“And we’re going to find out how he got your information,” Sebastiano adds.
“Can that be used in court too?” I ask.
“Yes. Because no matter how he got the information, it’s illegal. Sawyer and River are protected. Just like he is protected, Sawyer couldn’t get his information unless he agreed to it.”
I’m worried that there will be court dates that I can’t go to with her. We’re lucky right now because we have a break. But if it was a race week? I wouldn’t be able to be here. I know my family will be with her, but that’s not the same thing.
“Do we have to take River to court too?” she asks.
“No. He will stay here. I don’t want him in the courtroom unless the judge calls for it. And right now, he hasn’t.”
“I can’t believe this is happening. How can Palmer think that he can come in and take River from me?”
“I think I can answer that,” Galen says to us. “So I’ve been looking into Palmer and his family. And they’re old-school money. Like, passed down for generations. What I’ve uncovered is when the money is passed down, each of the recipients have had a family. So I did more digging. Each will that was drawn up says that anyone in line to inherit money has to have an heir of their own. A male heir. So until they have one, they don’t get their money. Palmer has other cousins, but they have sons and they’ve gotten their money. He, on the other hand, is a well-known womanizer. I don’t know if he just figured he would get the money even without a son, but the will is blocking that.”
“So you think he wants River so he can get his inheritance?” Sawyer asks.
“I think that’s exactly it. He needs a son and to him, he has one. The will doesn’t state that he has to be married. Just that he has to have an heir that carries the Beaumont name,” Galen answers her.
“I can’t believe this is happening. What the fuck is going on.” Sawyer sobs.
I hold her tighter. “We’re going to get through this, and Palmer will never take River from us.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“Yes we can,” we all say at once.
Sawyer looks at all of us.
“Thank you.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sawyer
The next few days are going to be rough. Having to wait for this court date is making me feel sick. We’re also waiting for the petition to come in so that Lorenzo knows what we’re facing. He’s thinking that Palmer is going to ask for a paternity test and if it comes back that River’s his, which it will, he will ask for custody. Whether it’ll be partial or full, we don’t know. And he’s also probably going to ask to change his name. Right now he has my last name, and when we filed the papers for Emerson to adopt him, we were changing it to O’Connor. But Palmer needs him to have his last name. Why can’t he just find some woman to have his kid? He has enough money to pay for one.
I truly can’t believe I’m going through this. I do appreciate everything the family is doing for River and me. I don’t know what I would do if I had to do this alone. In fact, I do. I’d probably lose my son because I wouldn’t know what to do. And it sounds like Palmer’s paying people off to get what he wants.
“The only way to know what’s going on between Palmer and your family is to ask them. But I’m guessing that’s out of the question. So I’m going to just speculate. He’s probably offered them a lot of money to help him out. So we need to be on the lookout for them. And when we go to court, I think they’ll be there to lie for him,” Lorenzo says.
I can’t understand why my family hates me so much. I never asked to be born, they made that choice. No matter what I’ve done, they’ve always made it their mission to make sure I know I don’t matter to them. I thought when I walked away, they’d forget about me. But I guess the saying ‘money talks’ applies to them.
“I’ll be right back. The petition has come in and I want to print it out,” Lorenzo says as he goes into another room.
“Enzo’s the best at what he does. We’re going to figure this out,” Emerson says as he kisses me.
“What if he pays enough people off and takes River?”
“You remember who my family is, right?”
“Yes, but they can’t spend their money to defend us.”
“Mo chuisle, you don’t need to worry about anything. I promise you, this will all work out.”
“I’m just scared, I’ve never been worried about something like this happening. I even had a lawyer look over the papers from the clinic to make sure they couldn’t come after me for anything. That I would never have to worry about the sperm donor either.”
“And because of that, we have the papers to fight him. Even if he’s paying people off. My zio will never let someone come in and take one of us. Never. And that I can promise you.”
