Keisha looked at Mason and me. “You ready?”
Mason threaded his fingers through mine again. “We are.”
I concentrated on blanking my expression. The best way to keep my parents from winning was not to allow them to see how much they’d hurt me. How much they still were.
I didn’t pull away from the fingers woven with mine. In that moment, I simply let myself pull strength from the contact. It would’ve been so much harder if I were in this room alone. If my parents saw me as vulnerable. But they wouldn’t. They would know that, unlike twelve years ago, people had my back.
A portly man with glasses and a briefcase appeared first, shaking hands with Keisha. But I only had eyes for the two people behind him. My father strode in, his head held high. “Anna. It’s good to see you.”
I gripped Mason’s hand harder but didn’t say a word.
He kept right on going. “I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances, but I’m so glad you’re safe. We worried after you took off.”
The false niceties and concern were the same picture he’d painted for teachers and neighbors. And it’d worked—every single time.
My mother moved to his side, but as she eased into a chair, I caught her wince. Dad had lost the targets for his rage, left only with Mom as the focus of his anger and frustration. The flare of concern and worry took me by surprise. Fear for the woman who had abandoned me to this man’s mercies time and again, yet I couldn’t help but want more for her.
Keisha took a seat at the head of the conference table. “Thank you so much for coming today. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to settle this matter outside of a courtroom and save us all some time, heartache, and money.”
My father clasped his hands and rested them on the table. “I’m hopeful, too, Ms. Williams. I think Anna knows deep down that she’s not equipped to care for two impressionable children. They would do much better in my wife’s and my care.”
Keisha’s expression remained perfectly pleasant and polite. “Well, Mr. Foley, your daughter Chelsea entrusted her children into Anna’s care on more than one occasion, and from the interviews we’ve done with Justin and Lyla, I know that they have never once been left with you.”
Heat flared in my dad’s eyes, his breathing growing a touch more labored. “Chelsea didn’t have the full picture. Didn’t know everything that Anna had done.”
“I’m afraid she did,” Keisha argued.
“She didn’t know this.” Dad grabbed two folders from his lawyer and slid them down the table. One landed in front of Keisha, and the other in front of Mason.
“What Mr. Foley is trying to express is his concern for someone with Ms. Foley’s record having custody of his grandchildren. I suspect the court will be concerned, as well,” Mr. Paisley explained.
I flipped open the folder, and the name at the top of the paper made everything around me freeze and my vision tunnel. The only thing I could see was Derek’s name. As blood pounded in my ears, I forced myself to read the words. It was some sort of affidavit, talking about my alleged behavior in my teen years.
Lie after lie jumped off the page. That I had pulled him into dealing, bribed him with sex. He said I had connections to major cartels, and what the police arrested me for was only the tip of the iceberg. He said I used and took him to sex parties where I wanted to have multiple partners in a single night.
I wasn’t sure why the betrayal cut as deeply as it did. Derek had already proven that his loyalty was fleeting. But why now? Why, when he had nothing to gain by spreading lies? I looked up and met my father’s gaze, saw the satisfied smirk on his face.
Hewas why. My father. He’d probably offered Derek money or maybe just a chance to stick it to me one more time. I was sure Dad had told Derek the types of things he wanted him to say.
Nausea swept through me at the thought that it might work. That Mason might believe these words. The lies about my sexual history were clearly an attempt to change his opinion of me.
I forced myself to look at my husband, the man whose opinion of me had come to mean far too much in such a short period of time. I braced for disdain. Instead, I saw rage. But it wasn’t directed at me—it was zeroed in on my father.
I squeezed Mason’s hand, bringing his attention to me. “Don’t let him see that it affects you.”
“You’re right.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead and then took a deep breath. “Even though I want to deck him right now.”
“Get in line.”
He sat back in his chair, schooling his features. Keisha cleared her throat. “As vivid of a picture as this paints…I don’t think the court will put too much stock in a felon’s stories from over a decade ago. This man has been in and out of jail since he was seventeen. Anna has never had another issue with the law. In fact, we have people right now, looking to overturn her conviction. The case had major holes in it and wasn’t prosecuted correctly.”
I straightened in my chair, whispering to Mason. “What?”
He took my hand again, his thumb brushing back and forth across my knuckles. “They’re looking into it. I didn’t think Keisha should get your hopes up before we knew more.”
Annoyance and gratitude battled within me. “I want to know everything. Even if something’s a longshot. Remember what you said. This only works if we’re honest.”
“No fair throwing my perfectly sensible words back at me.”
