She had a long warm bath that took away the tiredness of the long flight and made her body feel light after eating too much. She immensely enjoyed the food.

She's now in bed, together with a small pile of documents, and her company-issued laptop computer. She was doing some reading and waiting for Noah to give her a call. She had sent the photo of her room to him before she took a bath, and until now there was no reply.

She couldn't focus on her reading, thinking if she should call him first. In the end, her pride won. She picked up her phone and call Luke.

"Yo, bish!" Luke screamed on the other line of the phone, clearly out partying.

She suddenly missed home.

"You, yourself. You're out for some fresh blood? You're done with your straight guy boy toy?"

Luke simply chuckled at the end of the line. "If you are missing Noah and want a pity party, sad to tell you, Little Miss Jessie but currently I am grinding my ass to my boy toy's hard cock," he yelled once again.

Jess regretted calling Luke, not only because he was having a good time while she was sulking in bed.

"Go to bed, Jess. You had a long flight! Bye!"

She looked at the phone in her hand with incredulity. She couldn't believe that Luke's hung up on her. She threw her phone on the foot of her bed and closed her laptop.

She slipped on the silk robe draped on the headboard of her bed and stepped out onto the balcony. Even though it was night, the air still had some heat to it but it's an enjoyable kind of warm.

She is reminded of home by the humidity in the air. When she was a child, she used to spend her summer vacations with her grandparents on her mother's side of the family. And the most favored activity after dinner was hanging out on the balcony, playing with her cousin, or listening to some horror stories that their nanny would tell them to scare them before they were sent to bed.

She missed those simple joys of her childhood, she thought as she heaved a deep sigh. Remembering that she had tons of studies that she had to read, she returned to her room and brought all the folders and her laptop to the balcony to do her reading there.

She made sure to leave her phone on her bed. She did not want to keep checking her phone while she was reading. If Noah doesn't want to call him, it's his choice. She did what she promised by sending him the agreed number of messages.

***

Noah waited for not more than thirty minutes for his lawyers to contact him. He asked for a meeting in his office and had to wait for an hour because his lawyer that was handling the case of Lucille's custody was currently with another client.

While waiting for the lawyer to arrive at his office, Noah tried to busy himself with the never-ending task at hand. He was busy with paperwork but his mind was churning with the possible scenarios that he would do once Nicole retracts his visitation rights and the time Lucille was supposed to stay with him.

When his lawyer finally arrived, he walked him through everything he wanted and his lawyers gave him advice on what countermeasures they could do to ensure that he will get his visitation rights and the number of days when Lucille would stay with him.

"Have you thought of asking for a different agreement?"

Noah thought long and hard about it. The idea has been brewing in his head since Lucille stayed with him for her school break.

"Is there a possibility of getting a shared custody with my daughter after willingly awarding Nicole full custody of our child?"

"Yes, we can do that. We can appeal to the judge that the reason you agreed to give your ex-wife full custody of your child was for your child's welfare. Since at that time you were battling alcoholism, but now, we can prove that you are no longer in that bad place, and you wanted to have a bigger involvement in your child's life.

With the history of your divorce, we can get a judge that would be sympathetic to your case and get a good verdict. A child, especially a daughter, doesn't just need a mother. She also needs a father to guide her on things that only a father can provide. Besides, Mr. Tiefenbacher, you have good father and daughter dynamics with your child. It won't be too difficult to get shared custody of your daughter."

Noah stroked his chin and fell into deep thoughts. Lucille wasn't a young child anymore. He's quite sure that she would understand that his want to get shared custody and bringing them all to court all over again would not because he wanted her to choose between him and Nicole.

He can make Lucille understand that it's not a battle of who do you love more, but just, he wanted a bigger part in her life.

He heaved a deep sigh and looked at his lawyer. "Prepare everything we need. I want the agreement to be done swiftly and effectively. I don't want to put my daughter into any form of a traumatic court battle between me and my ex-wife."

"Duly noted, Mr. Tiefenbacher," his lawyer nodded as he shut his attache case. "I'll have everything ready tomorrow."

Noah stood up and shook the hand of his lawyer. He cocked his head to Antonio to escort the lawyer out of his office while he slumped himself back to the couch.

He draped his arm over his eyes thinking of all the possible worst scenarios that could happen.

"Sir, do you want me to call your driver to bring you home?"

Noah was startled by Antonio's question. He looked at his watch and was surprised to see that it was already quarter to midnight. "Yes, call the driver." He was emotionally drained to drive himself home. He misses Jess. He wished he could hug her right now.