Never to Keep (Accepting Fate #1) (37 page)

“Hello,” Marina answered after the third ring. The sound of her voice didn’t hurt nearly as badly as I’d expected.

“Hi, it’s Madison,” I said, and hoped she wouldn’t hang up on me.

“Hey, I was going to call you later. Sawyer’s an absolute mess. He’s been slumming on my couch for weeks. What happened between the two of you?”

I told Marina the story of how Sawyer left and our brief phone call.

“I’ll kill him,” she said.

“That’s not why I called.” My feelings for Sawyer had taken a backseat to my situation with Peyton. “I need help.”

“Anything. Name it.” Her words lifted some of the weight from my shoulders.

“I need to find an attorney who can help me win the adoption case. Child Services says the only way I can win is to marry Ethan, and I can’t do that to him.” I looked over at Ethan to make sure he knew I meant every word I said. “Here’s the catch—I need a firm that will let me make very small payments over time. I don’t know where to start. Do you have any ideas?”

“You have legal and financial troubles, and you call the highest paid actress in Hollywood for
advice
?” I could hear the smile in her voice. I longed for the days when smiles came that easily to me.

“I didn’t call a highly paid actress for advice; I called my friend for advice.”

“Let me make a few calls and get back to you.”

“Thank you,” I said before the call was disconnected. I slumped back onto the couch and let out a huge sigh of relief.

Sawyer

“You need to get your lazy ass off of my couch,” Marina said. I’d been staying with her since I’d left my parents’ house. “Your life is moving on without you.”

“Leave me alone.” I buried my head under a comically large throw pillow. Then I pulled my phone from my pocket and brought it under the pillow with me, so I could look at the first series of texts I’d exchanged with Peyton a couple of weeks ago.

Peyton:
Did I do something wrong?

Me:
No, of course not.

Peyton:
I miss you.

Me:
I miss you, too.

Peyton:
When are you coming home?

Me:
I don’t know.

I hated that Peyton had asked if it was her fault I’d left and was glad she’d believed me when I’d told her it wasn’t. I hadn’t told her that I had made the biggest mistake of my life and couldn’t come home.

“Are you listening to me, Sawyer?” My sister’s question brought me back to my miserable reality.

“I’d listen to her if I were you,” Tate said as he passed through the room on the way to the kitchen.

I tossed the pillow on the floor and sat up. “What do you want from me?” I asked Marina.

“I want you to be happy. What kills me is that you know exactly what you need to do to make it happen.”

“It’s not that easy,” I said.

“Yes, actually, it is. Shave that road kill off your face, take a shower, fly home, and apologize.”

“You don’t know what happened.”

“Madison just called and told me,” she said.

“So she’s tattling on me now?” I wondered if she missed me as much as I missed her, or if she was just trying to gain control of my life and my bank account. I wished the cynical part of me would just die, already.

“No, you idiot, she called me for help. You’ve been tight-lipped about the situation, so I asked her what happened.”

“What did she say?” I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know.

“She said that you took off after Olivia’s funeral and were a dick to her on the phone afterwards.”

“Were those her exact words?” It didn’t sound like something Madison would say unless she was extremely pissed.

“No, but that was the gist of it.”

“How did she sound?” I hated to think about what she must be going through.

“Why don’t you call her and find out for yourself?” I couldn’t call. She’d left me messages, and I hadn’t listened to any of them. I wanted to hear her beautiful voice, but every time the phone rang, I was afraid she was calling to end things for good. If one of the messages was her telling me to go to hell, I could still pretend we had a chance if I didn’t hear the words.

“Why did she call?” I needed to make sure she and the kids were okay.

“She needed help.”

“Did you give her money?” Maybe Thomas was right after all. Maybe she was trying to get to Marina’s millions. I couldn’t get control over my negative thoughts. Madison was better off without me.

“What makes you think she wanted money? Is that all you think I’m good for?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. I could tell I’d really hurt my sister’s feelings.

“Madison needs a family law attorney. Child Services is telling her she needs to marry Ethan for Peyton’s adoption to go through.”

“Is she going to do it?” I whispered. The ache in my chest grew.

“She will if she has to. It would serve you right. Are you going to go home and make sure that doesn’t happen?”

“I can’t.”

“In that case, I’m at least going to get you out of the house. Tate and I have a movie premiere tomorrow night, and you’re coming with us.”

“I don’t want to. I’m not in the mood.” She gave me a look that said:
Too bad, buddy
. “I don’t want to be a third wheel.” I had to come up with a good reason not to go. The thought of leaving the house was starting to make me panic.

“My friend, Juli, is coming, too.” My sister raised a brow at me when I just sat there quietly trying to come up with an excuse. “Either you do it, or you go back to your parents’ house.”

I could never step foot in that house again after what had happened there, and I was in no shape to live on my own. “Fine, I’ll go, but just this once. After this, you leave me alone. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Madison

I drove to the address Marina had given me a few days earlier and made my way to the tenth floor of the downtown building. I was quickly ushered into an office belonging to Aaron Perkins, a named partner of the best family law practice in Indianapolis. He was surprisingly young considering all of his accomplishments and was also very easy on the eyes.

