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As always, my grandfather ignored it and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tight just like he’d done when I was a kid—just like he continued to do every single time he saw me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping back when he’d finally let me go.
“I’m here to see my great-grandbabies.” Dixie rolled his eyes. “What did you think I was here for?”
Phoebe snickered at my side, and my grandfather’s eyes turned to assess her. “Hello, Fancy.”
Phoebe’s smile widened. “It’s good that you’re here. Bayou was freaking out.”
Pop’s eyes turned to me. “Yeah?”
I straightened my shoulders. “I’m okay.”
And I was.
Or at least, I would be.
Everything was fine until my father walked in and changed everything.
“What’s he doing here?” I hissed.
Dixie looked over his shoulder to my father, who was staring at the room with a look of disgust on his face.
He didn’t want to be there. That I could tell just by looking into his eyes.
“Character witness,” someone said. “I saw him in the parking lot and walked up and asked him.”
I looked to my left to see Hoax standing there with one of his twins in his arms. Pru came to my other side with the other in hers. Then I saw Sam walk up with Isa in his arms, happily smiling and giddy to be toted around by her ‘grandfather.’
What was the point of dropping Isa off with Pru if she was just going to bring her to the hearing?
“Character witness?” I asked. “Really?”
He nodded.
The hearing taking place today was for termination of rights for Ilsa. The one in a month and a half would determine how much time she would serve for the crimes she’d committed—and there were many. The more that she was investigated, and the more people that came forward, the more indiscretions that were piled against Ilsa.
Honestly, at this point, it wasn’t that she was or wasn’t going to prison. She was. It was if she would be spending ten years there, or seventy.
My hope was for seventy, but there was no telling how it would go.
Ilsa had a great lawyer, and if anyone could get her off, it would be the one she had. Hence the reason for the custody and termination of rights hearing we were doing today.
“He was brought in at the last moment,” Todd Masterson, my lawyer, said. “I learned of it about thirty minutes ago on the drive here.”
“Shit.” I wiped my eyes tiredly. “This is just perfect.”
Dixie slapped me on the back again in commiseration.
“If there was one thing that I could take back, it would be how I allowed you to stay with your father after my Annie passed away. If I’d known how bad it was there for you, I would’ve taken you away and never let him see you again,” Dixie said. “And although your father is a prick, I don’t think he’ll jeopardize this for you.”
Too bad he was wrong.
So fucking wrong.
Phoebe was right. This didn’t feel over because it wasn’t, and my father was there to make sure that I didn’t get custody of Isa to prove it.
***
“My son is unfit to be a father,” Bayou’s father grumbled, avoiding eye contact with everyone but his lawyer and the judge. “I would no more trust him with my grandchild than I would with a puppy.”
I clenched my hands into fists underneath the table.
Outwardly, I was calm, cool and collected. Inwardly, I wanted to flip the table over and spread the contents all over the floor. Then walk over them as I made my way to my father who was currently under oath and speaking with his lawyer, and then beat the shit out of him.
“Any more questions?” the judge asked when the lawyer turned his back on my father. “No. He can have him.”
‘He’ was Todd.
Todd stood up, and as I watched him walk toward the stand, I caught the look of smug satisfaction on Ilsa’s face. Ilsa’s fucked up, never going to look normal again, face.
I barely contained the urge to glare at her and bare my teeth.
“Mr. Beauregard,” Todd started. “Do you know that your son is a decorated war hero?”
I felt my stomach tighten. How had Todd learned that?
“No,” my father grumbled.
“He is,” Todd said, sounding smug. “Did you know that the only reason that your son isn’t in the Army still is due to this woman causing havoc with his career?”
My father looked to Ilsa and shrugged. “I’ve heard rumors.”
He’d heard rumors. What a crock of shit.
“Were you aware that your son graduated at the top of his class from high school? And then went on to become one of the top-ranking recruits to make it out of his graduating Army class? Were you also aware that he rose in ranks quite a bit during his career in the Army?” Todd continued.
