Page 110 of Contentious

He said that a dozen times a day, even at times when he was most definitely not okay.

Cresley went around the vehicle to get in the other side. “Can I put your seat belt on?”

“I’ll do it.”

He moved slowly and painfully to stretch the seat belt across his body and fasten it, wincing when it pressed against his healing wounds.

“Would you be safer without it?” Cresley asked.

“Nah, it’s okay, but don’t hit anything, Anthony.”

“You got it, boss.”

She reached for his hand and noted that his palm was sweaty, which happened when he was hurting.

As Carson put his head back and closed his eyes, she noticed he was paler than he’d been in days.

With a second to spare, she pulled out her phone to check the statement that Teagan needed her to approve.

A statement from Cresley Dane on the events of last week…

For some time, I’ve been locked in a dispute with my son’s father, Marlon Beckett, who has repeatedly demanded money in exchange for not contesting the long-standing court decree that gave me full custody of our son. Recently, I had stopped paying him and had received a restraining order that required him to stay away from us while we waited to resolve the matter in court.

Over the course of twenty-four hours, Mr. Beckett violated the restraining order and committed numerous crimes. He entered my yard without permission at night. The next day, he ran his truck into the SUV I was riding in, pushing that vehicle into traffic, where it was hit a second time. He left the scene of the accident and went to our son’s school, trying to sign him out. Thankfully, he was stopped by the school staff, who knew he wasn’t authorized to remove my son from the school. Later that night, he again breached my yard, activating the motion-sensitive lights. My friend Carson Remington went out to confront him and was stabbed by Mr. Beckett. Mr. Remington underwent five hours of emergency surgery and has spent the last week recovering from serious injuries at Cedars-Sinai, while law enforcement has searched for Mr. Beckett.

Needless to say, my son and I have been traumatized by these events as well as the devastating injuries to Mr. Remington. At this time, my sole focus is on my friend’s recovery and the well-being of my son. I want to thank everyone who has reached out with care and concern during this difficult time. I’ll have nothing further to say about this incident, and all questions about the case should be directed to the LAPD.

Cresley figured that Teagan had gotten the details from the police reports since Cresley hadn’t talked to anyone but Marlene about what’d transpired that night at her home. She texted Teagan. The statement is good to go. Thank you.

Will get it right out, Teagan replied.

“Everything okay?” Carson asked without opening his eyes.

“Just taking care of a little bit of business.”

“You don’t have to spend every minute with me, you know. You’ve got a business to run.”

“That’s all on hold for now. Don’t worry about it.”

“I will worry about it.”

“You need to only focus on resting and getting better.”

He reached for her hand. “That’s not all I’m focused on.”

“It should be.”

“Well, it isn’t. I’m focused on you and Ty, too.”

“I’m expecting to hear from school that he was useless today because he’s so excited you’re coming home. Well, it’s not ‘home’ exactly, but we’ve been enjoying it. Did I tell you Cass Elliot used to live there?”

That got him to open his eyes. “What? That’s where Isla had been staying? In Mama Cass’s house?”

“Yep, there’s all kinds of cool memorabilia.”

“I can’t wait to see that.”

“Isla told me that Julian totally geeked out about it when he first saw it and introduced her to Cass’s music and other artists from Laurel Canyon’s musical heyday. She’s now a huge fan.”