“Have a seat,” he said after we made our introductions. He gestured toward a comfortable looking armchair. “What can I do for you?”

Over the next two hours, I explained the circumstances of my case in excruciating detail and answered a slew of follow-up questions.

“Virtually everything the case worker told you was inaccurate, and her conduct was illegal. It won’t be easy, but I know we can win this. Single people adopt children all the time,” he said after we finished discussing my plight. Relief flooded my veins. His confidence was both reassuring and extremely attractive.

“I don’t know if anyone told you this, but I can’t afford to pay your fee up front.” I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment. “I can make small payments, but it’s going to take a while.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m going to take your case pro bono.”

“What?” I didn’t want to be a charity case. I was sure I could pay the bill, just not in a timely manner.

“I’m going to represent you for free.”

“I can’t let you do that. You have to feed your family, just like I do.”

“If anyone deserves a break, it’s you. People like you are the reason I got into family law. I would be happy to help you.” His lips tilted up into an adorable grin. “By the way, I’m too busy to have a family, and I’m not exactly starving.”

Peyton had to come before my pride. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

“Like I said, this isn’t going to be a cake walk. I need you to find a full-time job right away. It doesn’t have to pay a lot, but you need to have a steady source of income.”

“Okay. I’ll check with the hospital to see if I can get a job there. I’ll clean the bathrooms if I have to.” I made a mental list of all of the other places I could call if that didn’t work out.

“Perfect. You take care of that, and I’ll file some paperwork this afternoon.” He scribbled on the back of a business card and then handed it to me. “Call me as soon as you find out about the job. My personal cell number is on the back.”

*

I called the hospital on the drive home from the city and was connected to the Director of Human Resources after a short wait to reach her assistant. I explained my situation and was tentatively offered a job as a nursing assistant. I felt a great weight lift from my shoulders; I was one step closer to being able to keep Peyton.

I called my new attorney as soon as I got off of the phone with the hospital.

“Aaron Perkins,” he said when he picked up the phone.

“Mr. Perkins? This is Madison Miller.”

“Hi, Madison… And, please, call me Aaron.”

“Okay. Aaron. I got a job as a nursing assistant. I’m going in on Monday to complete the paperwork to make it official.”

“That’s great!”

I gave him the details of the modest salary and benefits. “They said I could also work extra hours to finish up my clinicals when I have time.”

“I’m drafting a subpoena for the social worker in charge of your case right now. I want to depose her before she takes the stand to see what she is going to say. From what you’ve told me, she sounds pretty shady.”

I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

“Your next assignment,” Aaron said, “is to make a list of people we can call on to be character witnesses for you.”

“I’ll start working on it as soon as I get home.”

“Great. Send me the list of names and numbers when you have it. I’ll call you as soon as I schedule the deposition.”

*

I sat in Aaron’s conference room, nervous about what to expect.

“Please state your full name and occupation for the record.” I’d never seen Aaron in full-blown lawyer mode—he was calm and forceful at the same time. It had been only a week since the first time I met him, but if I hadn’t known better, I’d think he’d spent that entire week working on nothing but my case.

“My name is Hailey Lee Fox. I am a social worker for the Department of Child Services in Richfield County, Indiana.”

“Are you currently assigned to the adoption case of Peyton Miller?”

“Yes.”

“How are cases typically divided in your office?”

“We have an alphabet split. Cases are assigned by the child’s last name.”

“Which letters of the alphabet are you assigned?” He kept his eyes trained on his paper as he jotted down her answers.

She shifted in her chair before answering. “‘A’ through ‘D’.”

“How did you end up with Peyton Miller’s case?”

“I volunteered. Bobbi Jackson, the social worker assigned to last names beginning with ‘M’, was swamped when the case came in.”

“I spoke to Ms. Jackson. She said, and I quote, ‘Hailey begged for the Miller case. I agreed, even though she had a lot more cases than I did.’ How do you explain that?”

“She must have been thinking about another case.”

“She provided me with a copy of an email you sent her asking for the case.” Aaron slid a sheet of paper across the table to her.

“Um….” I enjoyed watching her squirm as her eyes scanned the page.

Aaron abruptly changed his line of questioning before she could respond. “Were you friends with Madison Miller, Ryan Miller, and Olivia Turner growing up?”

“I don’t see why that matters,” Hailey said.

“It does. Answer the question.”

Hailey’s lawyer whispered to her for a few seconds. She gnawed on her lower lip and tapped her heel on the hardwood floor as she listened.

“No, we weren’t friends.”

“Did you treat them respectfully?” Aaron asked. Her lawyer nodded at her when she looked to him for guidance.

“No, I didn’t. They were unpopular. No one treated them well.”

“Did you bully them?”

“My best friend, Kristy, did, and I went along with it.”

“What is Kristy’s last name?”

“Henderson…well, Ramsay now.” Hearing Sawyer’s last name made my heart pause for a beat.

“Were you the maid of honor at her wedding?”

“Yes, but I don’t see how that is relevant.”

“Whom did she marry?” he asked.