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“Are you out of your fucking mind? The last thing I want to do is be stuck with you one minute longer.”
“If my application gets denied, this is all your fault!”
“All my fault? You’re the one who gave me the dumb packet of questions to fill out. Nothing he asked was in there!”
“You couldn’t tell by my handwriting that I’m a lefty?”
“I was too busy memorizing thirty pages of answers to questions that no one asked. Your favorite color is black, which matches your heart, and you usually go to bed around three in the morning and wake up at eleven. What are you, a fucking vampire?”
We glared at each other. Every second that ticked by just made me hate her more. I needed to get the hell out of here before I did something I’d regret. I shook my head in disgust. “I gotta go.”
“How are we going to fix this?”
“That’s a you problem. You dragged me into this mess. You need to find a way to get us out of it.”
***
“Daddy, are you sad?” Saylor asked as I dried her off from a bath that night.
I froze. “No, honey. Why?”
She pointed to her head. “Because I still have shampoo in my hair.”
I looked to find my daughter’s hair was indeed still full of suds. I’d taken her out of the bath and started drying her off without even noticing. Worse, I didn’t even remember sudsing her up.
I forced a smile. “I was just testing to see if you were paying attention.”
My little girl might’ve only been four, but she already knew how to see right through bullshit. She wagged her pointer. “Did you get in trouble at work?”
That made me chuckle. “No, sweetheart, I didn’t get in trouble at work.”
“So why aren’t you smiling?”
“I’m sorry. I guess I was just thinking about something.”
“It’s okay, Daddy. But maybe you should call Billie.”
“Why would I call Billie?”
Saylor shrugged. “Because you always smile when you’re around her.”
God, this kid doesn’t miss a thing. I lifted her up and set her back in the bathtub so I could rinse her hair. “You know who else makes me smile?”
“Who?”
I swiped my finger through her hair, grabbing a dollop of suds, and tapped them onto her nose. “You.”
She smiled, and I felt it in my chest. There wasn’t anything in this world I wouldn’t do to keep my little girl happy. I needed to remember she was the reason I had to get through this shit with Maya.
After Saylor’s bath, I read her a story and tucked her into bed. As I walked out of her room, I heard my phone buzzing from the kitchen counter. I frowned as I read the name flashing. Adam. My immigration lawyer. I took a deep breath before answering. “Hello?”
“Hi, Colby, it’s Adam Altman. Sorry to call so late, but I just spoke to Xavier Hess, Maya’s attorney.”
“Oh?”
“Did things not go well this afternoon?”
I sighed. “It was a shitshow. Apparently the officer had been coming back from his break at the same time I arrived at the building, and he saw me walk up to Maya. He noticed my frosty greeting, and that put him on the offensive from the minute we started. Then I was wrong about which hand she wrote with, and things went downhill from there.”
“Well, Xavier claims he’s friendly with a clerk in the office you went to, and your file was marked for a Stokes hearing after you left.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a second interview that takes place when the officer suspects the marriage is fraudulent.”
“Shit. How screwed am I?”
“Well, it’s not good. But it’s essentially a second chance for you two to prove you have a real marriage. So you can get this back on track. Though a Stokes hearing is way harder than whatever you went through today. You and Maya will be interviewed separately and recorded. The officer will then compare the videoed answers for any discrepancies. And these interviews are notoriously long and detailed, sometimes running up to eight hours.”
I dragged a hand through my hair. “I was soaked with sweat after five minutes today. How the hell am I going to handle eight hours of interrogation?”
“It’s not easy. But if it’s any consolation, I can attend this one with you, if you’d like, and I should also represent Maya so we present with a united front.”
Nothing could console me at the moment. “When will this all take place?”
“We’ll have to wait until we get the formal notice in the mail to find out the date. But usually it’s a few weeks after the letter arrives.”
“Great.” I sighed.
“I should probably also warn you, this particular officer has been known to make unannounced house calls bright and early in the morning and late at night. He also likes to stop by people’s jobs to speak to coworkers.”
