Patti had been so upset after Kevin had come by the house with his floozy driving her fancy BMW, that'd she'd been in tears.
On Monday, she called her lawyer, Melinda Delaney. She got an appointment for late that afternoon and made arrangements to leave work early.
Chad Breyer asked her how she was doing, looking concerned.
"I look that bad, do I?" Patti said.
"It's just that I know you're going through a divorce. So something's happening. You can talk to me about it if you want to."
"Thank you, that's kind. But I won't take you from your work."
"Hey, sometimes I need a break. That's why I bug you."
Patti smiled.
When she got to the law offices of Baldwin and Baldwin, she had a little while to wait. The waiting room was often crowded. There would be other clients, court reporters, and lawyers with briefcases. Patti absentmindedly looked through an old Port Charles Gazette.
Suddenly, her eye caught a name.
Taryn Polk. Well, that name was familiar.
Odd, Patti thought, that her 18-year-old daughter could have her name in the newspaper and it not come up in the family. They'd all be proud of Taryn for her fame.
Patti thought she might be in another universe as she read the article. Taryn, so this article claimed, was pleading guilty to disturbing the peace, and got community service as a sentence.
But how could that be? How could all that happen and Patti not know?
Melinda Delaney's secretary came to the door and called Patti in.
"You look pale," Melinda said. "Can I get you some water? Are you OK?"
Patti gulped and handed Melinda the paper. "I didn't know a thing about this," she said. "And that's not even why I came."
"Sit down," Melinda said. Patti sat down, staring out the glass wall at the business area of Port Charles. Melinda Delaney had a corner office with a great view.
Patti could hear Melinda telling her secretary to "get Mrs. Polk a bottle of water."
A few minutes later, the secretary came in with a cup of ice and a plastic-bottled water. She looked at Patti with great sympathy. Being a secretary for a lawyer who did family law cases, this secretary had that sympathetic look down pat.
Melinda came in and sat at her desk. She didn't ask Patti anything at first. She just read the article in the Port Charles Gazette.
"I think it must be that since Taryn is 18, she was able to handle it herself, legally," Melinda said. "Now as to how she ended up not telling you about it, that's another story."
Patti sighed. "It's Kevin. I bet she went to him to get help."
"That could be. Divorce gives the kids the chance to play one parent off the other like never before, and with teenagers, it's very common."
"The reason I came today," Patti said. "Last time Kevin came to pick the kids up for the weekend."
"He was late?" Melinda asked, looking sympathetic, "And it wrecked your plans for the evening?"
"He was late," Patti said. "Like he always is. But the thing was, it was his girlfriend's car! And she was driving it!"
"That's one of the worst things exes do," said Melinda. "It feels like they do it on purpose to hurt you."
"Yes," Patti said. "And my kids – I don't want them around her. I mean, I don't know her, but what I do know about her is that she was perfectly willing to date a married man. And sleep with a married man. So she can't be a good influence on my kids."
"I know," Melinda said.
"So can we amend the custody and visitation order to say that he can't have her in contact with my kids?"
"I'm afraid not."
Patti looked at Melinda in disbelief.
"The courts don't go in for more detail that just setting out the visitation times," Melinda explained. "If they got into this kind of detail, there would be too much to enforce. The courts are overbooked as it is. If they had to enforce this kind of thing too, they'd be overwhelmed, and that would slow up everything so much they couldn't do as much good." Melinda said all this in a practiced way, not missing a beat. Patti could tell, her heart falling, that Melinda had said this many times before. She'd given this very speech countless times to clients who had brought a similar request to the one Patti brought her now.
That awareness took away what hope Patti had been feeling when she'd come into the office. She looked at her untouched glass of ice water.
"It's OK," Melinda said. "Think of it this way. As long as you do and say nothing about it, he'll quit doing it. He's only doing it in the hope that you'll make a scene. And he can't say anything about whatever men you decide to date or see in the future."
Patti took a sip of water then. Her hand was shaking, so that she spilled a little bit of it onto Melinda's expensive desk.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Patti said.
"Oh, don't worry about that," Melinda said. "I know it's tough. But you'll get through it. I know it's hard to believe you will, but everyone always does. Time really does heal."
Patti nodded. The thought of dating some other man was so alien to her that it brought her no comfort that her rights were equal to Kevin's.
"You know what helps?" Melinda said. "Since the law can't. Going to a counselor. You're not crazy, but you're overwhelmed with events and counseling can really help."
Patti took another sip of water. "I think I'm all right," she said.
"You have good friends you can talk to?"
Patti thought. There wase her mother, but her mother tended to just start going on about how awful divorce was and how awful Kevin was and how the courts should do more to punish him. Her brother Paul was a psychiatrist, but Patti didn't want him to have to deal with her problems when he was off work. There was Paul's wife Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was young and in love and happily married. There was V. Ardanowski, a friend of Elizabeth's, who was becoming a friend to Patti, too. But V. was single and probably didn't understand a thing about all this.
"Not really," Patti said. "Not someone who has been through the same thing. At least, not that I'm close to."
"My sister is a counselor," Melinda said. "And a very good one, if I say so myself. I'll give you her card. You can think about it, and call her if you want to."
Melinda took the card from a holder on a table that sat behind her desk, along with the phone. It was interesting to see that Melinda easily produced this card. She had done that many times before, too.
"Thank you," Patti said. Inexplicably, tears came to her eyes. She grabbed a tissue from a box that sat right where a client could easily reach it. Patti realized how typical her case might be, and how many other people felt just like she did sitting just where she was. Maybe it was mean, but it made her feel a little better.