be together."

"I wasn't myself." Beck said. "I'm better now, and I have health insurance in case she relapses. If she relapses, she's better off with her mother then with strangers. The judge saw that and agreed."

"If she relapses her only known bone marrow donor is in Paris!" Ariadne cried. "It's convenient for us, but not for you. Do you have any idea how expensive her treatments will be here?"

Becky shook her head and looked angry. A familiar spark of danger in her warm chocolate brown eyes.
"You know, you have no idea what it's like to have your child stolen, do you?" Becky said at last. "To wake up, drugged, and in a treatment facility? To be told your ex boyfriend wants custody of your child because he feels you're unfit mother."

She said the word 'unfit' as if it hurt her.
"You don't know how physically painful it is to be separated from the child you carried in your body, nursed and loved. To have her taken halfway across the world and have a new woman be her mother. My daughter calls you mamma." Becky said as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Becky." Ariadne started to say.
"I'm not finished." Becky snapped.

Ariadne looked up at the woman in shock.

"When Darcy was born, I didn't have a husband like you do." Becky went on. "I didn't have money or nannies or extended family and friends to help me. John didn't even want to see his daughter and he had his lawyer send me a check every month. Then, to lose Arthur on top of everything else; to have him judge me and hate me? It was a lot to deal with. Arthur and I were childhood sweethearts. We had this perfect love for one another, this perfect trust. We wanted to get married, planed to get married when he decided four years in the military was what he wanted more then a life with me. So, like a fool I waited for him. I made a mistake giving into John. A let him seduce me because I was lonely and I felt Arthur had betrayed me. I know you and him have a perfect marriage and he's never hurt you, but he hurt me. Now he wants to take my child away. He wants to use his money and his perfect wife to show the world that I'm still trash and he will always be better."

Ariadne sat back in her seat as Becky finished her speech.
"Becky, we're not perfect. Arthur isn't the perfect husband. But he is a good father to Darcy. You have to believe that." Ariadne said.
Becky started to cry a little.
"Look, if the situation were different, if Arthur was trying to take your baby away with fancy lawyers and making you look like the bad mother, you would understand." she said.

Ariadne thought back to when she and Arthur separated. How there had been tentative talk of a divorce.
"Becky, I... I lost my little brother Sammy when I was younger than Darcy. My mother, she would go into these... these rages. She wouldn't feed us and she beat us. One day she locked him in a closet and kept him in there for days. He died in there and I was put into a group home. You need to understand how terrified I am that something like that will happen to Darcy." Ariadne said soberly.

"I love my child." Becky said with a snake like hiss.
"I know that. I know my mother loved Sammy to, but she still killed him. After everything you have put Darcy through, don't put her through anymore. Please?" Ariadne asked. "Arthur and I, were all she knows."

"We're done here." Becky said as she stood and left the Architect.
"Becky! Please!" Ariadne called after the blond woman as they left the dinner. "Please, don't put Darcy through this! Think about what's best for her, not what you want. She had school and friends and her family in Paris."

Becky ignored her as she stalked angrily down the street.