“I can’t afford—”
“I can, Aubrey. I’m fucking wealthy. If he wants a lump sum to stay away, we’ll work it out. But legally. Don’t give him the idea that you’re willing to talk to him in anyway but through lawyers.”
“Austin—”
“Wealthy, Brey. Dripping in cash. We’ll be fine and those kids are going to stay exactly where they are.”
She paused and stared at the legal papers on the table between us. “Did you read his cause?”
“He doesn’t want them near me because I’m gay? Yeah, I read it. It’s exactly what I expected if I came out. So that he’s using it already makes me sure that I did the right thing staying in the closet.”
She looked down at the papers and back up at me. “It’s the same reason I had for ignoring you, Austin. For pushing you out of my life. I’m sorry. I don’t want you to hide in the closet for me and the kids.”
I wanted to argue with her, but this was the same argument I was having with everyone lately. Instead, I walked to the drawer where I kept all my contacts’ information and pulled out the number for my lawyer.
“Let’s get the ball rolling on this,” I said, ignoring her other comments. “I don’t think that Olivia Ng is experienced in family court, but I’m sure she knows the best.”
Aubrey nodded, but grabbed my arm. “Our conversation about your closet isn’t done. Not by a long shot. My kids come first. But you’re my brother and we need to talk.”
Thankfully, Olivia picked up at the other end of the phone and ended that conversation.
* * *
“Well,”Charla Vitaco, Esquire, said, sitting back in the chair. “This is a ridiculous complaint. You can’t use a rumor to justify full custody. And certainly, the children’s uncle has less to do with this than he can possibly imagine.”
She tapped the papers into the folder. “What we do need to think about is you taking the children, and why he wants them now.” Drumming her fingers on the folder, Charla stared at Aubrey. “Is he a true believer? Does he really believe that being gay is a sin?”
“He’s always had me convinced of it,” Aubrey said, quietly. “He’s got followers. He’s the elder in the church of bullshit, and he’s charismatic. But I think…over the years, he’s lost the true path of faith and turned to power and money. The old story. Once was pious, now is greedy, and willing to do anything to prove the piety he lost.”
“So, he’s not even really after the children, he’s after the money that your brother has.”
That made her sit up straight. “Holy crap.”
I laughed. “You didn’t realize that? I’m part of one of the most successful commercial supergroups in years, and you think he wouldn’t come after you for my money?”
Turning, she stared at me. “Dude, you’re my little brother. I don’t think of you asAustin from UDLR, I think of you asAustin the kid I used to give wedgies. No, it didn’t occur to me that he would go that way.”
“I am worried about the kids,” Charla said.
I waved her off. “They have bodyguards,. They are driven to and from a secure private school on the Upper West Side. I have security posted outside the apartment door, and…” I coughed and looked at my sister. “I have Aubrey under surveillance when she leaves the apartment.”
“You what?”
“Brey, I worried about you when you first got here. I had to make sure that you were safe and he wasn’t going to hurt you. So I had them following you, discretely.” I scratched my nose. “I guess I can just drop that, now and put them on you.”
“And what about you?”
“I hire a bodyguard as necessary. I haven’t felt it necessary for a while,” I said. “I can go incognito pretty well, but I do use security and hired cars when I need to.”
“You need to,” Aubrey said.
I shook my head. “Not yet. He’s not threatening me like he is you.”
Charla leaned up in her chair. “Mister Lowell, I’d request that while you don’t necessarily need to have a bodyguard at all times—because you have done a good job of covering yourself—you should take the cars. Just to be careful for now. He doesn’t name you, but he does point a finger at you.”
Aubrey shook her head. “It’s illegal—”
“And you think that’s going to stop your husband?”
