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He cracked his jaw, as he once more picked up the receiver. “What do you want?”
“I came to see you, it took me two hours to get here—”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Well, you should have!” I snapped at him. “You should have asked us to come. You should have written us back. And you sure as hell shouldn’t have done that to yourself. We are family—”
“We are not family. You do not know me.”
“I know you didn’t do it, and I know you are my father. I don’t need to know anything else. I don’t care about anything else. You’re getting out of here.”
He shook his head. “How much is this new lawyer costing you? I met him. He looked like something I can’t afford. You’re all wasting your time and money… I’m tellin’ you they do not care. I’ve acce—”
“If you say ‘accepted’, I swear to God, I’ll lose it. This isn’t something you accept, and don’t you dare say that to anyone here. Levi is different. This is different. If the money bothers you, then the moment you get out, we’ll sue the state and then you can pay it all back. But right now I need you to tell me you didn’t do it.”
He leaned in. “So you don’t believe me after all.”
“I do believe you. I just need to know if there’s any more fight in you. I’m here, I will walk the line, but I need to know that you’re walking it with me, Dad.”
He put his hand up against the glass as he looked at me. “I was prepared to die knowing in my soul that I didn’t do anything wrong. That I would leave this world an innocent man. The appeals that failed didn’t matter no more. Then you and you sister had to go and complicate everything with your letters. It was easier when you didn’t speak to me.”
“Just because something is easier, doesn’t mean it’s better. Now is there anything you can tell me that can help us? Please, Dad, I need you to just try.”
LEVI
“Get out!” she screamed, as tears ran down her face, “I have no idea what possessed you to do this, but until it’s over, stay away from me.”
“Mom, I know you’re angry, but if this man—”
“If? If? You are putting this entire family, not to mention the Van Allen family, through this all over again, and you have the nerve to say ‘if’?”
“Fine. He didn’t do this, and he does not deserve to be behind bars. The person who killed Savannah does, but not him. How do you not see that? Especially with the way his case was handled!” I yelled back at her.
“Get him out of here,” she yelled at my father. “Get him out or I will say something a mother shouldn’t. Get him away from me.”
“Don’t bother, I’ll see myself out. Whether you like it or not, I am going through with this case,” I called out to her, but she wouldn’t look at me.
She held her hands to her face and cried, and in that moment, I hated myself for putting her though this again.
Halfway out the door, my father called to me, “Levi, what are you doing?”
“Getting a man, my client, out of prison,” I answered him.
“You’ve worked so hard all your life. I have seen you build up a career for yourself, and now you’re about to blow it all up? No one will touch you after this. I just don’t understand.”
“An innocent man is in jail… if you don’t understand that, I really don’t have time to explain it to you,” I said, already walking to my car.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
LEVI
It had begun; the non-stop phone calls, the press gathering outside, the associates running around with their hair on fire. I needed something to tell them. I had gone over Ben Walton’s case at least four times now, and I had never seen such stupidity in all my life. Evidence wasn’t bagged, the scene wasn’t closed off, and one of the witnesses went missing after her statement, and did not testify… it was just one big clusterfuck.
“Are you ready to give your speech?” Tristan asked, as he came into the conference room.
“Why do I need to give a speech? They’re lawyers, and we are going to practice law, it’s that simple,” I said, even though I had just thought giving a speech.
“So, you have no idea?”
