Hi, Marie. I congratulate you on all you've done, but with your children involved the stakes are a lot higher. Two things:   1. Based on your previous legal troubles, you are in a constant state of having to prove your innocence. Everything you do will be interpreted with a negative spin. The more you assert your innocence, the more it sounds like your justifying. It's grossly unfair, but that's how it works. You would know that from being married to a cop.   2. The bottle in the house severely damages your credibility at a time you can least afford it. It doesn't matter the bottle wasn't yours. You know the drill - you're an alcoholic, absolutely no liquor in the house and screw your boyfriend. He abides by your rules or he leaves.   If you're willing to make excuses for the boyfriend and the bottle, then you haven't credibly established that your kids are more important to you than everything.   Keep in mind - if your story doesn't exactly fly with me, imagine how it's going to fly with the judge who is going to make the custody ruling.   You've come a very long way, but you know what you need to do,